Stanford India Biodesign - Fellowship Timeline

Year 1

During Phase I (January through June), the Stanford-India Biodesign fellows will study at Stanford University, participating in the core Biodesign Innovation course. This course teaches the basic methodologies required to identify and characterize unmet clinical needs, invent and prototype solutions, navigate intellectual property, regulatory and reimbursement pathways and understand the process of raising funds for starting a business or translating the technology via licensing.

In parallel, the fellows will work as a team in an intensive needs-finding and invention sequence within a designated clinical area (to be selected among such fields as emergency medicine, diabetes management, heart disease and obstetrics/neonatalogy for example). First, fellows will receive an intensive introduction to the clinical area through lectures by Stanford Medical School faculty. Second, fellows will be immersed in clinical practice (wards, operating theater, clinics). As a team they will be expected to generate at least one hundred potential needs–that is, important problems that could be solved by technical innovation. Finally, fellows will filter this large need list into the six or eight most compelling needs based on potential clinical impact and market potential. The fellows will then invent and prototype several solutions for each of these well-characterized needs. With additional prototyping and testing, the fellows will select a single best approach and develop a plan for technology translation and implementation.  During all stages, the fellows will be closely mentored by Stanford faculty as well as experts from the medical technology, financial, legal and regulatory industries in Silicon Valley. 

During Phase II (July-December), the fellows will transition to New Delhi, India and will be based at the new Stanford-India Biodesign Center housed within the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and at IIT Delhi, a partner institution for the program. During this phase, the fellows will develop new technologies for the medically underserved in India, utilizing the Biodesign process learned in Phase I. Needs-finding will continue with immersion in large urban hospitals and rural clinics, with a special emphasis on observing and understanding the needs of the poor and underserved in India. The designated clinical area or medical specialty for Phase II will generally be the same as that from Phase I, allowing the fellows to compare and contrast treatment in India versus the United States. The fellows will then characterize the needs, filter to select the top eight to ten needs, invent, prototype and plan the development project. It is anticipated that at the end of Phase II, the team will have selected one or more clinical needs and will have created working prototypes to solve these needs.

. Mentorship for Phase II will be from a combination of Stanford and Silicon Valley faculty (traveling to India and by video link) combined with AIIMS and IIT Delhi faculty and leaders from the Indian industry.

In addition to the technology innovation activities, fellows will help to develop new educational programs in Biodesign. Fellows will help develop courses, serve as teaching assistants and mentors to students who are interested in careers in medical technology innovation.

Year 2 (For Select Fellows)  Some fellows may choose to pursue a second year of training (requiring program faculty approval.) These fellows will use the second year to further develop one or more of their inventions from the first year and to fundraise, further test and refine their technology. Final decisions regarding the second year of fellowship will be made jointly by the fellows and faculty by end-September of the first year.