The editors and authors wish to dedicate this book to the primary inspiration for this book – the inventors, innovators and boundary spanners who make the impossible possible by translating discoveries into drugs, therapeutics, devices, programs, and policies that improve the health and well-being of our patients, their families, and society.
This growing community of innovators helped us appreciate the unmet need for a background in entrepreneurship that is current and accessible to those trained in clinical and scientific disciplines.
This book emerged from classroom lectures augmented with scholarship and real-world experience. The editors are indebted to the many lecturers, students, and faculty who contributed countless hours to creating, formatting, reviewing, and curating the content. We envision that this open education resource will continue to grow and evolve with the disciplines of innovation and entrepreneurship.
The First Edition would not have been possible without the financial support of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Research Institute and the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), which is supported by the Penn/CHOP National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award. Translating this book as a PubPub community was supported in part by National Science Foundation Partners for Innovation program.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the following individuals:
Emma Meagher, MD, Director of ITMAT Education at Penn, and Bryan Wolf, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at CHOP for their belief in this project and support for it.
Our team of professionals and students for support in editing, formatting, launching the book’s PubPub Community, the prototype site on Scholarly Commons and creating the dissemination plan: Suzanne Hill (Director of Outreach and Advocacy, CHOP), Natalie Oppenheimer (Program Coordinator, CHOP), Jaimie Rosenberg (Research Coordinator, CHOP) and the student support staff: Jesse Stover, Aleda Jomy, Jeremy Solomon, Danielle Shoshany, Zhoumu Xiang, Kayla Welsh, Clare Jocelyn Mangubat, Pratishtha Guckhool, Edmund Ward, Allison Reagan, and Margarita Amihava.
Our copyeditors for creating a text with one, coherent voice: Adriana Cloud and Emily Turek.
Our reviewers for guiding the content and its presentation: Diane Palmintera and Jennifer Long.
Our artistic advisors, Angela Knott (Director of Creative Services, CHOP) for the cover art and and Alexis Arvanitides (Graphic Designer, CHOP) for creating the book’s style guide.
Our Penn Libraries colleagues for helping to establish the Scholarly Commons site and creating the licenses: Kenny Whitebloom and Sarah Wipperman.
With gratitude, we would like to acknowledge our parents to whom we are indebted for their guidance and support that allowed us to pursue our dreams. They are the ultimate role models. Most importantly, we thank our loving and supportive spouses and wonderful children who provide unending inspiration: Lea, Naveen, Aydan and Nathan Gooneratne; Rob McGarrigle; and Ira, Zachary and Andrew Winston.
