Stanford Report, October 11, 2006

Gadgets, gizmology and gumption

Stanford Medicine explores the world of medical devices

BY ROSANNE SPECTOR

Nearly everyone knows that the School of Medicine is located in Silicon Valley. What's less widely known is the existence of a "medical device valley" within the same geographic confines—and that Stanford faculty and students played a big part in creating it. More than 200 medical-device companies account for $1.5 billion of the local economy. It's a force that's feeding medical advances but also driving medical bills ever higher.

The fall issue of Stanford Medicine contains a special report on medical devices that describes the societal impact of medical gadgetry, the latest trends and Stanford's role—past, present and future—in medical device innovation.

The issue surveys the world of mind-boggling medical devices with such stories as:

  • Opinions from some of the world's leading medical inventors—Tom Fogarty, Mir Imran, Bill New, Julio Palmaz and John Simpson—on the best devices of the past, present and future
  • A feature describing Stanford's Biodesign Fellowships, a method for breeding new medical device innovators now being copied at schools across the nation
  • A list of 10 Stanford medical devices that changed the world big time, and the stories behind their invention
  • A feature on how computerized medical records revolutionized care at the Veterans Health Administration and why it's taking so long for other doctors to follow its lead
  • An article about pediatric surgeons pushing technology's limits to use minimally invasive surgery techniques in new ways—entering through the armpits [See above story]
  • An account of medical engineer Kevin Montgomery's exploits in Ethiopia, where he recently installed technology to connect health-care workers far from roads and telephone service to colleagues in the outside world
  • An article on simulation in medical training, highlighting efforts at Stanford and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital

    • The magazine is available online at http://mednews.stanford.edu/stanmed/. To request the print version, call 723-6911