CMI banner

Center for Medical Innovation

CMI banner

Center for Medical Innovation

MedTech Venture Studio

We're building the future of medical technologies.

Streamlining the innovation process, the MedTech Venture Studio at the Center for Medical Innovation is designed to turn ideas into commercially successful products.

Recognizing the challenges unique to developing new medical technologies, CMI takes a hands-on approach to the venture studio process, inviting inventors and industry experts to collaborate on building technologically innovative, market-ready devices. 

surgical tools

Good ideas come from many places. 

We've designed our process to enable those ideas and cutting-edge research from several sources:

  • Principal Investigators (PIs), clinicians, staff, and researchers at the University of Utah
  • Projects that have previously competed in CMI's Bench to Bedside Program
  • External individuals or groups outside of the University of Utah (e.g., physicians from other healthcare systems)
  • Projects identified from internal initiatives at the Center for Medical Innovation 

Ready to get started?

If you're ready to change the future of healthcare, let's talk. Our team is looking for active collaborators to help us transform patient care and build the next generation of medical technologies.

CONTACT THE CMI TEAM

What's the process?

Phase I

Assessment

Members of the CMI team meet with clinical staff, end-users, and the collaborator(s) to assess the impact of the problem and gather context for future decisions about further development. CMI conducts engineering, regulatory, and market assessments for the project, identifying potential opportunities and hurdles that may exist for market entry and successful commercialization. Projects exhibiting significant market opportunity and that are within the scope of CMI’s capabilities may proceed to Phase II.

Phase II

Prototype Development

Following predetermined iterative cycles of design, development, and feasibility testing, projects will progress through Phase II under the direction of CMI’s engineering teams. Needs-finding among end-users will drive decision-making and design requirements before progressing to Phase III.

Phase III

Regulatory & Quality Controls

Projects are advanced utilizing collaborations with manufacturers while also considering the requirements necessary for validation testing when seeking regulatory approval. The project advances to Phase IV upon verification testing and successful FDA submission (when applicable).

Phase IV

Commercialization

In this final stage, all files and documentation relevant to the product's development are transferred to a start-up or licensee for commercialization.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

  • Each project accepted into the MedTech Venture Studio will have variable timelines. So projects may take more time to de-risk, while others may be further along in the development process when they come to CMI. A better idea of a project timeline will be determined during the initial consultation and comprehensive assessments in Phase 1.

     

  • No. The current status of a project (including the development of the prototype) will be considered when evaluating projects to bring into the accelerator program. It may also affect long-term goals for the project as well as any potential royalty agreements. 

     

  • We focus on physical devices. It's our specialty! Occasionally we will take on projects which are a combination medical device & supporting software application, but it's rare. We do not work on any pharmaceutical or therapeutic projects, or projects exclusively based on software or applications. 

     

  • You will share in the success of your idea! If accepted into the Venture Studio, our team will work with you on collaboration agreements to move forward with the project.