Heidi C. Gonzalez
Nurses are by nature entrepreneurs although wedon’t typicallythink of ourselves in this manner.A gap exists innursing provider knowledge on theprocess and pathwayto medical devicedevelopment. This talk will the highlightthepathways to production that are required andsuggestpartnerships that are little known to careproviders tofacilitate device development. This presentation outlinesthe steps and stages ofdevice development from protectingintellectualproperty to licensing and manufacturingtheproduct. This will provide a guide for thoseinterested,who have ideas for medical devices orimprovements oncurrent devices. Very limitedliterature is available on theentire process and asthis area is not one typically taughtin nursingprograms, a knowledge deficit is present forpotentialinventors or entrepreneurs.The developmentprocess will be brought to lightand offer suggestions oncommon areas wherestumbling blocks persist, such asfunding andlicensing in the later stages of development.Thedesired state is one that allows nurses a beginningtomoderate level of knowledge on the process andpathwaysto be successful in medical devicedevelopment from onepatented developer’s,