About us

Chairman’s message

The Stanford University BioDesign serves as a hub that supplies talent to the innovative medical device creation ecosystem in the U.S. Silicon Valley, which continues to create groundbreaking medical devices. In 2015, the then Prime Minister Abe’s visit to Stanford University marked the beginning of Japan BioDesign, as he highlighted the need for medical device development and talent cultivation similar to Silicon Valley in Japan. This initiative was led by Osaka University, the University of Tokyo, and Tohoku University, in collaboration with Stanford University.

Supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED), as well as the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the industries including the Japan Federation of Medical Device Association, the program has received substantial support.

The core of BioDesign is its fellowship program, where healthcare practitioners, engineers, and business professionals who aspire to revolutionize healthcare come together as teams. This program facilitates the systematic process required for healthcare technology innovation. Fellows not only learn medical device development methods but also understand and practice how to implement them in clinical settings through actual projects.

Stanford University BioDesign has produced over 60 startups in 20 years, with 11 M&A cases and 2 IPOs, benefiting over 10 million patients with innovative medical technologies. In Japan, over the past 8 years, the Japan BioDesign fellowship program has graduated 83 individuals from 25 teams, equipped with medical device development expertise. These alumni are actively working towards healthcare transformation as medical device startup entrepreneurs, corporate intrapreneurs, venture capitalists, healthcare practitioners, and researchers. 9 startups have emerged from the program, continuing medical device development while securing grants and venture capital funding.

The network of peers engaged in medical device development using the BioDesign methodology has expanded worldwide to countries such as the United States, India, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Israel, Australia, and Africa. Japan BioDesign has become a hub for global exchange between these BioDesign programs.

The Japan BioDesign Society, established to broaden the scope of BioDesign, supports Japan BioDesign’s activities and promotes the dissemination of value-driven medical device development methods. Through regular academic conferences, seminars, and workshops, the society educates individuals from academia, industry, government, and medicine, enabling them to learn BioDesign methods in a short period.

These efforts have garnered increased interest from various sectors, bridging connections among stakeholders domestically and internationally. The mission of the BioDesign Society is to contribute innovative medical device creation from Japan to the global healthcare field, connecting stakeholders including medical professionals with challenges, companies with advanced technologies, and individuals knowledgeable about medical device regulations and business models, fostering a network to share knowledge and experiences vital for medical device implementation.

We sincerely ask for your robust and warm support.

June 2023

Biodesign Japan
Chairman, Minoru Ono
The Japan Association for Medtech Innovation Chairman, Minoru Ono