The MedTech Accelerator

BACKGROUND​

The 2021 Mayo Clinic and ASU MedTech Accelerator is an intensive immersion program with nine to ten high-tech medical technology startups being brought to the Arizona health ecosystem to introduce their products to Mayo Clinic physicians, ASU researchers, and investors at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix. More details about the accelerator at: https://www.medtechaccel.com/.

I was one of the 8 interns selected to be embedded with one of the startups and follow their journey in the accelerator and participating in their business development meetings with the experts at Mayo.

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PROCESS

This was part of HCI 584 curriculum. The internship commenced with a 3 week orientation process through the month of March and then proceed into the MedTech Accelerator work for the entire month of April. During the internship, my primary duty was to attend meetings and create detailed reports that the startup can later use.

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THOUGHTS

I had joined the internship hoping to learn how startup accelerators function especially in the medical device space. My doctoral thesis has direct application in the area of healthcare and was very excited to learn more. I found it very useful to interact with experts at Mayo and see how innovation works through the system, especially in highly regulated industry as medical technology.

Few things I learnt:

• It takes a lot of effort to understand the needs of any client. It is not just in scheduling meeting, but it also involves asking the right questions and following up with better ones.

• Medical professionals are very busy so better have sound background research and also have the ability to communicate the best information in limited time.

• Clinical studies are very important, technical validation alone is not enough.

• Mayo is awesome. They have a great network, open to innovation and very amicable experts.