 |
|
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
You probably know this charismatic, blue jean-clad inventor best for his famous Segway Human Transporter or the iBOT stair-climbing mobility device. But what you may not know is that he is responsible for the development of medical devices so ingenious that they have changed the practice of medicine and enhanced the lives of millions around the world. With more than 440 U.S. and foreign patents to his name, Dean Kamen is truly one of the most prolific inventors of our time. Inventor In-depth:He’s been called an “inventrepreneur,” a guy who has a gift for inventing and a mind for business. Kamen began creating medical devises in high school for his brother, now a prominent pediatric oncologist, who complained bitterly about the lack of medical equipment available to do his work. “My brother (an MD and PhD in pharmacology) was inventing drugs for babies with cancer and he needed some way to administer the drugs in very small and accurate doses. So, I would build stuff for him in the basement and it turned into a business,” said Kamen. “But we realized that while the market for pediatric specialty devices was very small, the pump could also be worn by adults to deliver things like insulin and that was a substantial market,” he said. In 1976, Kamen, a college drop out, started AutoSyringe, Inc. to manufacture and market his infusion pumps, which gained wide acceptance in the medical community. He sold the company to Baxter International Corporation at the age of 30.
Soon after, Kamen started DEKA Research & Development Corporation to produce his inventions and to provide research and development services for major corporate clients such as Baxter and Johnson & Johnson. “It took me years to build a company I could live off of,” said Kamen to the Licensing Executives Society Annual Meeting in 2005. “But once I found a big enough market for my inventions, the corporate giants found me. I vowed to myself then that I would go back to doing what was fun for me. So I focus on new solutions and finding ways to apply technology and then, rather than spending five years figuring out how to develop, manufacture and distribute my product quickly to all the people who need it, I partner with the giants and let them do what they do well while I focus on what I do well,” he said. In the mid-1990s, Kamen and his staff at DEKA transformed a traditional dialysis machine into a briefcase-sized portable unit for Baxter International. In an article by Wired.com, former Chair of Baxter Vernon Loucks said, “We didn’t believe it could be done and now it’s all over the world. Dean is the brightest guy I’ve ever met in this business, bar none.” There is no doubt that Dean Kamen is enjoying the fruits of his creative labor. He lives in a custom built, hexagonal-shaped home (he calls Westwind) in the hills of Bedford, New Hampshire. He also has a collection of antique inventions that includes a Chinese south-pointing chariot, which was a gift to Kamen built by the engineers at DEKA. “I collect technology -- some of it very old – because if you collect old technology you get to understand what the issues and problems of the time were and what really mattered to them,” said Kamen. Kamen arrives at work in his personal helicopter and enjoys the company of celebrities and U.S. presidents at his dinner parties. But like most serial inventors, he is not content to leave his imprint on the world simply through his inventions. He is on a mission to leave his imprint on the human consciousness as well. In the early 1990s, he started a program called FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) to ignite a love of science and technology among our nation’s youth. This hugely successful program partners professional engineers from U.S. corporations with high school students across the country for an annual robotics competition. Kamen is also working to refine the age-old Stirling engine in hopes that it can be made into a portable and inexpensive generator for bringing electricity to developing nations around the world. Kamen has said that he invents things that he feels simply ought to exist. He is an intense man whose enthusiasm and passion for the creative process are infectious. He is truly living every inventor’s dream. The Licensing Foundation has honored him for his enduring contributions to the field of Intellectual Property. Kamen is clear about the important role licensing has played in the protection of his creative works. He is proof that the creative process is alive and well. And, it is only through respecting the rights of inventors like him that the process can continue to thrive and bring benefit to all. Sources for this biography and links for learning more about Dean Kamen:Source: Need content.
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
