GCMI Adds Key Executive Posts

The Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI) based in Atlanta, Ga., is growing, and it hasn’t even gotten started yet.

The group has added two experienced medical device professionals to its team in anticipation of its April 18 launch. Doug Schumer, Ph.D., has joined GCMI as general manager and Tiffany Wilson Karp has been named director, Business Development.

According to its organizers, GCMI is the Southeast’s first comprehensive medical device innovation center. The center brings together core members of the medical device community, including universities, research centers, clinicians, established device and drug companies, investors, and early-stage companies, with the goal of accelerating the commercialization of innovative medical technology.

“One of the key offerings of the Global Center for Medical Innovation is access to experts who understand the commercialization process for medical devices,” said GCMI’s Executive Director H. Wayne Hodges. “Doug and Tiffany each have an excellent skill set and deep industry knowledge, but more importantly, they bring a true passion for the medical device development process.”

Dr. Schumer brings more than 30 years of medical device research and development experience to GCMI. Most recently he served as the first director of Design and Instruction at Georgia Institute of Technology’s Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, where he maintains a joint teaching appointment. Prior to that he was vice rresident of R&D at CardioMEMS Inc. (also based in Atlanta), where he managed technical programs and resources for new product development, new business development and the company’s heart failure trial.

He has also worked with TDC Medical, Animas Corporation, Thoratec Corporation, Novoste Corporation, Guidant/CRM Division, Ohaus Corporation (subsidiary of Mettler/Ciba Geigy) and Bell Telephone Laboratories.

Dr. Schumer has degrees in Physics (B.S.) and Measurement and Control (M.S.) from Carnegie-Mellon University and in Electrical and Systems Engineering (Ph.D.) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with specialization in surface-wave acousto-optics.

Karp has spent more than 10 years bringing innovative medical technology from benchtop to bedside. She joined GCMI from Scientific Intake, where she served as the vice president of Business Development and Strategy, evaluating marketing and distribution opportunities and driving product development projects for the global obesity market.

Prior to Scientific Intake, Karp was vice president of Corporate Strategy and Finance at ACell, Inc., a regenerative medicine and tissue engineering company based in Columbia, Md. She began her career in management consulting and investment banking. She currently serves as the co-chair of the Medical Device Subcommittee of the Metro Atlanta Chamber Bioscience Leadership Council and Co-Chair of the Sponsorship Committee of the Southeastern Medical Device Association. She earned a BBA in International Business from Loyola University and an MBA from Georgetown University.

The Global Center for Medical Innovation is an independent, not-for-profit, full-service product development organization. The center helps new-product teams enhance their product development, shorten time to market, and achieve significant cost savings throughout the process. GCMI was one of six winners of a national i6 Challenge focused on driving commercialization and innovation in the United States in an effort to move great ideas from the lab to the patient, creating jobs and economic growth.