By Ogan Gurel MD. You can email Dr. Gurel at gurel@aesisgroup.com and view his blog at http://blog.aesisgroup.com/.

Just posted on the internet is an informative and wide-ranging InTimeTV.com video interview of Dr. Ogan Gurel - “Conversations in Biotechnology” touching upon a number of topics including biotechnology, convergent medical technologies, medical devices, telemedicine, smart devices, drug/device safety, the chief partnership officer idea, FDA reform, personalized medicine, the life sciences accelerator, and medical nanotechnology.

Click here to view the video.

Introduction

The host Dr. Jonas Moses introduces himself and me where I describe some of my interests and background in the business and investment sides of the life sciences and healthcare.

Biotechnology & Convergent Medical Technologies

The discussion continues to a working definition of biotechnology including its relationship to convergent medical technologies and medical devices

Technology Convergence

We talk at a fair bit of length about technology convergence – both in communications as well as in the life sciences. What it is and why is it important. The discussion also touches upon, in this regard, telemedicine and smart devices.

Drug/Device Safety

The video then moves onto a discussion of the hot topic of drug (and device) safety with reference to the Vioxx, Avandia and other controversies. We also reference here (and later in the interview) aspects of FDA reform including the proposals to strengthen its safety regulatory authority while pulling back on the efficacy requirement.

Partnerships and the Chief Partnership Officer idea

We discussed how partnerships are important to building business value and highlighted the example of Microsoft both in general with its reseller model but also in particular with respect to its first IBM partnership deal. Bill Gates was acting as “Chief Partnership Officer” more than anything else and that topic is discussed in more detail.

Personalized medicine

The growing area of personalized medicine is discussed along with its definition and implications.

Life Sciences Accelerator

Bringing next-generation technologies to quickly to market (and the benefit of patients) is very important and we discussed the life sciences accelerator idea at a high level.

Medical Nanotechnology

As the interview closed with finished with medical nanotechnology and other miscellaneous topics.

If you find this of interest, click here for the video. It’s just under an hour long, has a few public service message breaks (which I actually think are quite entertaining in their own right and useful informationally).

If for any reason the video does not work click on the link below for an audio version.

Dr. Ogan Gurel is chairman of the Aesis Group which provides consulting services in the life sciences and healthcare sectors to clients that have included biopharma/medtech companies, hospitals & health systems, private equity firms, venture capital groups and hedge funds. Presently, he is also a Board Director at FireFly Medical and Chief Medical Officer at BlueBob Analytics. As a healthcare technology expert and futurist, he has been a frequent conference speaker worldwide, addressing the issue of emerging technologies and their impact on the future of healthcare with particular focus on convergent medical technologies including medical nanotechnology. Ogan’s commentaries have been published in prominent publications, including the Wall Street Journal and he is a regular columnist for Midwestbusiness.com, a juror for the 2007/2008 Medical Design Excellence Awards and an Adjunct Associate Professor of bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ogan’s scientific work has been published in the peer-reviewed literature and has received numerous awards; he has taught at several universities including the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, Roosevelt University, Princeton University and Harvard Medical School. For a more complete bio, you can download a PDF or click here. You can email Ogan by clicking here and view his blog at http://blog.aesisgroup.com/.