Begin with something simple and work up to the development of the full idea.
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April 2022—Marlan Hansen, MD
Often, Dr. Santa Maria sees the opposite, and cited building a solution and then chasing a problem as one of the biggest mistakes to avoid. “Some people get locked into building something new or developing a cool technology and then find there’s nothing to really apply it to,” he said.
Once an unsolved problem is identified, the next step is to become immersed in understanding the problem and brainstorm all the possible solutions associated with the outcomes desired.
Josh Makower, MD, MBA, director and cofounder of the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign, created a needs specification to help entrepreneurs through this process. Culled through many years of working as an innovator and the founder of many companies listed on his website, ExploraMed (https://www.exploramed.com/), the process includes becoming deeply embedded in a clinical environment to develop a list of needs that frames a set of criteria for success that’s based on input from all stakeholders who may benefit from the innovation. After completing the needs specification, innovators should have all the information they need to successfully create a solution, said Dr. Makower.
Important considerations to keep in mind at this stage are the complexity of the problem and the full scope of what will be needed to address it.
Start Simple
Marlan Hansen, MD, chair and professor of otolaryngology at University of Iowa Health Care and co-founder of Iota Motion (https://iotamotion.com/), a company specializing in cochlear implant innovations, advised entrepreneurial newcomers to start with something simple. “Begin with something simple and work up to the development of the full idea,” he said. “What I learned in practice is that you bounce your ideas off of other people you trust.”
Once an idea gels and people have signed on, bringing in a team of people who can help assess regulatory and other hurdles to bringing the idea to commercial viability is critical. “The regulatory pathway can be extremely hard,” Dr. Hansen cautioned, citing that as one key factor in deciding whether to pursue an idea that requires Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval or to switch gears and look for a simpler idea that doesn’t require the rigors of FDA approval.
Dr. Stierman learned this by practice as well. In her first innovative venture—a medical device for chronic sinusitis—she realized that the complexity of moving the device through the approval and commercialization stages to bring it to market was beyond what she wanted to do. She currently holds the patent to the device, which is in the prototype stage, as she negotiates with a company better suited to launch the device. She’s also working on simpler innovations, including an allergy app she’s worked on with three other founders and an app with utility in the facial cosmetic industry.