Our Inclusive AUTM Community: Hospitals and Research Institutions

Irene Abrams
AUTM Board of Directors
Vice President, Technology Development & New Ventures
Boston Children's Hospital






Surprisingly, almost 20% of AUTM members work in non-university settings: hospitals, research institutions and federal labs. In this Board Insight, I’d like to consider the meaning of AUTM’s value of inclusivity for this cohort and share some of the joys and challenges of hospital-based tech transfer. I spent the first half of my tech transfer career in universities and the second half in academic medical centers (AMCs), currently leading the tech transfer function at Boston Children’s Hospital, a Harvard-affiliated teaching hospital.
 
AUTM’s vision statement* starts with the word “inclusive.”  To me, that means we are a broad and welcoming community, open to many different types of tech transfer professionals.  Inclusivity often focuses on the critical issues of gender, race or ethnicity; but I think it can also apply to the varied types of tech transfer professionals in our midst. Based on reporting from the AUTM 2022 Licensing Survey, almost 20% of AUTM members work in hospitals, research institutions or federal labs (and an equal amount of research expenditures are booked at these institutions). In this note, I want to share what is different, unique and wonderful about practicing tech transfer in a hospital setting and encourage all of you to consider hospital tech transfer as a vibrant career option. And then ask: how can AUTM best embrace this slice of our membership?
 
The researchers and faculty members at academic medical centers (AMC) have much in common with their university colleagues. We have our heavy hitters, demanding faculty and brilliant inventors. Many of our faculty are physician-scientists, which means, when they leave my office, they often go to treat patients – testing an experimental gene therapy for a rare disease or performing heart surgery on a desperately ill infant. This leaves me in awe.  And because the inventors are often trying to solve problems they encounter in their clinical work, hospital tech transfer has a very applied bent (not unlike engineering schools). This patient-focused mission makes working through the day-to-day tech transfer challenges even more meaningful.
 
Some of you may wonder - how can you practice tech transfer in a student-free environment? Without the constant flow of students looking to start companies, hospital TTOs need different tools to bring technology out of our institutions, which leads to an enormous amount of creativity and innovation at hospital TTOS. At Boston Children’s Hospital we’ve recently launched a therapeutic and medical device accelerator, we have numerous strategic co-development partnerships with industry and venture capital, and like you, we spend a great deal of time and effort educating faculty on entrepreneurship and commercialization. We also focus on connecting our clinical mission to our commercialization mission, seeking ways to have our research positively impact our patients’ lives, such as using genomic insights from rare disease patients to identify novel disease pathways for therapeutic interventions.
 
And finally, I believe AUTM benefits when we have the hospital voice at the table when we advocate for our profession. Hospitals are often beloved institutions in their communities and connect with a different population than universities. For example, in greater New England, it is hard to find a politician, venture capitalist, captain of industry or community member who hasn’t been touched by Boston Children’s Hospital – whether they brought a child in for stitches (as I did many times) or for more complex care. When we advocate for our profession, it benefits us when our politicians understand that innovation comes from hospitals as well as universities. I saw this play out when the Board had our Hill Day in D.C. in July.  The senators and representatives from Massachusetts all have a soft spot for Boston Children’s Hospital.  And our advocacy positions land differently when they represent both the university and the hospital perspectives.
 
So as we live our AUTM value of inclusivity, let’s be sure that includes our hospital, research institution and federal lab colleagues. We have so much to add to AUTM, and we have our own unique challenges. In my time on the Board, I hope to raise awareness of hospital tech transfer and make sure everyone considers hospitals as vital members of our AUTM community.
 
* AUTM’s Vision: An inclusive and collaborative community that advances innovation
for a better world.