International Scientific Advisors

I always ask about end user buy-in when I evaluate dual-use MedTech for operational settings. Also, known as user-centered design, operator input (intended user), and voice of the customer, it is critical to have end-user inputs and feedback from concept, to R&D, to procurement (i.e., U.S. government purchase of your goods and services). Innovation of medtech is different in many ways from the end user inputs that are integral to large DoD acquisition builds such as a next generation fighter aircraft (not easy to swap these platforms out), but I believe end-user input is integral to each medtech device build. Once you are certain that your tech is addressing a pain point in operational settings, capturing end user buy-in on medtech that is to be used in operational settings is important for many reasons. 1. ???????????????? ?????????????????????? ??????????????????: Feedback to meet the specific needs of military operations, which differs significantly from civilian applications ??? 2. ?????????????????? ?????????????? ?????? ??????????????????: By providing input throughout development, the products deliver specific needs, are intuitive, and easy to use in high-stress or prolonged care situations ??? 3. ???????????????????? ???????????? ????????????????????: Military settings present unique challenges like extreme environments (e.g., ruggedization required), interference (e.g., smart alarms for aeromedical transport) limited resources (e.g., low cost and power requirements), and the need for portability (low size and weight) ??? 4. ???????????????? ???????????????? ???????????? ??????????????????????: All medtech will require variations of data exchange, cybersecurity compliance, AI-decision assist, command and control, and others ??? 5. ?????????????????? ????????????????: When end users are involved in development, they're more likely to accept and effectively utilize the new tech ??? 6. ????????????????????: End users can help to inform high priority designations for some tech (blood products), unique regulatory pathways for medical countermeasures, and DoD personnel with regulatory expertise can help to guide the regulatory strategy and plan ??? 7. ??????????????????????: It is difficult to capture all the unique and subtle initial build requirements, so continued end user feedback and follow on safety tracking helps to inform your future iterations and expand product pipelines There are many other reasons why end user buy-in is important. Please share these in the comments and in a future post, I will list some methods for capturing end user feedback. Want to learn more about end user buy-in and keep up to date on all things MILMED R&D? Join our MILMED Connect Funding Insider newsletter at https://lnkd.in/gndVzFQE. #MILMED #DualUseTech #EndUser #MILMEDConnect

Saving Lives on the Front Lines: the 4 Roles of Military Medicine?? The U.S. Military Health System utilizes a Role defined approach to the care provided for our military personnel, ensuring the right level of care is available when and where it's needed. A high-level breakdown of the Four Roles or Levels of Military Medical Care ???????? ??: ????????-?????????? ?????????????? ? Immediate point-of-injury care, life-saving measures, and disease prevention through self/buddy care or by combat lifesavers, combat medics, and corpsmen. ???????? ??: ?????????????? ?????????????????????????? ???????? ? Continuation of resuscitation, advanced trauma management, and emergency treatment closer to the field. Think Forward Surgical Team (??????). ???????? ??: ?????????????? ???????????????? ? Advanced medical care within the theater of operations. This includes specialty surgery and post-operative care in expeditionary medical facilities and Combat Support Hospitals (??????) for modular Field Hospital. ???????? ??: ???????????????????? ???????? ? OCONUS - medical treatment facilities (??????) with the most advanced level of care, typically Garrison when outside of the continental U.S. (OCONUS). ? CONUS – MTFs within the continental U.S. to include VA facilities and civilian hospitals as required (CONUS MTFs are also referred to as ???????? ??). A lot of details and variations are not here, but this is intended as a quick reference on the Roles that define the comprehensive approach to care and the dedication of our far forward military medical personnel! Want to learn more about operational medicine and keep up to date on all things MILMED R&D? Join our MILMED Connect Funding Insider newsletter at https://lnkd.in/gndVzFQE.? #militarymedicine #MILMED #medicalroles

Maximize your opportunities to capture DoD/Federal funding for MedTech, Biotech, and Pharma R&D… Join one of the four medical-focused consortia sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) or the Biomedical Advanced R&D Authority (BARDA). These consortia foster collaboration to develop needed DoD/Federal medical capabilities. The consortia members are from industry, academia, foundations, and government entities focused specifically on advancing medical technologies. You have to be a member to apply for funding, but this is a benefit in that this requirement also decreases the number of entities with whom you are competing for funding. These consortia use Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs), a flexible mechanism for the government to access innovative R&D, especially from those who have never worked with the government before. OTAs can offer flexibility around IP, cost accounting standards, funding arrangements, payment milestones, and length of agreement. OTA Consortia organize members around a specific technology area, promoting multidisciplinary collaborations between the government, industry, academia, foundations. Currently, there are four medical-focused consortia: 1. ?????????????? ???????? ?????????????? ???????????????????? (????????) - Medical countermeasures against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats 2. ?????????????? ???????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????????????????? (????????) - Medical solutions that protect, treat, and optimize health and performance of U.S. military personnel and civilians 3. ?????????? ???????????????? ?????????????????????? ?????????????? (????????) ???????????????????? - Address evolving needs including pandemic influenza, emerging infectious diseases, and other biological threats 4. ?????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? (????????????) ???????????????????? - Expand the industrial and manufacturing base for medical countermeasures to prepare for future health security threats I will post some Consortia case studies and success stories soon. Want to learn more about these Consortia and keep up to date on all things MILMED R&D? Join our MILMED Connect Funding Insider newsletter at https://lnkd.in/gndVzFQE.??

Overnight to the business of medicine…6 options to consider. After two decades of clinical practice, an entrepreneurial need took over. Enacting this shift overnight to the business side of medicine is not the optimum, nor the recommended route, but I am, and always have been, one of the high risk and low data crowd (Chapter 4: Crossing the Chiasm). But first, a huge thank you to the unique souls who persevere and love practicing clinical medicine throughout your careers. An ER doctor…an ER Nurse, a family practitioner, who saves and improves the lives of everyone, every day for decades. As a country, we need to foster and evaluate how best to support these critical lifelong practitioners. I speak with many medical professionals who have served and cared for so many others in their clinical careers. However, for many, and at some point in their careers, they yearn for a change as they taper their clinical practice. They want… ? To translate the expertise and experience in a new way ? To seek some new form of intellectual stimulation ? To collaborate with teams outside of medicine (e.g., business) Some options to consider if you find yourself on this path ??. ???????? ?????????????? – For each stage seek a mentor or mentors - early ideation, taking the first step, building, refining/iterating, advising, volunteering ??. ???????????????? - Take courses, listen to podcasts, and leverage the vast world of knowledge around us in degrees, certificates, and internet sources (e.g., YouTube) ??. ???????????????????????? ?????????? - Research the tech that interests you with peer-reviewed medical literature, Perplexity, Claude, Crunchbase (financials), and many other fantastic tools ??. ???????????? – Build a personalized method for curating medical information (personal knowledge management) rather collecting (with limited linking of multidisciplinary or disparate ideas) ??. ?????????? ?????? – identify new or novel tech from industry that interests you and set up a call. Small companies value subject matter experts (SME) or key opinion leaders (KOL) who see the value proposition in their tech and provide structured guidance ??. ?????????? ???????? ?????? - Learn how to work with a company as a consultant or advisor. Seeking a mentor to assist you on the best way to accomplish this will save you time Most importantly, and wherever you are in your career, try to stay in the fight. Your medical expertise and experience are needed in our country and around the world. If you change how you provide care, you are just making your expertise and knowledge available and accessible in new ways. P.S. If you find this post interesting, consider joining our newsletter at https://lnkd.in/gndVzFQE

7 tools I use every day to curate medical information I scout for dual-use products (military-civilian use) from MedTech, Biotech and Pharma companies. This involves constant searching, reading, collecting, and curating. Here is my current toolkit ??. ???????????????????? - my current starting point ? Provides excellent summaries and resource lists. ? Great for finding hidden references. ??. ???????????? - excellent for initial narrative drafts ? Just drop 4 or 5 journal articles in to summarize, outline, or highlight key information. ? This is an efficient method to determine which articles are a precise match. ??. ???????????? – my source for up-to-date information ? Complement to Perplexity's comprehensive collection of references. ? Boost in creativity of narrative provided but has a slight increase in hallucinations vs. NotebookLM.? ??. ???????????? ???????????????????? – for handling huge amounts of data (unlike the 1MB file limit of Copilot) ? Summaries include exact location in references where narrative was pulled; phenomenal for building quizzes and study guides…share this with your kids. ? Based on the same LLM as Gemini but is structured to decrease hallucinations (and creativity). ??. ????????????????.???? – for connecting my ideas ? Open source software for linking your ideas and managing personal knowledge. ? Visualizes connections effectively to build your ideas. ??. ????????????.?????? - literally, my personal mind (no collaboration) for curating inspirations ? Simple and beautifully designed for automated categorization and tagging. You’ll love it. ??. ?????????????? - searching all of the medical literature ? When I don't have the answers, I start with PubMed…and EndNote (from versions 2 to 21). ? Simple curation of article and abstracts and instant add for citations into narrative. ? There are others like zotero, Mendeley for free, but EndNote is going to be hard to replace. In an era teeming with productivity tools, what are your favorites for research, curation, and data analysis? Share in the comments Join our newsletter at https://lnkd.in/gndVzFQE #AItools #PKM #research #curation #MILMEDConnect

Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) website is back online! Some pre-announcements posted with abbreviated topic focus areas below. Full announcements expected with details on topics selected by Congress. ?????????? - FY25 pre-announcement is likely coming soon. Pre-app deadline ~ June 2025. To be eligible=prior DOD funding for the same project and Technology Readiness Level 5+ (cGMP pilot lot, preclinical). Evolution of FY23→FY24 focus areas below and will vary in FY25. · ???????????????????? ??????????????: FY23 endemic/emerging disease threats to FY24 broad-spectrum/pathogen-agnostic approaches · ?????????????????????? ???????????????? ?????? ??????????????????/???????????????????? ??????????????????????: FY23 and FY24 physical/cognitive performance and injury prevention; FY23 environmental medicine cold weather emphasis · ????????-???????????????????? ?????? ???????????????????? ?????????????? ????????: FY23 and FY24 systems that augment the individual medic; AI/telehealth integration; triage solutions · ???????????? ???????????????? ????????: modernized capabilities; Priority on hemorrhage control and resuscitation ???????????? ???????????? (????????) - Primary prevention; Identify determinants of initiation, risk, susceptibility; Distinguish deadly from non-deadly cancers; Conquer overdiagnosis and overtreatment; Identify drivers and determine how to stop it and why some become metastatic; Determine why/how cells lie dormant and re-emerge; Prevent lethal recurrence; New treatment that are more effective, less toxic, and impact survival; Eliminate metastatic mortality ?????????????? ???????????? (????????) - Basic biology and etiology; Novel therapies; Innovative prevention; New strategies for screening, early-stage detection, prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, survivorship, quality of life; Access and outcomes; Precision medicine ???????? ???????????? (????????) - Biology and Etiology; Prevention and Risk Reduction; Detection, Diagnosis, and Surveillance; Treatment and Prognosis; Health Outcomes and Survivorship; Disparities ???????????? (??????) - Understand/treat; Restore visual function; Diagnose, stabilize, and treat in prolonged care settings ??????????????????'?? (????????) - Reduce Risk and Prevent AD/ADRD; Improve Diagnosis and Prognosis; Improve Quality of Life ???????????????? (??????) - Markers and Mechanisms, Epidemiology, Longitudinal Studies, Innovative Research Stay tuned for full announcements. Start your Project Team build to increase your probability of a CDMRP award. We hope the CDMRP website shut down did not affect your R&D efforts. ???? - Connect with me to discuss CDMRP and how to increase award chances. #MILMED #CDMRP #NonDilutiveFunding #JWMRP

Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) Website Offline… ? The only post that I have seen with some detail is based on a message received by a member of the Defense Health Research Consortium (DHRC). ? DHRC is a diverse community of patient advocacy organizations, medical provider groups, veterans’ organizations, research advocacy groups, and private sector interests — all with the single purpose of protecting and preserving CDMRP funding.?? ? "All [US Army Medical Research and Development Command] MRDC websites were taken down last Wednesday [end of January 2024] as part of a mandated review against the various policy shifts expressed in the White House Executive Orders. Due to the limited nature of most of the command websites, many have come back online. The breadth and depth of the CDMRP website (upwards of 8-10k elements), were flagged against DEIA individual and collective keyword searches, and then had to be manually validated. We are working hard to get the site cleared for release. Concurrently, policy shifts also triggered an automated and then manual review of all our active grants, as well. ? CDMRP remains in a very good position. However, the processes have required considerable time to get to completion. ? We are hopeful all will be back to normal next week." ? Unfortunately, the CDMRP site closure has lasted more than a couple weeks. I have received many calls/questions about CDMRP status and the possible impact of this review. So, I am curious. How has this mandated review impacted medical R&D for your company, university, or foundation? ? Please comment. ? #CDMRP #ResearchFunding #MilitaryMedicine #DHRC

Are you developing dual-use medical technology that can address critical military medical needs and capability gaps? Let's connect in the Bullpen during #JPM2025 from January 12-16 in San Francisco to discuss. The US Army Medical R&D Command (#MRDC) and the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (#MTEC) are seeking innovative dual-use technologies, such as: - Prophylactic to Prevent Infection in Battlefield Wounds - Pathogen Agnostic Countermeasures for Sepsis Treatment - Antivirals for Endemic and Emerging Infectious Diseases - Prevention of Endemic Diarrheal Diseases - Knowledge Product Solutions for Wound Infection Prevention - Musculoskeletal Injury Solutions - Quick Sterilant for Stainless Steel Medical Instruments - Sensory Systems Advancements - Intracranial Pressure Monitor - Precision Nutrition Development - Vector-Based Surveillance Interested in discussing non-dilutive funding such as MTECs for your dual-use tech? Let's connect at the JPM 2025 conference! We can meet at the Golden Gate Yacht Club or at the Hilton from January 13-15, 2025. MILMED Connect, an MTEC M-Corps service provider, can assist with your MTEC application as a Project Team member. The due date for MTEC members to submit an enhanced white paper application is February 10, 2025. Don't miss this opportunity to contribute to military and civilian healthcare advancements. Know of dual-use medical tech companies? Share this post, DM me, or connect with Eric H. Hanson MD, MPH to schedule a meeting. Let's explore how dual-medical tech can address critical challenges. #Bullpen #MILMED #DualUseTech #MTEC #JPM2025

I am excited to be an Assistant Coach at Bullpen for JPM Healthcare 2025! Thank you again to Christiaan Engstrom and the entire Bullpen team for making this opportunity possible at an incredible venue…Golden Gate Yacht Club. ? Additionally, I want to extend my gratitude to Matt Gray and the amazing team at Founder OS for their exceptional work in guiding the 2025 release at JPM of our latest innovation, the MILMED Connect R&D Dashboard to assist MedTech, Biotech, and Pharma companies. Your guidance has been invaluable. ? Looking forward to an exciting 2025 ahead! ? #Bullpen #MedTech #Biotech #MILMED #FounderOS

If you're a small/medium-sized MedTech/Biopharma, consider an RFI response to 21st Century Cures Act/Cures 2.0. Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Larry Bucshon MD (R-IN) released a letter requesting stakeholder input on the progress of the Cures 2.0 Act, legislation that seeks to continue the efforts of the 21st Century Cures Act to promote innovation in biomedical research and access to health care. Representatives DeGette and Bucshon, specifically seek your input on key questions: ??. Do the policies included in Cures 2.0 that have advanced through legislation or executive action meet the needs that the original Cures 2.0 bill aimed to address? ??. What elements might be missing that are essential for further progress? ??. What additional reforms, support mechanisms, or incentives are needed to enhance or improve the effectiveness of the steps already taken, including any structural reform to agencies, offices, or programs involved? I've drafted my response today and I urge you to let your voice be heard. Thank you to MILMED Fellow Paloma Greenwald RN, BSN, MA for sending me this information!