Director of Biodesign, Stanford University Martha Meier Weiland Professor of Medicine
Paul Yock is the Martha Meier Weiland Professor of Medicine and Mechanical Engineering (by courtesy) and Founding Co-Chair of Stanford’s new Department of Bioengineering. He also holds a courtesy appointment on Operations, Information and Technology in the Stanford School of Business.
Dr. Yock is internationally known for his work in inventing, developing and testing new devices, including the Rapid Exchange ™ balloon angioplasty system, which is now the primary system in use worldwide. He also invented a Doppler-guided access system known as the Smart Needle™ and PD-Access™. The main focus of Dr. Yock’s research program has been in the field of intravascular ultrasound. He authored the fundamental patents for mechanical intravascular ultrasound imaging and helped conduct the initial clinical trials. In 1986 he founded Cardiovascular Imaging Systems, which was acquired by Boston Scientific in 1994. Dr. Yock has cofounded several other medical technology companies.
In his academic career Dr. Yock has authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications, chapters and editorials, a textbook and over 45 US patents. Recent awards include the Transcatheter Therapeutics (TCT) Career Achievement Award, the American College of Cardiology Distinguished Scientist Award and an honorary doctorate from Amherst College. Dr. Yock is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Current research interests of Dr. Yock’s group at Stanford focus on development and testing of catheter-based delivery systems for cardiac cell transplantation and new catheter and molecular imaging techniques for cardiology. Dr. Yock also founded and directs the Program in Biodesign, a unit of Stanford’s Bio-X initiative that focuses on invention and technology transfer related to biomedical engineering.
Josh Makower, MD, MBA
Consulting Associate Professor of Medicine, Stanford University
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, ExploraMed
Dr. Makower has dedicated his life to the creation of medical technologies which improve the quality of life for patients and is the CEO and Founder of ExploraMed Development, LLC, a medical device incubator based on the west coast. He is also a Venture Partner with New Enterprise Associates where he supports the investing activity in the medical device arena.
Josh serves as a Consulting Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University Medical School and co-founded Stanford’s Biodesign Innovation Program. A compendium of the materials created to support the teaching efforts in the Stanford Biodesign program has recently been published under the Cambridge University text title of: Biodesign: The Process of Innovating New Medical Technologies.
Josh has founded several companies through the ExploraMed incubator which have achieved successful M&A transactions including Acclarent, Inc., a company focused on developing novel therapies in ENT, which was acquired by J&J in 2010, TransVascular, Inc., a company focused on the development of a completely catheter-based coronary bypass technology, which was acquired by Medtronic, Inc. in 2003, and EndoMatrix, Inc., a company focused on the development of a novel therapy for incontinence and GI Reflux, which was acquired by C.R. Bard in 1997. Up until 1995, Josh was Founder and Manager of Pfizer’s Strategic Innovation Group, a group chartered to create new medical device technologies and businesses for Pfizer’s medical device businesses.
Josh also serves on the Board of Directors for NeoTract, Inc,, Moximed, Inc., Intrinsic Therapeutics, Inc., ExploraMed III, Inc. and Vibrynt, Inc. Josh holds over five dozen patents for various medical devices in the fields of Orthopedics, ENT, Cardiology, General Surgery, Drug Delivery and Urology.
Josh holds an M.B.A. Columbia University, an M.D. from the New York University School of Medicine, and an S.B. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Todd Brinton, MD
Fellowship Director, Biodesign, Stanford University
Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine (Cardiology)
Lecturer in Bioengineering
Dr. Brinton is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and Lecturer in Bioengineering at Stanford University. He is an attending interventional cardiologist at both Stanford University Medical Center and the Palo Alto VA Medical Center. He is also the fellowship director for the program in biodesign innovation and co-director of the graduate class in biodesign innovation.
His responsibilities include coaching and mentorship of the innovation fellows and direction of the graduate course in biodesign innovation. Dr. Brinton’s academic research focuses on the development of novel medical technologies and pre-clinical evaluation. His specific focus has been the evaluation of techniques for cardiac stem cell transplantation. He is also active in clinical trials of interventional-based therapies for chronic ischemia heart disease and heart failure.
Dr. Brinton completed his medicine, cardiology, and interventional training at Stanford University. He holds an M.D from the Chicago Medical School and B.S in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego. He is co-founder of BioParadox, Inc., a venture-backed medical device company and serves on the board of directors of Infogard laboratories, a security company focused on medical records and wireless medical devices. He also serves on the advisory board of a number of early-stage medical device companies where he focuses on clinical development and strategy. Prior to medical school he was the Clinical Research Director for Pulse Metric, Inc., a medical device start-up company.
Jay Watkins, MBA
Lecturer, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
Managing Director, De Novo Ventures
Mr. Watkins is an operating executive with extensive experience founding and funding healthcare companies. He is a Managing Director with De Novo Ventures and serves as a Lecturer in Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
He was founding CEO of Origin Medsystems, a venture funded medical technology start-up acquired by Eli Lilly & Company. After Lilly formed Guidant, he joined the Management Committee and served as president of several divisions, including the Minimally Invasive Surgery Group, and Heart Rhythm Technologies. While President of the Cardiac and Vascular Surgery Group he initiated the development of a minimally invasive vein harvesting technology which has been used to treat almost two million patients worldwide. He also co-founded Gynecare, which was acquired by Johnson and Johnson.
At Guidant, he formed and led Compass, Guidant’s corporate business development and new ventures group where he was directly involved in the acquisition of two public companies and led venture investments in fourteen companies including Impella (acquired by Abiomed) and Intuitive Surgical.
Prior to founding Origin, Mr. Watkins held management positions in several start- ups, including Microgenics Corporation (acquired by Boehringer Mannheim), and was a consultant with McKinsey & Company. He has served as a board member for both private and public medtech companies and has been an active advisor and faculty member for the Kauffman Labs program which is dedicated to educating and training founders.
Mr. Watkins received his MBA from Harvard Business School and his undergraduate degree from Stanford University.
