 MISTRAL Pediatric
Managing Director, Versant Ventures Principal, Health & Wellness Practice, IDEO Co-Chair, Stanford University School of Medicine, Bioengineering Emile Holman Prof. of Surgery & Chairman of Dept. of Surgery at Stanford, Director Surgical Innovation Program Partner, Morrison & Foerster LLP Founder & Chief Medical Officer, Patton Surgical Formerly of Endogastric Solutions |
Dr. Ross Jaffe, Managing Director, Versant Ventures. Dr. Jaffe specializes in early-stage investing in medical devices. He brings significant clinical insight and venture capital experience to Versant’s investing efforts. Dr. Jaffe co-founded Versant Ventures in 1999 after spending nine years at Brentwood Venture Capital where, as a general partner, he led investments in medical devices, drug delivery, and healthcare information systems companies.
Dr. Jaffe is a board-certified internist, having completed his residency training in Internal Medicine/Primary Care at the University of California, San Francisco, where he remained a part-time attending physician until 1995. Before and during medical school, he was an analyst for Lewin and Associates, a healthcare consulting firm, and a research associate at Dartmouth Medical School.
Dr. Jaffe has served as a director of Ablation Frontiers, Aradigm, Atrionix, Micro Interventional Systems, Novacept, Pro•Duct Health, St. Francis Medical Technologies, Therasense, and Webster Laboratories. He currently serves on the boards of Acclarent, Alter-G, Calypso Medical Technologies, ICS, Insulet (NASDAQ: PODD), Portaero, and Vital Therapies. He is also a director of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists (WAVC) and a member of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) Medical Industry Group. Dr. Jaffe earned his BA in Policy Studies from Dartmouth in 1980, his MD from Johns Hopkins in 1985, and his MBA from Stanford in 1990.
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Mr. Tad Simons, Principal, Health & Wellness Practice, IDEO. Mr. Simons has designed healthcare products for patients for more than twenty-seven years, and is currently a leader in IDEO’s Health & Wellness practice. From his health practice based in Palo Alto, California, Mr. Simons leads a worldwide design practice that accounts for roughly a quarter of IDEO’s total business. Mr. Simons is involved in project management and client relationship development, and supports a culture where a wide range of human and technical disciplines inform healthcare solutions and systems.
With experience in physiological measurements, Mr. Simons has worked as a technical designer and leader on many medical projects including blood pressure systems, oxygen saturation, infusions systems, cardiology products, in vitro diagnostic measurements, and airway gas monitoring for anesthesia. This work has resulted in seventeen US patents.
Current project work examines challenges across functions in multiple health industries: pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, biotech, healthcare delivery, and health systems. Before joining IDEO, Mr. Simons applied his design, clinical, and business experience to research and also to strategic planning for healthcare and life sciences at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, gaining a broad view of the health industry, world demographics, and the forces that are reshaping the industry today. Mr. Simons has BS and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MS from the California Institute of Technology.
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Dr. Paul Yock, Co-Chair, Stanford University School of Medicine, Bioengineering. Paul G. Yock, MD, is the Martha Meier Weiland Professor of Medicine and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, by courtesy. Dr. Yock is Co-Chair of Stanford’s new Department of Bioengineering and Director of the Stanford Program in Biodesign. He is a Stanford cardiologist known internationally for his work in inventing, developing and testing new devices, including the Rapid Exchange balloon angioplasty system, which is the dominant angioplasty system in use worldwide. Dr. Yock also invented a Doppler-guided hypodermic needle system, the Smart Needle, and P-D Access.
Dr. Yock is also Director of the Center for Research in Cardiovascular Interventions, a Stanford facility that develops and tests new technologies in cardiovascular medicine. The focus of Dr. Yock's research program is the field of intravascular ultrasound. He authored the fundamental patents for intravascular ultrasound imaging and founded Cardiovascular Imaging Systems, now a division of Boston Scientific, resulting from a 1994 acquisition for over $100M. In 1998 Dr. Yock developed a new interdepartmental and inter-school program at Stanford, the Medical Device Network (MDN). The MDN helps stimulate and guide the process of biomedical technology innovation within the University. Recently MDN has been expanded under Dr. Yock's leadership into a broader research and educational initiative, the Stanford Program in Biodesign. The MDN is now known as “BDN,” the Biodesign Network. The primary mission of Biodesign is to promote the invention and implementation of new health technologies through interdisciplinary research and education at the frontiers of engineering and the biomedical sciences.
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Dr. Tom Krummel, Emile Holman Professor of Surgery and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Stanford, Director Surgical Innovation Program. Dr. Krummel completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin and his medical degree at the Medical College of Wisconsin. His surgical residency was at the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) with a Fellowship in Pediatric Surgery at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, followed by a Research Fellowship both at MCV and the University of California San Francisco. Following five years on the faculty at MCV, Dr. Krummel was named Professor of Surgery and Chief of Pediatric Surgery at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and Surgeon-in-Chief at the Children’s Hospital. In 1994 he was named John A. and Marian T. Waldhausen Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery and Surgeon-in-Chief at University Hospitals. In 1998, he moved to Stanford to assume the position of Emile Holman Professor of Surgery, and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Stanford University. In 2001, he was named the first Susan B. Ford Surgeon-in-Chief at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
Throughout his career, Dr. Krummel has been both a primary innovator and a hands-on mentor. As a resident, he developed one of the earliest ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) programs demonstrating that "anyone could do ECMO." His early research in crossing the disciplines of fetal surgery and wound repair-fetal healing pioneered a field and provided some of the underpinnings for the principles of tissue engineering. Over the last ten years, Dr. Krummel has driven a national agenda by using surgical simulation and virtual reality training to enhance the quality and safety of surgical education. For this work, he received a Computerworld Smithsonian Innovation Award.
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Mr. Stephen Thao, Partner, Morrison & Foerster LLP. Mr. Thao is a Partner in the Palo Alto office of Morrison & Foerster LLP, and co-chair of Morrison & Foerster's 140-lawyer Life Sciences Group. His practice focuses on the representation of life science and medical device companies including company formation, equity and debt financing, merger and acquisition transactions, strategic alliances, and public offerings. Mr. Thao received his JD with distinction from Stanford Law School, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and was managing editor of the Stanford Law Review. Mr. Thau received his AB, magna cum laude, in Biology from Harvard College.
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Dr. Michael Patton, Founder & Chief Medical Officer, Patton Surgical. Dr. Patton received his Masters in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and completed medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. His 15 years experience in medical device design and development include the PassPort® Shielded Trocar (with SmartTip), Hasson H2, Cannula Anchor, Patton Speculum, and several other surgical products in development. Working closely with surgeons in various disciplines, Dr. Patton drives the development of innovative surgical instruments and forges strong relationships with the medical facilities in which they practice.
Patton Surgical has already introduced a novel instrument for Pediatric Surgeons: the PassPort Trocar. Developed in collaboration with leading laparoscopic surgeons, the PassPort provides controlled, blunt access into the pediatric abdominal cavity. Recognizing the limited availability of instruments suited for pediatric surgery, Patton Surgical is dedicated to developing and commercializing surgical devices that are optimized to treat the very small patient.
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Dr. Stefan Kraemer, formerly of Endogastric Solutions. Dr. Kraemer was trained at the Polytechnical University of Munich, where he became a board-certified surgeon. Starting in 1990, he spent three years in Seattle, Washington, working with world-renowned surgeon Dr. Lucius D. Hill. Both were among the first surgeons in the world to develop and perform laparoscopic esophago-gastric surgery. Dr. Kraemer's research on the valve of the gastroesophageal junction resulted in a rare new contribution to Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body. In 2001, Dr. Kraemer moved permanently to Seattle, where he joined an incubator for medical devices. In 2003, he founded EsophyX Inc., now EndoGastric Solutions, Inc (EGS).
Dr. Kraemer has developed a portfolio of devices for EGS to perform transoral procedures such as fundoplication for gastroesophageal reflux disease, obesity, and other functional surgical procedures. The company has raised more than $90 million in venture capital, has more than 70 employees, and sells products worldwide. Dr. Kraemer spearheaded research cooperation with academic leaders, trained experts on the devices and procedures, and continues to present at national and international conferences. In 2009 Dr. Kraemer left EGS to start a new business and support other entrepreneurs in launching their own ventures. Currently, Dr. Kraemer is the President of Kraemer & Kraemer, and consults for medical device companies.
Dr. Kraemer also completed an Executive MBA program at the University of Washington, Seattle.
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