We need to invest in BEETCOINs

Biomedical and health entrepreneurship continues to expand around the world. Driven by global pressures to optimize the allocation of scarce resources, life science bioentrepreneurs are creating innovative products, platforms, service and systems that deliver more value. As a result, the demand for biomedical and health professional entrepreneurial talent has increased and biomedical and health innovation?and entrepreneurship education and training (BEET) programs are growing to fill the gap.

In addtion, many medical schools are integrating innovation and entrepreneurship into their reformed curricula.

Here is what I learned teaching entrepreneurship to 1st year medical students at the University of Colorado.

Here are the 3 entrepreneurship student personas

Here are some trends in medical school innovation and entrepreneurship education programs.

Since the Industrial Revolution and the transition to the Information Age, innovation models have evolved in 3 distinct phases.

1. First Wave: Clusters
2. Second Wave: Open Innovation
3. Third Wave: Participatory Innovation

Now we should be investing in BEETCOINs-Bioentrepreneurship Education and Training Collaborative Innovation Networks.

Mining such BEETCOINS would help us:

1. Share best practices
2. Experiment with different models
3. Inform a research agenda
4. Create faculty development programs
5. Identify VAST business models
6. Contribute to the development of entrepreneurial medical schools
7. Facilitate premed-medical school-postgraduate training-clinical practice integration
8. Offer non-clinical career opportunitities
9. Build exit ramps
10. Identify and share funding opportunities
11. Train medical school edupreneurs
12. Create leaderpreneurship development academies
13. Screen those who should not be physician entrepreneurs

BEETCOINs are a wise investment. They are also ecofriendly.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurship

Updated 3/2023