CMI Appoints Mark Adkins to Leadership Team

The University of Pittsburgh Center for Medical Innovation (CMI) is supported by a leadership team representing multiple disciplines across the University. Mark Adkins, who accepted an invitation to serve on this team, will provide strategic and tactical input on the management of CMI, and will represent it as needed within and outside the university community. As an adjunct Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, he is already integrally involved in the CMI educational mission. With this new appointment, Mark will also assist with the research and pre-commercialization missions. This will be accomplished through evaluating proposals submitted to the CMI Early Stage R&D program, and establishing partnerships between clinicians, engineering faculty, and their students. He will also participate in development of long-term strategies for growing the effectiveness and visibility of the CMI and its programs.

Professor Adkins joined the University of Pittsburgh as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Bioengineering in 2016. After a long career in factory automation, Mr. Adkins started a product innovation consultancy, Smart Hammer Innovation, in 2009 and founded the Pittsburgh chapter of the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) in 2010. He currently serves as a board member and Vice-chair of PDMA globally. Recently, he helped to found LeanMed, a new company that will bring critical oxygen therapies to remote areas in the developing world.