William E. Cohn, MD, is Director of the Center for Technology and Innovation; Associate Director of Laboratory Surgery Research in the Center for Cardiac Support; and Director of the Cullen Cardiovascular Research Laboratory at the Texas Heart Institute. He is also a professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine and an adjunct professor of bioengineering at both Rice University and the University of Houston. His major research interests include the development of new technology for decreasing the invasiveness of cardiac and vascular surgery and development of the continuous-flow totally implantable artificial heart. In 2011, Dr. Cohn and Dr. O. H. Frazier successfully implanted the first pulseless total heart replacement device in a human patient. Dr. Cohn has a passion for medical device development and has more than 90 US patents granted or pending and another 60 international patents for his medical innovations. His numerous awards include an honorary doctorate in science from Oberlin College, the Distinguished Scientist Award, given by the MacDonald Fund, and the Edison Award for excellence in human-centered design and innovation for inventing the SentreHEART® Lariat® Suture Delivery Device. In 2000, Dr. Cohn was named the distinguished Inventor of the Year by the U.S. Intellectual Property Owners Association and in 2014, he was named Outstanding Inventor of the Year by the Houston IPO. In addition, in 2014 he received an award for the most Innovative Medical Device Startup of the year at the Inn ovations in Cardiovascular Interventions Conference in Tel Aviv for inventing the TVA Everlinq syste m for percutaneous creation of AV fistulas and for founding TVA Medical. In 2015, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award for healthcare innovation by the Houston Technology Center. He is a Venture Partner at Sante Health Ventures, and Chief Medical Officer of BiVACOR Inc. and Reliant Heart.
For more information visit http://cstem.org.
