Bioengineering incubator. Dr. Yock, a cardiologist, founded Biodesign eight years ago to cultivate innovations and "technology transfer" in the areas of engineering and medicine to improve healthcare. Himself a serial entrepreneur, Dr. York's own engineering contributions include the Rapid Exchange™ balloon angioplasty system, and a Doppler-guided tool called theSmart Needle™. Biodesign is a part of Bio-X, Stanford's interdisciplinary research program. It accepts ten fellows each year, from Stanford's engineering, medical and business schools. The program begins with an innovation boot camp, and fellows spend next several weeks in area hospitals to identify "new needs." Divided into teams, the rest of the year is devoted to developing solutions, and business models to support them. Venture capitalists play a vetting function at the end, and typically one or two fellows receive funding to take their concepts to market. Examples: HourGlass (obesity) and Spiracur, which addresses ulcers in diabetes patients and has recently raised $20 mllion in venture funding. (KPCB.)  Dr. Paul Yock is the Martha Meier Weiland Professor of Medicine and Mechanical Engineering (by courtesy) and holds a courtesy appointment on Operations, Information and Technology in the Stanford School of Business.

In 2004: "We are, I think, being hit over the head with the point that there is a fusion now going on between the mechanical aspects of medical device design and the biochemical and biologic aspects of medical device design."