6th Annual Innovation Forum
Dr. John Simpson was our USJMF keynote speaker in Tokyo and Shizuoka in 2018 and 2019. Dr. Simpson, with a track record of more than a half dozen start-ups, is most well-known as the father of over-the-wire angioplasty developed through his first company, Advanced Cardiovascular Systems Inc. (ACS), which was acquired by Guidant Corp. In 2019 the focus of his talk was his role in the evolution of the medical device industry and his view of the future of medical device innovation.
4th Annual Innovation Forum—Okinawa
The Innovation Forum was hosted by Okinawa Prefecture. The focus of this year’s event was “Growing Asia’s Medical Device Industry through Innovation and International Collaboration”.
The Keynote speaker was Peter J. Fitzgerald, MD, Ph.D., Co-founder, Managing Partner, Triventures Menlo Park CA and Herzliya, Israel, Professor Emeritus, Medicine & Engineering, Director, Center for CV Technology, Stanford University Medical Center.
This event featured their first “business matching” meeting led by Kirk Zeller and David Smith. This meeting allowed attendees to view compelling new technologies and understand the environment for innovation and partnering.
3rd Annual Innovation Forum—Hiroshima
The Innovation Forum was hosted by Hiroshima Prefecture. Over 530 attendees were present. In a series of discussions and presentation including Q&A, this event discussed and gave examples of a means to grow the medical device industry in Japan. The presenters identified the barriers that exist and suggested various means of overcoming such barriers.
The Conference discussed how the Silicon Valley cluster concept has evolved to become the model for disruptive and Incremental innovation through a combination of incubators/accelerators, universities, industry, support infrastructure, financing, mentors/consultants/advisers, and mobile labor force, within the Silicon Valley framework of regulation, market forces, industry practices, and, risk-taking culture. The emphasis throughout was on US-Japan ecosystem collaboration.
The Executive Symposium was held in Tokyo at the headquarters of JETRO and hosted by JETRO and the US Embassy Department of Commerce. Over 150 executives attended. After a welcome by JETRO and the US Embassy, a series of presentations, panels, and discussions were held on medical device innovation and commercialization, explore disruptive innovation, and with concrete and successful examples, discuss various models of funding and collaboration.
1st Annual Innovation Forum
Tohoku University in Sendai hosted 350 attendees at the First Annual Innovation Forum.
A senior management Executive Symposium, held at the US Embassy in Tokyo, hosted 80 attendees. The US executive members of USJMF attending had an opportunity to personally meet 60 senior executives from some of the largest medical device companies in Japan.
