Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies (JJMDC)^* today opened the Center for Device Innovation at the Texas Medical Center (CDI @ TMC), a broad, innovative collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC (JJI) and Texas Medical Center (TMC) to accelerate development – from concept to commercialization – of breakthrough medical devices technologies.      


Housed within the TMC Innovation Institute, the 26,000-square-foot facility will host JJMDC R&D staff working on select internal projects along with strategically aligned external ventures of JJMDC. For the first time, medical devices innovators will be able to execute each stage of the product development life cycle without ever having to leave TMC, enabling unparalleled efficiency in responding to patient needs.  The TMC Innovation Institute is also home to JLABS @ TMC, a life sciences incubator and TMC’s first collaboration with JJI, which opened in 2016.      


CDI @ TMC offers R&D teams real-time visibility into the most pressing healthcare challenges, as well as rapid prototyping and development of relevant patient solutions. Further, through the collaboration, CDI @ TMC staff will also be welcome at the TMC network’s broad range of preclinical facilities – including those at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, and Texas Heart Institute – to test new ideas, and the TMC Clinical Trials Institute, to explore new paradigms for accelerated medical device clinical trials.


“CDI @ TMC represents unprecedented collaboration between the scientists, business leaders, academicians and investors required to bring revolutionary medical devices from concept to market,” said Sandi Peterson, Group Worldwide Chair of Johnson & Johnson. “With all these resources in one zip code, medical devices may be developed, tested, moved to clinical trials and regulatory approval, then provided to the doctors and patients around the world who need them faster than ever before.” 


“We are excited to build upon our collaboration with the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies through the launch of the Center for Device Innovation at the Texas Medical Center,” said William F. McKeon, President and CEO, Texas Medical Center. “We have already experienced tremendous growth within our ecosystem, and we believe that the CDI @ TMC will serve as a cornerstone for medical device invention and commercialization, further advancing our leadership in life sciences.”


Described as an “engineering studio,” the facility is appointed with all the tools its staff may need to translate ideas to products, including a machine shop, a mechanical testing lab, an electronics workspace and component lab, a 3D printing lab and a virtual reality demonstration area. The space itself is designed to spur creativity, with a conference room made of spare building materials – a symbol of new applications for traditional ideas – and a wall with glass cases to display medical devices led-learnings.  


The facility is headed by William E. “Billy” Cohn, M.D., Vice President, JJMDC and Director of CDI @ TMC.  Billy is an internationally acclaimed cardiothoracic surgeon, a Texas Heart Institute alum and a serial medical devices entrepreneur who was hired by JJMDC in October 2016 to work on cutting-edge internal research and development projects and to collaborate with external entrepreneurs and innovators. 


^* The Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies comprise the surgery, orthopedics, and cardiovascular businesses within Johnson & Johnson’s Medical Devices segment.