Medventions Internship Program

Medventions team

Winter 2022 Recruitment (January - April)

Job Title: Medventions Intern/Medical Technology Innovation Intern (Several openings)

Overview

The Medventions Internship Program is a fast-paced, project-based training structure for students and recent graduates with a passion for entrepreneurship and a commitment to improving health care for patients around the world through technology innovation and commercialization.

Over four months, multidisciplinary teams of aspiring medtech entrepreneurs work closely with academic and industry advisors to identify and validate clinical needs, develop and prototype new health technology solutions, and become well-positioned to plan for their commercialization and implementation into patient care.

The physician-led internships are designed to provide participants with an immersive, hands-on training experience to understanding rules of the road of medtech innovation. Participants will become familiar with the fundamental aspects from developing an idea to commercial success, gaining knowledge of the role of intellectual property management, regulatory pathways, reimbursement mechanisms, funding models and business strategy in the successful commercialization of new medical device technologies.

Internships are considered a jump-start for clinicians, engineers, researchers and business graduates who are interested in pursuing a career in medical technology entrepreneurship. Participants can apply their talent to build their own medtech start-ups, lead translational research projects and become savvy experts in various aspects of the medtech innovation process.

Position Summary

The Medventions Program currently has several openings for temporary full-time Medventions interns. Successful candidates will work in a team setting and will be assigned a strategic focus in a medical practice area, which will guide the innovation process and chart the path and itinerary for the internship. The strategic focus of the winter 2022 program will be in the areas of cardiovascular interventions and the utilization of artificial intelligence and big data in the fields of interventional cardiology and minimally invasive cardiac procedures.

Position Responsibilities & Essential Functions:

The configuration of the Medventions Internship Program allows interns to get involved in clinical immersion, identification and verification of clinical problems, ideation, and the making of an early proof of concept or a prototype for a new medical device. The four-month internship is divided into three main phases with the following structure:

Phase 1: Clinical needs identification, verification and assessment
Phase 2: Ideation and brainstorming
Phase 3: Concept development, product design and prototyping

Generally, interns are required to:

If circumstances allow, perform on-site or remote clinical observations, perform qualitative research, and conduct interviews with clinicians, researchers, scientists and key opinion leaders in the field.
Identify and document clinical challenges that impose a significant clinical burden.
Complete thorough analysis for the identified problems; this includes a stakeholder and market analysis, and a study for the disease state fundamentals and treatment options. Interns will also research and consult with faculty and perform literature and patent searches.
Develop a medical solution concept that addresses the clinical need and problem identified.
Translate the final concept into a prototype — the goal is to use prototyping to create design requirements and generate high-level specifications related to technical feasibility for the innovation under consideration.

Important Notice: COVID-19 and Sunnybrook Medventions

With threats of resurgence and possible future waves of COVID-19, the research and clinical environments at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre are continuously changing with possibilities to limit on-site research activities to critical COVID-19 related research or other time-sensitive critical projects and clinical work. As such, the recruitment decisions and nature of the internship program including access to the clinical environment and the ability to conduct direct observations will be contingent upon the Sunnybrook Research Institute policies in place and level of concern at the time of the internship.

Skills and Qualifications

The ideal candidate is an individual with a strong entrepreneurial drive, passion for health-care innovation and a desire to build something with a strong positive impact, and demonstrated potential for creativity, invention, leadership and business development. We believe the following qualifications will help interns become successful:

Entrepreneurial mindset — action and detail oriented, analytical, sees problems as opportunities, comfortable with ambiguity, self-learner with strong business acumen
Leadership and determination — ability to turn ideas into action; creativity, innovation and risk-taking, as well as the ability and determination to plan and manage projects independently beyond the four-month training block
Teamwork — Proven ability to work effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team including skills in imparting or exchanging information with others
Problem-solving skills — Demonstrated excellence in finding solutions to difficult or complex problems, decision making, communication and critical thinking
Motivation and interest — Strong interest in innovation and change across health care, design thinking, entrepreneurship and business modelling
Proven excellent interpersonal skills and effective oral/written communication skills
Background/experience in medicine, engineering and/or business is an asset
Given the big data and AI focus of the winter 2022 internship program, candidates with skills in data science, data analytics, machine learning, software engineering and artificial intelligence are encouraged to apply

N.B. Graduate students who are seeking a research internship or practicum as part of their academic program are encouraged to apply. Please list your program requirements in your cover letter.

How to Apply

Please address your resume and one-page cover letter to Dr. Bradley Strauss and submit them to Dr. Ahmed Nasef at ahmed.nasef@sunnybrook.ca. In your cover letter, please include an answer to the following question (do not exceed 1 page): Why is medical technology innovation an important part of your career pathway and what do you hope to achieve from the Medventions Internship Program? Also, please include a copy of your undergraduate transcript (and graduate transcript if applicable), and the names of two references who have agreed to be contacted.

Please put “Medventions Intern Position” in the subject line of your email and attach your cover letter, resume and transcript in a single PDF file named in the following format "YourName_MIPApplication.pdf."

Deadline for applications is end of day November 30, 2021. We thank all applicants for their interest but only candidates short-listed for interview will be contacted. Applicants must be legally eligible to work in Canada. Compensation commensurate with experience.

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre is committed to providing accessible employment practices that are in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). If you require accommodation for disability during any stage of the recruitment process, please indicate this in your cover letter.