The Physician-Innovator
Program
Structural literacy and clinical translation training for clinician-entrepreneurs. Ten required modules adopted by academic medical centers, hospital innovation programs, and physician networks worldwide.
with less than employees
structural + clinical translation
fellowship to open enrollment
Physicians create enormous value.
They capture almost none of it.
Every year, thousands of clinicians contribute clinical insights, intellectual property, and domain expertise to companies that generate billions in enterprise value. Most walk away with nothing — or worse, with equity that was structurally worthless before the ink dried.
They don't know what they signed
Physicians accept advisory shares, co-founder equity, and consulting arrangements without understanding cap table mechanics, liquidation preferences, or how their ownership gets diluted to zero.
They don't know what the hospital owns
IP assignment policies, invention disclosure requirements, and technology transfer terms vary by institution — and most physicians have never read theirs. Entire companies have been clawed back over this.
They don't know what happens at exit
Waterfall mechanics, earnout structures, and preference stacks determine who gets paid at exit. Physicians with 5% ownership can receive nothing while executives with 1% walk away whole.
They leave — and the hospital loses
Physicians who want to innovate but can't do it within their institution leave for startup land. The hospital loses its best clinicians, its IP pipeline, and its competitive edge. This is a retention crisis disguised as an innovation problem.
One program. Two starting points.
Not every physician-innovator is in the same place. Some have an idea and no company. Others are already inside a funded startup. The program meets them where they are.
The Physician with an Idea
You have a clinical insight, a device concept, or a therapeutic hypothesis. You don't have a company, a cap table, or a board. You need to learn how to form, structure, and capitalize an entity without making the structural mistakes that destroy founder value before the first patient is enrolled.
Company blueprint with cap table model, governance charter, financing roadmap, and proof-of-concept plan.
The Physician in a Company
You're already a co-founder, CSO, CMO, or equity-holding advisor in a funded company. You have equity, you may be on the board, and you're making decisions that affect outcomes. You need to understand what you've signed, what you're exposed to, and how to protect the value you're creating.
Structural audit of existing company with partnering readiness review, exit architecture analysis, and board-ready governance assessment.
10 required modules. 2 electives.
Built on evidence, not theory.
Five structural literacy modules drawn from real transaction experience. Five clinical translation modules that are equally non-negotiable — get one wrong and the company fails regardless of how well the cap table was designed. Two electives for advanced applications.
Structural Foundations
Entity types, cap table architecture, equity classes, option pools, vesting schedules, and the mechanics of ownership. How the documents that create a company determine who captures value at exit.
CoreGovernance & Board Architecture
Board composition and control. Fiduciary duties. Decision rights. Protective provisions. How boards are designed to serve different stakeholders — and what happens when those interests diverge.
CoreCapital Architecture
Financing rounds, term sheet mechanics, dilution, liquidation preferences, anti-dilution provisions, and pay-to-play. How capital structure determines whether founders participate in exit value — or don't.
CoreNegotiation & Deal Terms
Asymmetric negotiation in venture-backed transactions. Information rights. Protective provisions. Drag-along, tag-along, and ROFR. How to negotiate when the other side has done this a thousand times and you haven't.
CoreExit Architecture
Waterfall mechanics. Preference stacks. Earnout structures. Carve-out pools. Board dynamics at exit. Why a founder with 22% ownership can net less than a VP with 1.5% — and how to prevent it.
CoreIP, Licensing & Technology Transfer
Hospital and university IP policies. Invention disclosure requirements. Bayh-Dole Act implications. Licensing vs. spinout decisions. Inventor rights and royalty structures. Skip this and your company gets clawed back before you file your first patent.
RequiredPhysician Equity, Value Capture & Compliance
Evaluating equity offers. Advisory agreements. Co-founder splits. Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute. Conflict-of-interest requirements. How to participate in company value without accepting structurally worthless paper — or triggering a compliance investigation.
RequiredRegulatory Pathways
510(k), de novo, PMA, IND, BLA. Pathway selection determines timeline, cost structure, and company valuation. Wrong pathway selection can add years and tens of millions in capital requirements — and that capital comes with structural terms that destroy founder economics.
RequiredClinical Development & Translational Strategy
Mapping clinical insights from discovery through preclinical validation to proof-of-concept. Phase 1b/2a program design for partnering value. Biomarker and companion diagnostic strategy. The single biggest valuation inflection a physician-founder controls.
RequiredReimbursement & Coding
Payer strategy. CPT and HCPCS coding. Coverage and payment decisions. Health technology assessment. A product that achieves FDA clearance but doesn't get reimbursed is commercially worthless. This is where most physician-innovators discover they should have started.
RequiredPharma & Strategic Partnering
Licensing structures. Co-development agreements. Option deals. Diligence readiness. What strategic acquirers actually evaluate — and how to position a company for maximum transaction leverage.
ElectiveOperating at Clinical Stage
Team design and incentive structures. Board reporting and operating cadence. Budget management through regulatory milestones. How to run a clinical-stage company without losing governance control.
ElectiveYour institution. Your format.
The curriculum is modular. Hospitals and academic medical centers adopt the program in the format that fits their physicians, their innovation pipeline, and their institutional goals.
Fellowship
Quarterly in-person intensives plus virtual sessions, project work, mentoring, and capstone presentation. Full curriculum with assessment and certification.
Intensive
Single immersion event covering core structural literacy modules. High-density delivery for physician groups ready to engage immediately.
Embedded
One session per month, integrated into existing hospital education infrastructure. CME-compatible. Builds structural literacy over time alongside clinical practice.
Open Enrollment
Virtual curriculum with live cohort sessions. Individual physicians enroll directly. No institutional partnership required.
Why hospitals adopt this program
Innovation offices generate IP. Structural literacy determines whether that IP creates institutional value or leaves the building with the physician who conceived it.
Physician Retention
Clinicians who can innovate within your ecosystem don't leave for startup land. Structural literacy training is a talent retention strategy — not just an education program.
IP Value Capture
When physicians understand technology transfer, equity structures, and licensing, they make better decisions about where to commercialize. The institution retains its share of the value it helped create.
Spinout Quality
Companies formed by structurally literate founders survive longer, raise more efficiently, and reach meaningful milestones faster. Your innovation pipeline improves at the source.
Risk Reduction
Physicians who understand Stark Law implications, conflict-of-interest requirements, and board fiduciary duties create fewer compliance problems for your institution.
Network Effects
Multi-hospital adoption creates a shared standard for physician-innovator development. Fellows from different institutions build cross-institutional networks that generate deal flow, collaboration, and shared learning.
Measurable Outcomes
Pre- and post-program structural literacy assessment. Track improvement across seven domains. Institutional dashboards showing cohort progress, spinout formation, and value creation metrics.
Measured transformation,
not attendance
Every physician enters with a structural literacy score and exits with a documented transformation. The assessment measures competence across seven domains — not self-reported confidence.
Pre-Program Assessment
78-question Structural Literacy Assessment across seven domains. Establishes baseline and identifies priority modules for each physician.
Module Assessments
Post-module evaluations after each curriculum block. Domain scores update in real time. Tracks progress against institutional and individual benchmarks.
Capstone + Certification
Project-based capstone evaluated by clinicians, operators, and investors. Post-program assessment documents transformation with before/after structural literacy scores.
Bring structural literacy to
your institution
Whether you're a hospital innovation office exploring a partnership, or a physician who wants to push your institution toward structural literacy training — the conversation starts here.
