Academic Entrepreneurship for Medical and Health Scientists

Book excerpt: The recent momentum and urgency around translating science and technology into health innovation is inspiring. It is transforming academia, too, as the rapidly-evolving world of health innovation has given rise to a new breed of academic - the academic entrepreneur - who works to move ideas from initial research to practical implementation. The work of these individuals is crucial to realizing the potential of investments in better care, and yet there existed no central repository for information and wisdom relevant to their mission; no place to house and explore the evolving knowledge base around translating evidence into impact.We aim to build one. In the spirit of collaboration, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Research Institute collaborated with the University of Pennsylvania's (Penn) Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT) to seed fund a grassroots effort of editors, subject matter experts, and translational research students to create a free open education resource stored on ScholarlyCommons (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA).Academic Entrepreneurship seeks to build a diverse community of empowered professionals who know how to bridge the worlds of academic research and commercialization to turn ideas and discoveries into innovations that provide value to patients, providers, and healthcare systems, thereby realizing full market potential and societal impact. This book is a repository of tools, advice, and best practices that establishes a foundation for academic researchers and innovators wherever they may reside.Recognizing that academic entrepreneurs are busy and bright, and have limited time to learn entrepreneurship, the chapters in this book were designed as an efficient and state-of-the-art source of guidance. With carefully curated content as a strong foundation, the reader will have quick introductions to key topics in academic entrepreneurship and innovations with a list of resources for those who wish to go further.This book was created as a limited print run of the first edition of the living content stored in the University of Pennsylvania's open access repository, ScholarlyCommons, as of 1/1/2020. As a living e-textbook, the content of Academic Entrepreneurship for Medical and Health Scientists is continuously enhanced and revised.