On September 26, 2012, Phil Robilotto, DO, MBA, Assistant Vice President, UM Office of Technology Transfer, welcomed faculty entrepreneurs and local technology leaders to the first of a  new program series profiling CEOs of University of Maryland, Baltimore start-ups and spin-outs. This new series is for CEOs serious about new science and technology ventures and offers a means to share their stories with the campus and business community.

 

The inaugural event featured Chris Meenan, CEO and co-founder of Analytical Informatics, Inc., a Baltimore-based startup on a singular mission to revolutionize healthcare technology. Founded by members of the imaging informatics team from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the company’s core founders have been creating innovative clinical tools and applications to help improve quality and efficiency in healthcare for over a decade.

 

Meenan explained that with positive support from his Department Chair and from the UM administration (including the Office of Technology Transfer) – plus what the founders felt to be a very good healthcare technology idea, the idea of forming a start-up made a lot of sense. They looked externally to seek innovative models that could be applied to healthcare IT – and liked the idea of an app store or a marketplace model for healthcare applications. That is the platform technology they built.

 

Meenan also discussed the “Entrepreneurs Dilemma: How to ship a high quality product, before you know what customers value?” and discussed how his company sought to address this via a lean startup method and some interesting early strategies (like participating in meetings of a professional society where established entrepreneurial organizations and potential customers attended).

 

And why is Analytical Informatics rooted to UM in Baltimore? According to Meenan, it’s due to:

The Office of Tech Transfer looks forward to featuring more CEOs in this exciting new speaker series and thanks Meenan for such a great start!