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MIMIT Visits Boston - Cultivating Translational Research in Greater Manchester
Dr Richard Deed (TrusTECH® Innovation Unit Manager) visited Boston (US) on 10—12 March 2008, as part of a Manchester contingent representing MIMIT (Manchester: Integrating Medicine and Innovative Technology). The purpose of the three-day series of meetings was to learn from the experiences of CIMIT (the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology in Boston) and help UK-based health professionals apply a multi-disciplinary approach to accelerate their initiatives in medical innovation.
Through MIMIT the major NHS Trusts in Greater Manchester and the University of Manchester have formed a strategic affiliation with CIMIT, to adapt the original CIMIT concept into a transferable model for translational research in the UK. The thriving multi-disciplinary collaboration should help researchers and clinicians in Manchester explore, develop and implement novel technological solutions to some of today’s most urgent healthcare problems.
Senior representatives (‘site miners’) from each of the Greater Manchester organisations will be responsible for facilitating the identification and internal management of innovative projects from these organisations. The site miners will work closely with TrusTECH and the University of Manchester Intellectual Property (UMIP) Limited to ensure that commercial developments of new products, resulting from the collaboration, are managed appropriately.
Representatives from the Manchester contingent participated in numerous learning sessions, including those on the roles of site miners, the value of education programs and the successful 10-year history of the CIMIT Forum.
Visitors toured the Operating Room of the Future at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Center for Medical Simulation Training at Harvard Medical School. One of the most useful experiences was attendance of the Boston University and Medicine and Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate engineering fellows forum. The forum reported on novel medical solutions: a catheter-based device for intra-cardiac mitral valve chord manipulation; a transfascial hernia fixation device; and a non-invasive monitor for human body hydration.
The visit also included programmatic overviews by CIMIT investigators in the fields of biodetection, tissue engineering and otolaryngology. Delegates also participated in workshops on strategic communications, the industry liaison program, research management and intellectual property protection.
The three-day visit concluded with a seminar and reception hosted by the UK Consulate in Cambridge, Massachusetts where UK speakers outlined some of the healthcare initiatives planned for coming years.