P1503 - ACG Summer Scholars Program and fastPACE: Results of a Program Designed to Develop the Next Generation of Gastroenterology Physician Innovators

Award: Presidential Poster Award

Marquise Soto, BA¹, Eric Shah, MD, MBA, FACG^2
1Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY; ²University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Introduction: There is an unmet need to train physician innovators that will mature robust scientific endeavors into the next generation of medical technology. The directive of the ACG Summer Scholars Program is to enrich diversity in the gastroenterology workforce. We describe pairing with the fastPACE program to create a pathway to market by pairing gastroenterologists and scientists and provide the necessary skills to develop commercializable medical technology.

Methods: A 5-week course covered critical aspects required to translate research ideas into products on the market. Thirty physicians/scientists, including an awardee of the 2024 ACG Summer Scholars Program, enrolled in the course and the sixteen research teams were formed based on proposed projects/personnel expertise and divided into three tracks: devices/diagnostics, therapeutics, and health information technology/software. Didactic topics covered opportunity sizing, monetization strategy, intellectual property, competitive advantage, and regulatory. Project teams conducted qualitative interviews with potential end-users throughout the course and leveraged knowledge gained to create and test pitch decks within the course tracks for constructive feedback. The final output of the course was a pitch deck to potential investors.

Results: Research teams completed the course and obtained tangible next steps for their projects. Some teams discovered through market research/competitive analysis that either a need did not exist in the market for their idea or that their idea would better fit a different need than initially identified. Other teams gathered the data and resources they needed to continue the pathway to the market. These net results of this program include 165 graduates, 249 inventions, and $155 million in direct follow-on funding.

Discussion: We demonstrate a successful model to develop the next generation of gastroenterology physician innovators.


Disclosures:


Marquise Soto, BA¹, Eric Shah, MD, MBA, FACG². P1503 - ACG Summer Scholars Program and fastPACE: Results of a Program Designed to Develop the Next Generation of Gastroenterology Physician Innovators, ACG 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting Abstracts. Philadelphia, PA: American College of Gastroenterology.