Commercialization of technology
From Startup to Exit
Aaron Abend was the founder of Recombinant Data. He identified a market opportunity, recruited a team of like-minded co-founders, and together they build Recombinant from a 4 person consultancy to an 90+ team that was acquired by Deloitte Consulting to become ConvergeHealth.
Aaron’s experience with every aspect of the growth of a startup, from concept to acquisition, gives him an unmatched perspective on the path to successful commercialization of technology.
Business strategy and operational planning
The i2b2/transMart Story
In 1999, Aaron Abend began working with Dr. Shawn Murphy at the Laboratory of Computer Science (LCS) at Mass General Hospital. LCS is the birthplace of the Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System, or MUMPS, a database system now known as “Cache” that serves as the transactional workhorse for products from companies like EPIC and Meditech. At LCS Aaron worked with Dr. Murphy on the Research Patient Data Registry, a cohort discovery tool that became the prototype for Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside, an open source project known as i2b2.
When i2b2 was released in 2007, Aaron made hundreds of presentations to academic medical centers around the country to demonstrate its capabilities and his company, Recombinant Data, helped institutions deploy the software. In 2008, working with Dr. Nick Anderson, then at University of Washington, he helped implement the first Shared Health Information Network, or SHRINE, linking data from 2 University of California sites with the University of Washington. Aaron helped implement i2b2 at over 40 academic medical centers and pharmaceutical companies. I2b2 is now a component of the research infrastructure at almost every NIH-funded institution.
In 2008, Recombinant “forked” the i2b2 code and integrated genomic analysis and statistics into the i2b2 environment, adding open source technologies like “R” to enhance i2b2’capabilities for Johnson & Johnson’s Centocor division. The new program was named “tranSmart” and in 2012 the University of Michigan took over the project from J&J and created an open source repository for the code, which is now overseen by the nonprofit i2b2/tranSmart Foundation.
Programs
Prognosis Data Corp offers 3 consulting services to help commercialize new technologies:
Strategic planning and market assessment to evaluate market potential for technologies in their earliest stages. Tasks include competitive analysis, sales channels and distribution, and pricing.
Business plan development. Tasks include financial projections, profit models, and strategy development.
Operational planning. Planning is key, but any successful entrepreneur will tell you that execution is how you succeed. Operational details are the key to success. Tasks include developing organizational capabilities, hiring (and firing) practices, project controls, and a myriad of other elements that keep a new enterprise on track for success.