Featured Research  

Commercialising a Cancer Detection Technology,  Dr Lynne Baxter, Senior Lecturer, Organisation Behaviour, Theory and Technology Group

One of my current research activities is a longitudinal, qualitative study of a real company, Dysis Medical (http://www.dysismedical.com/) whilst they commercialise a potentially life-saving cancer detection technology.  A former colleague, Cathie Wright of Heriot Watt University, and I have been interviewing a range of people and studying documents since January 2011. We have a special focus on Alastair Atkinson, the CEO, who takes time out of his busy schedule to speak to us at least every two months. We are gathering interesting information about several topics in the theory, as and when they occur in the business.

The company is a small university spin-off established in 2002 to commercialise a Greek academic’s invention of a new way to detect cervical cancer. The new method is substantially more reliable and effective than the current ‘pap’ or ‘smear’ test.  A light is shone on the cervix and reflects back at a different frequency if the cells are cancerous or precancerous. A camera films the process, and the images are analysed through a computer model. The advantage of the new system is that a more accurate assessment is performed, and is interpreted more effectively. It is also possible to treat a patient far more accurately than before.

The commercialisation process has, up until recently, not been much of a success; mainly due to the protective attitude of the inventor, Costas Balas.  He did originate the technology which did not sell well, but was unwilling for it to change. The project has attracted rounds of venture capital funding from a range of investors, who can recognise that the technological advance is significant. In 2009, the Board succeeded in attracting Alastair Atkinson as initially COO, now CEO to run the company.  Alastair worked for many years for Hewlett Packard, has a business qualification from INSEAD, and more recently was a COO of a medical device technology company. Over the last two years, Costas has become more marginal to the commercialisation process, although he retains a new product development role and his university position.

Alastair led a comprehensive strategic review of the business, which culminated in the product being redesigned and developed into three options, depending on the type of clinic in which it was being used. The early versions were thought to be cumbersome during the examination of the patient and the machines were not very reliable, as they were produced in a university research laboratory. Before the redesign, information was captured from clinical settings about the examination process, and a design and manufacturing partner was chosen. We visited the design and manufacturing partner in Kent, Integrated Technologies Limited (ITL), http://www.itl.co.uk/ to interview their members of the redesign team and study the manufacturing facilities in April 2011. ITL operate a very large company style ‘stage gate’ development process, despite being mostly a subcontract facility, contra to what the supply chain literature might suggest. It was interesting to compare the different emphases of the partner managers, and obtain further detail of how feedback was obtained from clinicians and design problems overcome.  For example a mannequin was used to assist with the design of the ergonomics of the technology, and a mountain bike served as inspiration for a braking mechanism, crucial for keeping the light steady.

The technology had to meet CE and FDA standards and ITL has particular experience in reaching these for medical instruments. FDA approval was granted in March 2011, and since then the focus of the business has been to raise awareness of the product range in selected markets, either directly or through a distribution network. A constant worry is about having to raise funds from existing investors and solicit new ones to keep the company in existence.

We have produced a paper for a conference (European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2011) and submitted a related one to a journal, which was well received. In it we used Actor Network Theory (Callon 1986: Latour 2010) combined with Interaction Ritual Chains (Collins 2004) to analyse the redesign process. We are currently responding to very positive reviewer comments, developing our discussion in relation to the commercialisation literature, which tends to comprise of quantitative studies of the beginning phases of commercialisation and its organisation.

Alastair is tremendously supportive of our work, commenting on drafts and we plan to track the business for as long as possible. Although it is still at an early stage, we have used our findings in our teaching of innovation and technology management and see that the research has the basis to impact in the following areas:

  • Commercialisation of university innovation – managing the role of the inventor and sustaining funding
  • Entrepreneuring and developing entrepreneurs–
    • current approaches try to develop young people to be entrepreneurs – the group of people who have managed to achieve a commercialisable product have worked in large companies for 20 years
    • entrepreneuring as a set of activities performed by several people, not just one person
  • Sustaining and developing high technology design and manufacture in the UK – ITL use large company practices to manage their customers and survive when others have failed.
  • Forming distribution networks and raising market awareness for high technology SMEs.

References:

Callon, M.  (1986) Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation, in Law, J.  (1986) Power Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge, Sociological Review Monograph, no. 32, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp 196 - 233.

Collins, R. (2004) Interaction Ritual Chains, Princeton University Press, Princeton.

Latour, B. (2010) “Networks, Societies, Spheres: Reflections of an Actor Network Theorist” note speech for the International Seminar on Network Theory: Network Multidimensionality in the Digital Age, 19th February 2010, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, Los Angeles.