Getting new medicines, medical devices, treatments and other patient-oriented innovations to market sooner is one of the core missions of a rapidly expanding global group of physicians with its roots in Denver.
The Society of Physician Entrepreneurs, founded in 2008 by a professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, has now surpassed 2,100 members and has 16 chapters worldwide.
The group, which uses the acronym SoPE, provides real-world acumen, networking and resources designed to help doctors speed their biomedical and healthcare concepts and products from idea to use at the patient bedside. SoPE is adding between 150 and 200 new members monthly.
[Twitter: SoPEOfficial]
Navigating the regulatory, finance, manufacturing, legal and administrative aspects of bringing any modern health-related innovation to market is a difficult challenge for even seasoned entrepreneurs and investors. Now picture a dedicated, over-worked physician who has a great idea – but limited time and even more limited experience in business and law.
Too many good health care innovations never move forward because the physicians who conceive them simply don’t have the necessary skill set or connections. That is where SoPE steps in, offering doctors and other providers the expertise, services and networking required to succeed.
In addition to physicians and other healthcare providers, SoPE members include professionals who can help doctors on their entrepreneurial journey. These include experts on funding/venture capital; IT professionals; regulatory and legal consultants; drug representatives; and even those offering general business services, such as real estate, accounting, software and human resources.
SoPE is the brainchild of Denver’s Dr. Arlen D. Meyers and a group of other doctors who huddled at a medical conference four years ago and realized that the culture of medical schools, community hospitals and medical societies was not conducive to nurturing market-ready healthcare innovations.
Dr. Meyers is a professor of otolaryngology (ears, nose, throat, and head and neck) at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He earned an MBA from the University of Colorado at Denver and is a successful physician entrepreneur, himself.
“When you strip away all of the other stuff, the issue that we are trying to address is the culture and values of medicine versus the culture and values of business,” explains Dr. Meyer in an interview. “I’m trying to get people to understand that those two [cultures] are no irreconcilable.”
A good example, Dr. Meyers notes, is intellectual property and how it is perceived in the fields of business and medicine.
“Doctors and scientists are trained and acculturated to share knowledge. Industry is about protecting information. One is publish or perish. One is protect and patent,” he observes.
What Dr. Meyers and his SoPE colleagues have come to understand is that “there has to be a way to a middle ground” in order for patients to receive the maximum benefit.
A similar clash of cultures arises in the area of the ethics of medicine versus the ethics of business. Many people are taught to see those two arenas as mutually exclusive. But Dr. Meyers says the evidence is quite the contrary.
Just as the vast majority of physicians are called to the profession in order to serve their patients, Dr. Meyers says physician entrepreneurs seek to harness the powers of the capital and competitive marketplace to do likewise in the further service of their patients. He dubs the process, “compassionate capitalism.”
The need for SoPE and its programs can be amply demonstrated by looking at the numbers, according to Dr. Meyers.
While the great bulk of headline-grabbing entrepreneurial medical innovations are launched by medical professionals affiliated with research-oriented medical schools – representing roughly 4% of self-employed doctors, Dr. Meyers notes that the vast number of self-employed doctors – the other 96% – do not work within the university-research ecosystem – and hence, their ideas are seldom developed.
“These [96%] are in the trenches. They see things that need to be done. Every one of them has great ideas,” Dr. Meyers says. “The big problem is they don’t know what to do with it.”
As SoPE expands and reaches larger sectors of the medical and health professions, the group anticipates that it will become the global role model of how entrepreneurs in medicine can not only produce better healthcare solutions, but also lower the overall cost of providing healthcare.
“SoPE is a means to an end. What we’re trying to do is eventually make it so that a patient can have access to quality care at an affordable price, anywhere in the world. That is the Holy Grail,” he adds.
Physicians and other members have a full buffet of SoPE resources available to them, ranging from formal courses on entrepreneurship, regulation and financing, to face-to-face and online networking opportunities.
The Colorado Chapter of SoPE hosts monthly speakers and a networking breakfast, currently held at the Denver Medical Society Building at 1850 Williams Street in Denver. (Attendance has grown so large that the local chapter may have to relocate its meetings in the near future.)
At the February 2nd Colorado SoPE meeting, Clay Anselmo, CEO of Wheat Ridge-based Reglera, provided an update of the hurdles facing those health entrepreneurs who must deal with the Food and Drug Administration and other regulators.
“Twenty years ago, it was a different game,” Anselmo said of the regulatory process in the United States, adding that regardless of how good a device or product is on its own merits, it may never reach the market if physician-entrepreneurs fail to correctly prepare for and anticipate the regulatory challenges.
In fact, long before a product is ready to go before the FDA, Anselmo explained, it could wilt for lack of outside funding – unless a physician-entrepreneur can show potential investors that all the of the groundwork has been laid in advance to win smooth FDA approval.
[A 35-minute edited audio of Anselmo’s remarks at SoPE is available from Medical BackBone Radio here.]
Two SoPE events are scheduled for March 2012:
§ Monthly breakfast featuring Lynne VanArsdale, discussing “New Product Development.” VanArsdale is director of health information technology at Colorado Business Group on Health Research. Thursday, March 1, from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., including networking and breakfast. No fee.
§ A seminar titled, “Are You Built to be a Bioentrepreneur,” presented by Herb Rubenstein, an attorney and CEO of The LEEGH (Leadership in Education, Energy, Environment, Governance and Health). Saturday, March 3, from 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., including breakfast and networking. Fee is $25 for members; $35 for non-members.
Those planning to attend should RSVP to info@denvermedsociety.org.
[Dr. Arlen D. Meyers, president and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs, is a guest this week on Business Unconventional, the one-hour business newsmagazine airing on 710 KNUS AM in Denver. The program is broadcast on Sunday from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and is also available as a live stream from www.710KNUS.com. More information is available at www.BusinessUnconventional.com.
An extended audio interview with Dr. Meyers can also be found on Medical BackBone Radio. Medical BackBone Radio is produced under the guidance of Dr. Ben Guiot, chairman of the Medical BackBone Board of Advisors.]
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