On the latest episode of Health Explorers, Jay Shah and I speak with Dr. Dan Azagury, Director of the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellowship Program, a 10-month experience that equips aspiring innovators with a proven, repeatable process to identify important health-related needs, invent novel health technologies to address them and prepare to implement those products into patient care. Since its inception in 2001 over 50 companies have been founded out of the program including Shockwave Medical, iRythym, Viz.ai, and Cala Health.

Dan grew up and started his medical career in Europe, but migrated to the United States, eventually landing in Silicon Valley, where he became a BioDesign Fellow himself. His time in the program eventually led to his co-founding of Ciel Medical. In addition to his faculty role, Dan is also the Section Chief of Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery at Stanford.

In this episode, we discuss what attracted Dan to Silicon Valley, the roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship, and how to teach people the process of healthcare innovation.