Eyeworld

EW FEATURE 42 by Michelle Dalton EyeWorld Contributing Editor Creating change True innovation can address an unmet need, but rarely is it that simple B uccaneers. Pioneers. Mav- ericks. Call them what you will, but the people at the forefront of change all share a common trait: They saw an unmet need and worked on solving that need in the face of naysayers and sometimes in the face of sheer ridicule from their colleagues. But were it not for these forward-thinking individuals, extra- capsular surgery might still be the norm, patients with AMD would be faced with no hope for regained vi- sion, and some surgical tools and techniques now considered crude might still be considered the stan- dard of care. When I. Howard Fine, M.D., clinical professor, Casey Eye Insti- tute, Oregon Health & Science Uni- versity, Portland, received the Inno- vator's Medal in 1994, his lecture topic was "limitations, logic, and language," and those three areas are still integral to the process, he said. But the landscape has changed. Long gone are the days when a sur- geon can work directly with a manu- facturer and have newly designed surgical tools in his hand week after week, as Dr. Fine did thanks to a close relationship with the heads of Rhein Medical (St. Petersburg, Fla.), Mastel (Rapid City, S.D.), and Katena (Denville, N.J.). Or when Robert Sinskey, M.D., founder, Southern California Lion's Eye Institute, worked with IOLab to alter the rigid- J loop haptics into soft-J loops, help- ing move surgery away from pupil-fixated implants. "When the practice is high vol- ume, you see the problems and the needs," Dr. Sinskey said. "If you're doing 30-40 cataracts a week, you'll immediately see the problems that a smaller practice will not. Those problems will lead to ways of over- coming them." But is it really that simple? Has the landscape changed that much since the halcyon days? Are physi- cians really less altruistic than they seemed to be decades ago? Or have the hurdles of bringing a new idea to the market escalated so intently some have just given up? With any idea, protecting intel- lectual property is highly recom- mended, said both Emmett Cunningham Jr., M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., partner, Clarus Ventures, Cambridge, Mass., and Richard L. Lindstrom, M.D., adjunct professor emeritus, ophthalmology depart- ment, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and founder, Min- nesota Eye Centers, Minneapolis. February 2011 Innovation in ophthalmology November 2011 ZYTAZE ® Why ZYTAZE ® ? 6DWLVÀHGSDWLHQWVOHDGWRPRUHSDWLHQWUHIHUUDOV For more information, call (800) 233-5469 or visit www.zytaze.com 1 .RVK\-&6KDUDEL6()HOGPDQ(0+ROOLHU/0+ROOLHU/+3DWULQHO\-56RSDUNDU&16 (IIHFWRI'LHWDU\=LQF6XSSOHPHQWDWLRQRQ%RWXOLQXP7R[LQ7UHDWPHQWV (manuscript in review). =<7$=( ® LVDUHJLVWHUHGWUDGHPDUNRI2&X62)7,QF %RWR[ ® LVDUHJLVWHUHGWUDGHPDUNRI$OOHUJDQ,QF 2&X62)7,QFDQG$OOHUJDQ,QFKDYHQRDIÀOLDWLRQQRULV=<7$=( ® HQGRUVHGE\$OOHUJDQ,QF 2&X62)7,QF5RVHQEHUJ7; 86 )RUHLJQ3DWHQWV3HQGLQJ xin inje o m t tulinu zinc a of e nd a uniq contains H Y R U S P L R nt atme tre ns in the ctio xin inje nd , current ely tunat or unf of organic blend ue a uniq \ F D F À IÀ H Q L [ R W P X Q L O X W R E AT A GLANCE Dr. Cunningham suggested a roadmap for those with innovative ideas: 1. Patent the idea before speaking about it publicly 2. Know what you have—is it a stand- alone product or is it an idea large enough to form a company? 3. Have financing in place to bring the idea to market (may be as little as $500,000 or as much as $200 million or more)—this can involve family, friends, research grants, angel investors, VC funding, and/or industry partnerships 4. The more investors you bring on, the more diluted control you maintain

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