Nih Centers for Accelerated Innovations - From bench to bedside to the marketplace of patient care

We decided to apply for the program because we felt there was a serious need for developing the right kind of infrastructure to facilitate the transition from idea/concept/invention through to development and implementation. There are many chasms in this transition, of which we and others are aware, and the opportunity provided by this grant mechanism really gave us the incentive to build that infrastructure formally. The greatest strength is meeting a need that is currently not met. The gap in ability to receive support for very-early-stage technology has been what has kept many things from moving from the laboratory to the bedside and this program will help fill that gap. I think there's a lot of different areas, but, you know, I think one of the real challenges is like how do you make healthcare costs cheaper? I think that's one of the things that you're talking about. And I've been talking with groups at UCLA that are involved in digital health, for example, where they can do a lot of home monitoring, and so right now, patients have to come to the hospital and talk to docs, but a lot of this can be done at home. It can be done in simpler, more cost-effective ways and then, the docs only have to deal with the problems that are really critical.