This summer, Department of Medicine leaders collaborated with Duke Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative (I&E) to host the inaugural (and online only) Department of Medicine Innovators Academy, an eight-week course customized for early career faculty interested in advancing new ideas, interventions, and technologies.

The academy is the latest activity to arise from the department’s ambitious Research Strategic Plan, which highlighted innovation and entrepreneurship as one of its priorities. During the strategic planning process, many faculty had expressed interest in developing their skills in entrepreneurship.

In response, Kathleen Cooney, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine, and Scott Palmer, MD, MHS, vice chair for research, engaged I&E director Jon Fjeld, PhD, and Sharlini Sankaran, PhD, I&E director of translational programs. Together, they developed the Innovators Academy, a program specifically designed to help early career faculty recognize the potential to develop entrepreneurial ideas for commercialization and understand the wealth of resources at Duke that support innovation.