Stanford Appoints New Head of Byers Center for Biodesign

Stanford University Announced today that it is appointing Josh Makower to lead its twenty year old medical device and health technology innovation center the Byers Center for Biodesign.  The Byers Center has spawned over 35 companies.

No stranger to Stanford’s Center, Makower’s work with Byers dates back to its beginnings when he joined as co-founder to develop course curricula and then to become a thought leader on how to innovate based on a need-driven approach known as the “biodesign innovation process”.

Makower’s time off from Stanford had much to do with innovating in the private sector as both entrepreneur and venture capitalist at NEA. He has over 300 patents to his name and one of his big hits was urology company Neotract (the company behind the successful Urolift device) which was sold to Teleflex for up to $1.1 billion in 2017.

Looking ahead, Makower will be focused on patient access, innovations that are data-driven and economically viable. He will also seek to address questions of racial and gender equity in medicine and innovation. He will remain Chairman of his medical device incubator ExploraMed.