Stanford Entrepreneurship Videos

Yock talks about the costs versus the charges of medical stents. A cynical approach is that the actual metal stents themselves cost 80-90 cents to make and their charge is about $1200. However, there is an enormous amount of R&D effort to get it approved, he says. For example, a clinical trial can cost as much as 10 millon dollars.

Yock sees tremendous theoretical progress for nanotechnology. However, he does not see the first hand hold at least in the cardio vascular area.

Yock explains why MedTech is dominated by the importance of patents. People who don't patent their early ideas lose out.

Yock continues the story about a non-invasive cardiac technique and how it quickly had a Stanford connection. Thomas Fogarty, a surgeon at Stanford, worked with Charles Dotter and soon developed another technology - the Balloon Angioplasty Catheter.

In areas of the world that can't afford new technologies, there is progress in making them available, he says. Yock gives an example of how this is being done. Money is being invested in appropriate technologies as cardio vascular disease is spreading to other developed nations.

Yock comments about what is going on in the region and at Stanford in the Medtech sector. Things that make up regional advantage in this sector are very similar with what is being studied in different industries, he says. A network of expertise has now been setup in this area.

Yock talks about the fundamental problem of applying the balloon technology to dilating the heart narrowing. The balloon was too compliant. He talks about the development of a balloon that actually worked.

Yock emphasizes that in MedTech, there are two forces that can make your life miserable-- the FDA and Medicare. He emphasizes the importance of understanding how medicare will handle new technology. Same with the FDA; there are different pathways through the FDA and sometimes it takes longer than a year and that can be a problem in getting a technology through.

Yock discusses the future of minimally invasive robotic surgery. He says it is very exciting and Stanford actually has a lot of expertise in this area.

Yock talks about next generation of Medtech and biotech innovation at Stanford. The idea behind the Clark Center is to put something physically at the interface between school of engineering, school of medicine and H&S and draw people in to start interdisciplinary collaboration between the sciences. The new department of Bio-engineering, under both school of engineering and medicine, will be housed here. Yock also talks about the BioX program at Stanford.

John Simpson, a Stanford trainee in cardiology, thought the catheter system didn't work so he worked in his kitchen in Menlo Park to develop a catheter that is easier to use. He used a guidewire to travel down into the coronary artery . With money from Fogarty and Ray Williams, an angel investor, he started a company called ACS, which grew into Guidant.

Paul Yock, Co-Chair of Stanford's Department of Bioengineering and Director of the Stanford Program in Biodesign, describes himself as an accidental tourist in entrepreneurship. He talks about his love for technology innovation.

Yock talks about the attributes of a successful entrepreneur. The key is being able to find needs and to frame them well, he says.

Yock explains that the biotech sector is starting to get a glimmer of hope that they will be able to change the genetic make-up of cells and have a huge impact on patients. Having said that, he notes that the press reminds this sector that it is not an easy road to travel.

When Yock started getting involved in training, he worked with John Simpson and the mentoring changed his life. One thing that was starting to become clear in mid 80's was that there was a problem with angioplasty - arteries were narrowing at an alarming rate. Hence surgical procedure had a 40% recurrence rate. Yock started to focus on the need to visualize during a surgery and hence the need to get inside the blood vessel. With Simpson, Williams and Fogarty, Paul started a company with technology that went inside the artery and saw in high resolution. He talks further about this technology.