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"Our PI training, designed for physicians, is 16 hours, and our clinical research fundamentals training is 228 hours. We do a lot of hands-on in-classroom didactics where we can practice before we play," says Chang. Physician training also includes personalized, one-on-one guidance. "We give them the training, but then also guidance on how to be successful in acquiring their fi rst trial and beyond." As Chang sees it, "We are changing the industry by elevating the individuals getting into [clinical trials], whether it's the physicians overseeing the studies, the principal investigators, the coordinators running the protocols or the data management team or regulatory teams — whomever it is, we can elevate them all. This translates to an acceleration in the speed and the quality with which these trials are run." Classes at Clinical Research Fastrack are led by professionals in the industry, and students are provided with site-level exposure through externships that help them prepare for their new roles. "It's not enough to just have knowledge in this world," Chang says. "If you can't translate it or can't put it into action, then it's not worth much." LOWERING BARRIERS TO ENTRY This is exactly the kind of innovative thinking that Dr. Ali and his partners had in mind when they started MedtoMarket. "PRN and Clinical Research Fastrack are in the same area as us — we each aim to do it better, faster, smarter. They have their expertise, we have ours. We work well together." MedtoMarket is quickly becoming the place to be to get up and running faster for small healthcare/medical startups. It aligns well with the mission of the 21st Century Cures Act, a 2016 law designed to speed the process of medical product development so these advances and innovations to patients can be more effi ciently provided to patients who need them. MedtoMarket checks all of the boxes of the Cures Act. The facilities, the ability to share ideas with like-minded innovators and the access to the right people — investors, major medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and leading names in healthcare innovation — all help lower the barriers to entry. Historica lly, most innovation in medicine has been con- trolled by academic centers. While va luable, they can a lso be plodding, laden w it h bu reaucracy that is the opposite of entrepreneurship. "It's those things t h a t h ave a lw ay s k e p t h e a l t h c a r e i n n o v a t i o n h e l d d o w n a l i t t l e bi t and made it a little bit tougher," Dr. Ali s a y s . " T h a t l o n g r out e h a s a lw ay s been like that, and people have just accepted that it's going to take seven to eight years to get something out there to market. We want to disrupt that and say, 'you know what, we think we can do it faster, and we think we can do it smarter and we think we can do it more economically.'" That 's not to say that Dr. A li dismisses the role of aca- demic research. " We look at our cause as a very nice, synergistic partner- ship with the medical school and the academic center and the hospitals," he says. "As a matter of fact, they've all visited, they all love it, and they're all trying to fi gure out ways to bring their physicians and nurses and students here. We look at ourselves almost like the third leg to the barstool. You've got your academic centers, your hospitals and then you have us, which allows you to go off into a neutral off -campus site." As far as he knows, there is no other facility like MedtoMarket anywhere in the world. So, what makes Austin a successful location? "It does take a special city to be able to support something such as ours," Dr. Ali says. "No. 1, you have to have a vibrant city where you have an incredible amount of intelligent people. I go to my kid's school, and I can't tell you how many parents are PhDs or doctors. It's just an incredible base of educated people." To learn more about these innovative businesses, please visit their websites at medtomarket.com, theprnllc.com and clinicalresearchfastrack.com. n Theater and training bay at MedtoMarket Paramount Research Network's Behind the Science podcast is available on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts and Spotify. M D N E W S . C O M /// M D N E W S S A N A N T O N I O ■ 2 0 2 0 0 9