COMM 486O - Innovation Consulting (Biomedical)

Vancouver is a world-leading hub for biomedical and life sciences innovation, and COMM 4860 will support graduates pursuing career opportunities in this field. This class will provide an exponential learning environment where students will work as business and innovation consultants alongside the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering (BMEG), the Capstone teams and real med tech start-ups.  

This course will provide students with real-world start-up consulting experience, a basic technical literacy in some of the broader technologies and exposure to practicing professionals from various career paths in the industry. In addition, students will interact with a range of Biomedical Engineering students who could become future co-founders. 

The course is scheduled in one 3-hour block per week, of which one hour overlaps with BMEG student class time. A flipped classroom approach will be deployed with pre-readings and videos designed and structured to enable students to engage in classroom activities rapidly. In addition, guest speakers will highlight different career tracks for business people in the industry and try to build some basic technical literacy with essential concepts from biomedical engineering. 

Learning objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

• Analyze, evaluate and prioritize customer and stakeholder needs.
• Research, analyze and interpret the competitive landscape to identify gaps in the market.
• Develop a functional health industry literacy and translational capability and apply to business solutions.
• Interpret regulatory policy and IP commercialization principles to commercialization recommendations.
• Contribute to a diverse team with technical colleagues, industry, clinical and academic sponsors to collaborate on improved solutions.
• Undertake financial analysis and modelling to recommend cost and revenue structures.
• Analyze the buying process and recommend a go-to-market approach (e.g. licensing versus company creation).
• Identify and map the logistical workflow involved in getting an innovation adopted, including channel partners.
• Assess and evaluate the resourcing of project implementation, enabling recommendations on implementation.
• Reflect on the contributions of all team members, including oneself, individually and in combination. Identify strengths and areas for improvement.

Prerequisite: COMM/COMR 280 recommended.