“Innovation in healthcare begins and ends with the patient,” says University of Vermont medical student Alexander Marchese ’19, who adds that “although technologies are developed in the lab, they are often conceived in the clinic and can only be fully appreciated once they reach the patient.”

This mindset informed his summer research fellowship to develop an evidence-based model that introduces entrepreneurship complementary to the UVM College of Medicine’s curriculum. Working with mentors Mercedes Rincon, Ph.D., professor of medicine, and William Cats-Baril, Ph.D., associate professor of business, he has surveyed the College of Medicine community and gathered information from 30 Association of American Medical Colleges member schools with some type of entrepreneurship offering in their curriculum.

Rincon is uniquely qualified to guide him in this effort: Earlier this year, she received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop training in entrepreneurship in biomedical research for faculty and for the past four years, she has been involved in the SPARK-VT program, which supports UVM faculty in the discovery-to-innovation-to-commercialization process.

Based on his findings, Marchese is proposing a certificate program focused on entrepreneurship, as well as a College of Medicine Student Interest Group that could potentially support funding for idea development and internships at start-ups, as well as host workshops and other activities. He is also interested in nurturing collaborations with organizations such as the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies and BTV Ignite – organizations that have helped earn Burlington a “tech hub” reputation. A two-week trip to Stanford for the Bio-Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Course from Global SPARK will help refine his results, Marchese says, as he gears up for year two of medical school and the next phase of his project.

“We want to instill an entrepreneurial mindset in students so that they feel empowered to address unmet clinical needs in medicine,” says Marchese.

(This article originally appeared as a UVM College of Medicine’s Instagram “Meet a Scientist” post.)