Part 1

Part 2

Does this sound familiar? In the operating room, you use an instrument that is unwieldy or doesn't completely get the job done. At the bedside, you waste a lot of time changing dressings because all the wound-care materials are not in one convenient place. Or, while seeing patients in your office, the information you need isn't at your fingertips. Then, you ask yourself, “Why doesn't someone invent something to fix that?”

Physician entrepreneurs are accepting that challenge. Since practitioners are in a unique position to identify unmet healthcare needs and work with partners to develop and commercialize solutions, they are increasingly working to create new drugs, devices, diagnostics, health information technologies and healthcare delivery innovations.

That's why we created the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs (www.sopenet.org). SoPE is a physician-led not-for-profit member organization. SoPE's core mission is to help doctors who have ideas for products or services that will improve healthcare. SoPE provides education programs, a networking venue and services, including access to sources of financing that can assist them in bringing their idea to life. On a bigger stage, SoPE is spearheading an effort to promote a better understanding of the processes involved in the introduction of new healthcare-related products and services and working with all stakeholders in healthcare to identify ways to improve and accelerate the process.

Entrepreneurship has many definitions. Bob Reiss, successful entrepreneur and author of “Low-Risk, High-Reward: Starting and Growing Your Small Business With Minimal Risk,” says: "Entrepreneurship is the recognition and pursuit of opportunity without regard to the resources you currently control, with confidence that you can succeed, with the flexibility to change course as necessary, and with the will to rebound from setbacks."