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| MBA students Zach Silbernagel and Christopher Humphries and their professor David Roach were recruited to work on聽marketing the聽medical device developed by Michael Schmidt and grad student Florentin Wilfart.聽(Nick Pearce Photo) |
It鈥檚 called post-operative cognitive decline, a syndrome in which patients experience memory loss or other forms of cognitive dysfunction after surgery or critical illness.
鈥淲e see it more and more among elderly patients because these people have less reserve to compensate for side effects of surgery and anaesthesia,鈥� says Michael Schmidt, AV俱乐部 professor of Anaesthesiology, Physiology, Neurosurgery and Biomedical Engineering.
鈥淧ost-operative cognitive decline鈥擯OCD鈥攁ffects the brain, specifically memory and span of concentration,鈥� continues Dr. Schmidt. 鈥淚t causes a lot of grief for patients and their families and there鈥檚 an enormous cost in dealing with the side effects.鈥�
Prototype developed
Concerned about what he sees as a growing problem, Dr. Schmidt started research in the field of cerebral and organ protection resulting in innovative anaesthesia procedures and devices.聽 In the process, he relocated to AV俱乐部 from Germany to continue this research and to facilitate the development of聽 prototypes. As one project he invented a new device for the removal of carbon dioxide in the anaesthesia circuit to make anaesthesia safer.
Dr. Schmidt was later joined by grad student Florentin Wilfart, who took on the fine-tuning of the prototype for his PhD with the School of Biomedical Engineering.
With a prototype developed, Dr. Schmidt and Mr. Wilfart reached out to David Roach, assistant professor with the School of Business Administration, and MBA students Zach Silbernagel and Christopher Humphries for help with the next step鈥攖o bring their research that much closer to helping patients and their families.
Collaboration
鈥淔or me, it鈥檚 not enough to get your research published,鈥� says Dr. Schmidt. 鈥淵ou must be thinking of getting that research to the patient in a very efficient way.鈥�
Last month at the Apex Business Plan Competition at the University of New Brunswick, the interdisciplinary team presented a business plan for the medical device to a panel of judges鈥攁nd won. 鈥淚t does bode well for getting the device to market,鈥� says Mr. Humphries.
The hope is to bring the device from 鈥渂ench to bedside鈥� by 2014, but first more research has to be done, clinical trials conducted and a regulatory process to undergo.
In the meantime, Dr. Roach is pleased with the way the team has come together and learned from each other鈥檚 strengths. 鈥淎 collaboration like this gives rich and deep experience to the students who stepped up to the plate.鈥�
On the horizon is another prestigious competition. The team is one of 12 across the country selected for the 2011 IBK Capital-Ivey Business Plan Competition to be held January 28 and 29 at the Richard Ivey School of Business in London, Ont.
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