OC LIFe: Opportunities in Pediatric Research, Medical Device Development and Innovation

A renowned physician and research scientist, Dr. Terence Sanger is Vice President for Research and Chief Scientific Officer at CHOC. He brings decades of experience in pediatric neurology, movement disorders and robotics to CHOC’s Research Institute.

Dr. Sanger received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in applied mathematics from Harvard University and a doctorate in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He attended medical school at Harvard Medical School and completed his medical internship and residency training in pediatrics at the USC/Los Angeles County Medical Center. Dr. Sanger completed residency and fellowship training in neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital, and additional fellowship training in the movement disorders unit at Toronto Western Hospital. In addition to his clinical fellowships, Dr. Sanger completed research fellowship training at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and at MIT.

Prior to CHOC, Dr. Sanger served as provost professor in the biomedical engineering, neurology and biokinesiology departments at the University of Southern California. He was also an attending neurologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where he served as director of the pediatric movement disorders program, the David Lee and Simon Ramo Chair in Health Sciences and Technology and the founding director of the health technology and engineering program. Previously, he was a tenured professor of child neurology at Stanford University and on medical staff at Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital.

Frances Richmond was educated as a neurophysiologist (BNSc, MSc, PhD) at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. She completed postdoctoral studies at the Universite de Montreal and the National Institutes of Health before joining the faculty of Queen’s University, where she served as associate dean of life sciences (1986-1989). She also served as a policy adviser for scientific labor needs at Industry Canada (1990-1992) and as a clinical scientist at the Alfred E. Mann Foundation, an early-stage device development group (1994-1995). She was the first female to be appointed director of a research consortium funded by Canada’s Medical Research Council (1995-2000).

Richmond joined the faculty of USC in 1999 as director of regulatory and clinical sciences at the Alfred E. Mann Institute, where she served for eight years. Her work there included seven projects in the field of product development which have advanced through the clinical trial stage. Though focused mostly on the BION, an implantable wireless microstimulator, she was also involved in research on other implantables, sensors and prosthetic limbs. Richmond is or has been a member of three large research consortia—the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Engineering Research partnership, NIH Bioengineering Research partnership and the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CSTI). She directs CSTI’s Regulatory Knowledge and Support group for the Los Angeles Basin.

Donny W. Suh, M.D., FAAP, MBA, FACS works at Gavin Herbert Eye Institute at the University of California at Irvine (UCI) and at Children’s Hospital of Orange County. He is a Professor and Chief of Pediatric Ophthalmology in the Department of Ophthalmology at UCI. Previously, he worked at Children’s Hospital of Omaha as the Chief of Ophthalmology Service and Interim Surgeon-in-Chief. Also, he was John and Irene Graether Endowed Chair and Professor at the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. He was also the Director of Fellowship in Pediatric Ophthalmology and Adult Strabismus at University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Dr. Shreim completed his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in 2006. He began his career at Applied Medical Resources developing automated assembly equipment for Applied’s advanced laparoscopy products. He returned to UC Irvine’s Biomedical Engineering Department where he developed specialized instrumentation to conduct micromechanical studies on cells and their microenvironment on his way to earning a PhD in 2011. Dr. Shreim later worked as a sensor and algorithm engineer at Masimo Corporation. He developed advanced prototypes, expanded manufacturing capacity for FDA cleared products, and contributed to algorithms currently deployed in FDA cleared, light-based physiologic sensors worldwide.

Jessica is an Executive Vice President at Veranex, a global medical device service provider specializing in end-to-end solutions that help medtech organizations achieve results faster though proven expertise and resources. As the Contract Research Organization (CRO) & Consulting Services business unit leader, Jessica oversees integrated services, including clinical trial strategy/execution, clinical data services, regulatory affairs, quality/compliance, market access, and reimbursement. She also manages operations, client communications, business development, and results tracking. A seasoned professional in medical devices and diagnostics, Jessica is experienced with Software as a Medical Device (SaMDs), surgical innovation, oncology, aesthetics, cardiology, and gastroenterology technologies. Having proudly worked at Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) and Becton Dickinson and Co (NYSE: BDX), she gained experience leading commercialization teams, driving impactful projects in sales planning, physician education, collaboration with patient advocacy groups, and driving change management.