Internationally Acclaimed Inventor, Dean Kamen, to Receive Prestigious BioMed SA Palmaz Award for Innovation in Healthcare and the Biosciences
SAN ANTONIO-(Business Wire)-September 16, 2009 - Internationally renowned inventor, entrepreneur and thought leader, Dean Kamen of Manchester, NH, can add another prestigious award to his resume when he accepts BioMed SA’s Julio Palmaz Award for Innovation in Healthcare and the Biosciences. BioMed SA, is a non-profit corporation founded in 2005 to help grow and promote San Antonio’s thriving healthcare and bioscience sector. The award honors individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to advance the healthcare and bioscience fields. Kamen, founder of DEKA Research & Development Corp. and of the non-profit organization FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), will accept the award at BioMed SA’s annual Palmaz Award dinner to be held in San Antonio on September 17, 2009.
Dubbed the “Dean of Innovation,” Kamen has received numerous other awards for his many, significant innovations in biosciences and engineering, including the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, awarded in 2000 by then-President Bill Clinton for both having advanced medical care worldwide, and for awakening America to the excitement of science and technology. The Medal is the highest honor for technological achievement, bestowed by the President of the United States on America's leading innovators.
Kamen holds more than 440 U.S. and foreign patents, including the first wearable insulin pump, the HomeChoiceTM portable dialysis machine, the wearable AutoSyringe that delivers accurate doses of medication throughout the day, a low-cost water filter for under-developed countries, the Stirling hybrid automobile engine that also produces electricity, and the SegwayTM Human Transporter.
In 2005, Kamen was approached by a Department of Defense official about developing a more functional prosthetic arm for soldiers returning from Iraq with one or both arms missing. “I didn’t expect anything to come of that meeting,” Kamen told Newsweek magazine. “This turned out to be an extraordinary opportunity to do some extraordinary technology.”
Named the “Luke Arm” after Star Wars character Luke Skywalker, the strap-on, surgery-free arm under development can adapt to various control schemes – from foot pads and pull switches to more advanced methods – to suit patient preferences.
“BioMed SA is proud to honor an innovator who has spent his whole life helping others overcome the challenges in their lives,” said Henry Cisneros, BioMed SA Chair and former mayor of San Antonio. “His ongoing work with the U.S. military to develop a robotic arm to restore functionality for wounded warriors is of special interest to San Antonio, which is becoming the home of military medicine.”
Kamen said a greater commitment to education and cultivating a desire to learn among young people is key to the country’s global leadership in the biosciences. “I think we’re entering a golden age in understanding life in terms of genomics, and there are large areas where you’re going to see breathtaking innovations in the next five to 10 years. The innovation coming out of San Antonio will help move us toward that golden age.”
ABOUT THE PALMAZ AWARD
The Julio Palmaz Award for Innovation in Healthcare and the Biosciences honors individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to advances in the healthcare and bioscience fields. Julio Palmaz, M.D., of The University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio became the inaugural recipient and namesake of the industry award in 2006. Dr. Palmaz is widely recognized for inventing the first commercially successful intravascular stent, which gained a U.S. patent in 1988 and received FDA approval for use in cardiac arteries in 1994. The Palmaz® Stent revolutionized cardiac care, with more than a million people a year undergoing coronary artery stenting to repair clogged arteries.
ABOUT BIOMED SA
BioMed SA is a non-profit, membership-based organization, supported in part by Bexar County and the City of San Antonio. Its mission is to organize and promote San Antonio’s healthcare and biosciences assets to accelerate growth of the sector and enhance San Antonio’s reputation as a City of Science and Health. The city’s healthcare and bioscience industry has added over 23,000 net new jobs over the past decade, significantly fueling San Antonio’s growth and employing one out of every seven members of the city’s workforce. As America’s seventh largest city, San Antonio is a community that embraces science and medicine. Its vibrant health care and bioscience industry, a dominant force in the city’s economy with an annual economic impact exceeding $16 billion, combines unique assets and a diversity of resources with a collaborative spirit that is making a global impact on science and health.
Recipient bio available at http://www.biomedsa.org/pdf/deankamen.pdf
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6050446&lang=en
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