Thursday Lecture Series: Biomedical Research and Technology: The Weil Institute and the Commercialization of Critical Care Technology

Death from critical illness and injury such as those from trauma, sepsis, traumatic brain injury, cardiac arrest and others exceed that of cancer and heart disease. Due to the complexity of these diseases, little progress has been made in developing technologies that could improve outcome. The Weil Institute is a transdisciplinary research enterprise composed of clinicians, basic scientists, and engineers dedicated to researching solutions combined with entrepreneurship that accelerate the potential for moving new discoveries to the bedside. Examples of successes, failures, and barriers will be presented and discussed.

Dr. Ward is Professor of Emergency Medicine and Biomedical Engineering and the Executive Director of the Max Harry Weil Institute for Critical Care Research and Innovation at the University of Michigan. His passion is in creating programs which encourage true integration across the disciplines combined with entrepreneurship that accelerate discovery to true patient impact. Dr. Ward is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and the recipient of the University of Michigan’s Distinguished Innovator and Commercialization award. He is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corp with combat deployments to Afghanistan and Syria.