Our alumni society, the LeRoy C. Abbott Society, has been an essential force in educating our residents through our annual conference, social events and more. We continue to cultivate relationships between practicing community physician graduates and the Department.

Holding events at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons as well as our annual co-sponsored conference, the Abbott society is an integral part of our Department.

Annual Inman-Abbott Conference

The program brings together members of the Abbott Society and faculty and residents of the UCSF Department of Orthopaedics in a collaborative presentation of recent advances and updates. Our schedule of presentations will address current clinical and research topics that affect clinician decision making in day-to-day practice.

The LeRoy C. Abbott Society and UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery’s 58th Annual LeRoy C. Abbott Scientific Program and 34th Annual Verne T. Inman Lectureship is scheduled for May 10 & 11, 2013. The LeRoy C. Abbott Visiting Professor is Dr. Jesse Jupiter and the Verne T. Inman Lecturer is Dr. David Mauerhan.  .

Proposed Research Program

Anticipated Center projects will investigate/incorporate:

1. Healthcare databases that include cost and outcomes
2. New technologies that quantify treatment value
3. Synthetic bio- and nano-materials
4. Novel medical devices/implants
5. Tissue engineering
6. Advanced imaging
7. Computational modeling

Please join us for the CDMI Planning Meeting that will be held at the University of California, San Francisco on July 22 and 23.  The objectives are for the National Science Foundation and CDMI Directors to further describe the Center to potential industry partners and demonstrate proposed Center operations via interactive sessions.  Those attending will be involved in refining the CDMI’s vision, agreeing on research thrusts, and selecting specific research proposals for Center funding.  These discussions will be facilitated by the National Science Foundation I/UCRC Director and University administration.

Interested organizations can join the CDMI by becoming part of the Board.

The Board advises the CDMI’s management on all aspects of the Center: from research project selection, execution, and evaluation, to the Center’s long-term strategic planning. This extensive industrial involvement in both the research planning and review bridges a gap that traditionally keeps US industry from capitalizing fully and quickly on the fruits of research at US universities.

Benefits of Joining the CDMI

As designed, the CDMI is not meant to replace traditional sponsored research programs, but rather supplement and enhance these via unique Center opportunities for Industry Partners to:

• Establish relationships with a broad array of world-class scientist
• Gain access to novel instrumentation and technologies
• Learn about the highest and/or most variable medical costs from payors
• Determine what are the most important outcome measures in terms of treatment value and patient satisfaction from payors
• Network with customers, competitors, and payors
• Participate in open innovation, with opportunity to guide pre-competitive research
• Leverage research funding with low overhead (10%)
• Have pre-publication access to diverse portfolio of research projects
• Have access to all IP developed within the center via non-exclusive licenses
• Identify new enhancement project opportunities with individual faculty that are conducted outside the Center

University of California, San Francisco
Orthopaedic Bioengineering Laboratory
513 Parnassus Avenue, 11th Floor, S-1157
San Francisco, CA  94143-0514
(415) 476-7881
jeffrey.lotz@ucsf.edu

Co-Director
Dr. Vijay Goel

University of Toledo
2801 West Bancroft Street
5046 Nitschke Hall
Toledo, OH 43606-3390
(419) 530-8035
Vijay.Goel@utoledo.edu

Site Director
Dr. Kevin Healy

University of California Berkeley
Department of Bioengineering
370 Hearst Memorial Mining Building #1760
Berkeley, CA  94720-1760
(510) 642-9360
kehealy@berkeley.edu

Mission and Rationale

Current debates and policies surrounding healthcare create an acute conflict between the need for medical cost containment and our nation’s commitment to foster technological innovations that improve human health. Approximately 40-50% of healthcare expenses can be traced to the adoption of new technologies or the intensified use of old ones. Consequently, the control of technology is arguably the most important single factor for managing healthcare costs. As a result, third-party payors are giving ever-increasing attention to medical devices in their coverage decisions, with a growing focus on authorizing the use of medical technology only on those patient segments where it truly adds value. Unfortunately, without confidence that a new medical technology will be reimbursed, it is increasingly difficult to justify the investment required to bring that technology to market. This creates a significant deterrent to innovation, and places America’s leadership position in medical technology in jeopardy. More importantly, these trends negatively impact the opportunities for patients to experience the life-enhancing benefits of technologies that are never developed into products that can be brought to market. Therefore, there is a pressing societal need to create more value from the money spent on medical technology, and thereby manage healthcare cost increases without sacrificing the benefits of innovation.

The basis for investing in new medical technologies now requires weighing evidence for how the benefits might compare to the costs.  Success in this regard not only requires better data on where medical costs are highest and/or most variable, but also more sensitive measures of treatment value and patient satisfaction.

It is the CDMI mission to have experts in healthcare economics, biomedical science and clinical medicine collaborate to analyze data to form new technology development that is rationally targeted at value creation and cost reduction, thereby enhancing probabilities for eventual regulatory approval, payor reimbursement, and clinical adoption.

A Proposed National Science Foundation Industry/ University Cooperative Research Center

The Center for Disruptive Musculoskeletal Innovations represents an exciting and novel integration of healthcare economics, biomedical science and clinical medicine. University faculty and industry partners will be able to collaborate to target novel technologies that will decrease healthcare costs and improve the management of patients with musculoskeletal disease.