Here are the key pieces from the article. Memorize them and repeat them 3 times a day:
1. Here at Google we change the world. Here we break the status quo, here we influence the world to make it a better place."
2. Google's management from the very top down -- never penalizes for failure. People aren't afraid to fail. The company's motto is clear and you can hear it from Larry and Sergei, the founders: We celebrate rapid movement, we celebrate rapid failures, we learn rapidly from failure and move on.
3. There's only one thing that frightens Google -- Not to be daring enough, not to be bold enough, not to think big.
Memorize the above 3 points and you are on your way to inventing the next really big thing in Medical Devices.
Questions or comments, please email me
A lot more information, data, links and resources can be found on my mirror Doctor of Invention Blog. Please check it out.
]]>I like when people go against the status quo and most inventors are successful when they go left while everyone else is going right.
The Creative Creativity Blog provides us with some great quotes from Albert Einstein on creativity and imagination. Notice how a lot of the quotes focus on the importance of the imagination (an inventor's best friend, MN). My favorite is "Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."
Enjoy the quotes and let your imagination help you invent the next big thing!!
If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.
We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.
Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skills. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science.
Questions or comments, please email me
A lot more information, data, links and resources can be found on my mirror Doctor of Invention Blog. Please check it out.
You do not have to be highly intelligent to develop this skill. You do not need specialized training or higher education. You do not need years of experience or any kind of track record.
All you need is to do is to LISTEN.
That’s right. Just listen. Most people are not good listeners. They do not pay attention to what others are telling them and are too busy compiling their counter-points to what someone is saying – that they simply do not listen to the points being made. Many others believe that they know everything and do not even give others a chance to tell them anything. They talk and talk and do not let anyone else get a word in edgewise.
The following are a few basic situations where Doctor Inventors should be listening very carefully to what others are telling. By listening very carefully you will be able to learn about various problems -- and then you can invent solutions to them.
Listen to your patients and their families.
Listen to other doctors at seminars and conferences.
Listen to nurses, technicians, and all your co-workers.
Mark Twain said it best – “If you are talking, you aren’t learning.”
The corollary is if you are listening you are on your way to inventing.
Questions or comments, please email me
A lot more information, data, links and resources can be found on my mirror Doctor of Invention Blog. Please check it out.
]]>Seth's edgecraft is a straightforward process:
1. Find an edge--a free prize that has been shown to make a product or service (in someone else's industry) remarkable.
2. Go all the way to that edge--as far from the center as the consumers you are trying to reach dare you to go.
Seth says that brainstorming might create the occasional breakthrough, but edgecraft can inexpensively and quickly churn out lots of ideas--good ideas and sometimes great ideas. Ideas you can rapidly implement. If people aren't blown away, they won't talk about it. If they don't talk about it, then it doesn't spread fast enough to help you grow.
There are hundreds of available edges--things you can add to, subtract from, or do to your product or service. Here are a few to consider.
Technology. Moore's Law says that every 18 months, the power of computer chips you can buy for a dollar doubles. This opens two kinds of opportunity. The first is at the cutting edge. Xbox and PlayStation pack supercomputer power into video-game machines. If you could add a supercomputer to your product or service, what would it do? The second approach is to take advantage of the cheap part of the curve. Yesterday's technology is always (much) cheaper. The latest innovation: The $11 digital camera. If computer chips were a penny, how would you use them?
Design aesthetic. Design is the single highest-leverage investment you can make. A well-designed product is usually cheaper to make and service than what you're doing now. It will also improve sales because people notice it and talk about it. Not only the user interface but also the entire user experience is now dictated by design. Of all the edges I know, embracing amazing design is the easiest, the fastest, and the one with the most assured return on investment.
According to Seth, A 9-year-old can do edgecraft. While the edges always change, the process never does:
1. Find a product or service that's completely unrelated to your industry.
2. Figure out who's winning by being remarkable.
3. Discover what edge they went to.
4. Do that.
Crest figured out how to make money with remarkably cheap electric toothbrushes. What if companies such as Gillette or Henckels or Oster or Braun or Playtex or Toro or Sony decided to go to the same edge in their industry?
Don't copy the specific tactics. Figure out how you can get to the same edge but in a different way.
Try to edgecraft -- it should lead to remarkable ideas for new medical devices.
Questions or comments, please email me
A lot more information, data, links and resources can be found on my mirror Doctor of Invention Blog. Please check it out.
]]>Time management is hard, and it’s a flawed concept.
You really can’t manage time. It is finite. What we all know and talk about really is how we can manage ourselves better. So, really, if you want to manage your time better, you have no choice but learn to manage yourself better.
Rajesh Setty wrote a manifesto entitled: Making the Most of Your Time: Going Beyond To-Do Lists
Please download it here, read it and hopefully you will then be able to find time to invent life saving and quality of life improving medical devices.
Questions or comments, please email me
A lot more information, data, links and resources can be found on my mirror Doctor of Invention Blog. Please check it out.
]]>▪ 125 million Americans have 1 or more chronic conditions (e.g. congestive heart failure, diabetes.) Chronic diseases account for 75% of all health care expenditures. Source: Burrill & Company, 2006
▪ The medical device market in the United States should be approximately $86 billion by the end of 2006 (close to $220 billion worldwide), with a 10% annual growth rate expected for the coming year. Source: AdvaMed 2006
▪ The market for coatings and surface-treatment processes used on medical devices will reach more than $5.31 billion by 2010. The 12.4% annual growth rate will be fueled by explosive growth in high-value combination products. Source: Medical Device Coatings Report, BCC Research, April 2006
▪ During period of 2001-1006, California companies - $23.9 billion of increased market value creation, followed by Indiana at $22.9 billion, and Massachusetts at $20.7 billion. Source: Medical Device Industry Market Capitalization Report, 2001–2006
▪ The medical devices and equipment industry employs more than 411,400 workers, accounting for nearly one third of all US bioscience jobs. Source: Medical Product Outsourcing 2006
▪ Pennsylvania and New York included in Top 5 US states for Medical Device Employment - The thriving medical device industry in Massachusetts is the East Coast equivalent of the San Francisco Bay Area. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005
▪ The spinal devices segment (of the marketplace), with a striking growth rate of 20 to 25 percent annually, leads the orthopedic market. Extensive research on bone growth factors and fusion biologics has been integral to emerging technologies for the spine market. Source: Frost & Sullivan’s Emerging Technologies for the Spine Market (Technical Insights), published September 2006
▪ The medical device industry in Canada has approximately $5 billion in sales, with 50% of those sales in Ontario and 25% occurring in Quebec. Source: www.medec.org, 2007
Ok, the market is huge and growing -- why not invent a new device? What are you waiting for!!
Questions or comments, please email me
A lot more information, data, links and resources can be found on my mirror Doctor of Invention Blog. Please check it out.
]]>Basically, Inventors own their patent rights until they transfer or assign them to someone else. Employment contracts for physicians typically require that they assign their patent rights to the hospital -- with no additional compensation except for the doctor's usual salary.
While such an invention assignment may appear to be very restrictive -- there are ways for doctors to make money from their inventions. Doctors need to make sure and have proof that their inventions were conceived and reduced to practice exclusively on the doctors' own time and with his or her own resources (a "home invention"). This type of invention will be owned by the doctor, not the hospital.
The key here is to for the doctor to keep a detailed invention notebook. Everything you need to know about invention notebooks is covered extensively in my book, Physician Invent Thyself.
In addition, even if the hospital owns the patent, forming a company around the invention is still a viable option if the doctor can negotiate a license agreement with the patent-owning hospital or research institution. Doctors should try to obtain an exclusive license with no (or a low) up-front payment and reasonable royalties tied to actual product sales, which may not begin for a number of years. Hospitals and research institutions are usually willing to negotiate a patent license because their primary mission is treating patients and curing disease, not forming start-up medical companies.
Some hospitals have their own technology transfer and commercialization offices and Doctor Inventors should initially find out the exact role of the office and their specific policies on ownership of inventions and commercialization rights.
For Doctor Inventors that are employed by hospitals, the best practice is to learn the particular invention ownership and commercialization policy of the hospital and to keep a proper and very detailed invention notebook if they plan to invent on their own time.
Questions or comments, please email me
A lot more information, data, links and resources can be found on my mirror Doctor of Invention Blog. Please check it out.
]]>Dr. Thomas Fogarty is the most prolific Doctor-Inventor of all time. Over the past 40 years, he has invented medical devices that have saved millions of lives and improved the quality of life of millions of patients.
Dr. Fogarty holds 63 US patents in surgical devices, with additional patents pending. Two of his most famous inventions are the Aneurx stent and the balloon arterial embolectomy catheter for the removal of blood clots. Over a 40 year period, he helped found 33 business and research companies and he also owns an award winning winery.
Dr. Fogarty started inventing a young age – he invented the centrifugal clutch when he was only 15. As a scrub technician before attending Medical School, he invented the embolectomy balloon catheter (i.e., the Fogarty catheter) -- by altering a surgical glove using techniques he learned from fly-fishing. In 2000 Dr. Fogarty won the Lemelson-MIT Prize for Invention and Innovation (the world's largest single award for invention and innovation). He is also an inductee in the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
For me, Dr. Fogarty’s role as a mentor and motivator for Doctor-Inventors is one of his greatest achievements. The following are a few quotes from Dr. Fogarty:
“I've achieved the things I've done by asking one question: 'Can it be done better?' I've tried to improve the application of technology to daily patient care. A technology that works in one segment of medicine can, if thought of appropriately, be applied elsewhere successfully."
“If you look at major innovations, most of them are not accepted right away. They’re challenged, because tradition tells us they won’t work. That’s why so many inventors are initially viewed as crazy.”
“Well, ideas are only ideas. I’ll tell people about something, and they’ll say, “Oh, I had that idea.” But the idea alone has absolutely no value. Thinking about something doesn’t in and of itself help anybody. It’s the implementation of the idea that brings value to the public.”
“Failure is the preamble to success. Most first efforts don’t work. If you persist, you’ll eventually figure it out.”
“I believe that if you emphasize doing good, making things better, improving society, you’ll end up getting rewarded. A lot of people start at the other end, and I don’t think that works as well. The most successful people I’ve seen acknowledged a problem and said, “We can fix that.” They end up being rewarded, and that’s the way it should be. That’s the system we live in.”
Read more about Dr. Fogarty on his Fogarty Winery Website.
Lets all make Dr. Fogarty proud and continue his legacy of doing good, making things better and improving society. Image how many lives would be saved and how many patients would benefit. Wouldn't it be great to be the next Dr. Fogarty? Think about it and then act on it.
Questions or comments, please email me
]]> A lot more information, data, links and resources can be found on my mirror Doctor of Invention Blog. Please check it out. ]]>Dr. Yock is a Stanford cardiologist internationally known for his work in inventing, developing and testing new devices, including the Rapid Exchange balloon angioplasty system, which is the dominant angioplasty system in use worldwide. Yock also invented a Doppler-guided hypodermic needle system, the Smart Needle and P-D Access. Dr. Yock is Director of the Center for Research in Cardiovascular Interventions, a Stanford facility that develops and tests new technologies in cardiovascular medicine. He authored the fundamental patents for intravascular ultrasound imaging and founded Cardiovascular Imaging Systems, now a division of Boston Scientific resulting from a 1994 acquisition for over $100M.
Dr. Yock in his video presentation tells you why you must take the time to file patents on your idea. The entire video is less than 3 minutes. Please click on the link below and watch this video -- it well worth your time.
http://edcorner.stanford.edu/IndivRec?mid=454&author=61
After Edison’s death in 1931, an amazing 3,500 notebooks were found in his home.
Please, Please, Please, PLEASE!!! write down your ideas regardless of whether you think they are good, bad or mediocre. You never know -- Sometime in the future you may develop a couple of roughly-written thoughts into a brilliant idea!
stay tuned - the next post will give you more reasons for writing down your ideas with a video link from one of your own.
Questions or Comments -- email me at michael@doctorofinvention.com
]]>You can make a lot of money from your inventions and there is nothing wrong with inventing for pure monetary reasons. Do not “feel bad” or rationalize away the fact that you are inventing for the sake of financial reward. Don’t forget – as medical device inventors – you can never invent “just for money”. You are not inventing the next iPod, Router, Cell Phone or the next big Internet whatever -- you are inventing medical devices which will improve the quality of life and save the lives of millions of people around the world. If you also make some money doing so – all the better for everyone. Remember you can make dollars and make a difference at the same time.
Here are some money making inspirational quotes:
Lack of money is the root of all evil.
Mark Twain
When I was young I used to think that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old, I know it is.
Oscar Wilde
You can be young without money but you can't be old without it.
Tennessee Williams
There are three great friends: an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.
Benjamin Franklin
Most people are too busy earning a living to make any money
Anonymous
I have never been in a situation where having money made it worse.
Clinton Jones.
If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars.
J. Paul Getty
Questions or comments email me at michael@doctorofinvention.com
]]>If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right.
Mary Kay Ash
We could hardly wait to get up in the morning.
Wilbur Wright
When you innovate, you've got to be prepared for everyone telling you you're nuts.
Larry Ellison
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
Henry Ford
If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance.
Orville Wright
Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway.
Mary Kay Ash
An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.
Edwin Land
The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.
David Ogilvy
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.
Henry Ford
The man who comes up with a means for doing or producing almost anything better, faster or more economically has his future and his fortune at his fingertips.
J. Paul Getty
Want to brainstorm about your invention? email me at michael@doctorofinvention.com
stay tuned - my next post will deal with one of the greatest motivators of all time -- MONEY
]]>Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... it takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
It's not that I'm so smart , it's just that I stay with problems longer.
We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
I have no particular talent. I am merely inquisitive.
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism, have brought me to my ideas.
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Ok, are you inspired?????? You should be!!!
Feel like brainstorming with someone to help you get to that eureka moment -- email me at michael@doctorofinvention.com
]]>My 10 year son -- Gal -- broke his arm coming down from a monster shot while playing basketball and I spent a lot of time in the emergency room with him and then in the hospital after he was admitted.
The treatment he received was exceptional. I could really see how much the doctors, nurses and the entire staff really cared.
I also observed first hand how busy everyone is -- all the time.
I want to say again and again THANK YOU to everyone who helped Gal and made him feel as comfortable as possible during his first ever stay in a hospital and after his first ever broken bone.
BTW - He made the shot.
]]>After reading this nothing should stand in your way!
Lets start with some quotes from Mr. Thomas A. Edison:
There's a way to do it better - find it.
Be courageous! Have faith! Go Forward!
If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.
Many of life's failures are people who didn’t realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged.
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Feel like brainstorming with someone to help you get to that eureka moment -- email me at michael@doctorofinvention.com
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