TEAM

Management

 

Founder/CEO:  MD by MD's daily operations are overseen and run by

                      Aylin Z. Kim.  She brings her experience of the medical 

                      device industry and physician relationships from an early 

                      career with Johnson & Johnson and CliniLabs.com.  Her  

                      technology background and sales/marketing experience 

                      structure the bridge that MD by MD builds to close the gap

                      that physician inventors face.

 

            Aylin has a BS in Biomedical Engineering and MBA, both

from Columbia University.  She is a founding partner of the Turkish Philanthropic Fund and a board member of Phoenix Country Day School Alumni Committee.  She lives in Seattle, WA and enjoys spending time in the outdoors with her husband and daughter.

 

 

Strategic Alliances

 

 

Innovation Assessment Center

 

 

 

 

 

Scientific Advisory Board

 

Louis J. Kim, MD: 

                

                 

Dr. Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Attending neurosurgeon at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, WA. He is among a select group of neurosurgeons fellowship-trained in both open vascular/skull base surgery and endovascular interventional neurosurgery. This combination of skills provides a unique perspective where an unbiased treatment strategy is based on maximal effectiveness with the least potential for harm. Dr. Kim serves as PI or Co-PI on several clinical trials pertaining to cerebrovascular surgery outcomes and endovascular medical devices. His wide ranging expertise with complex vascular and skull base surgery, including conventional open microsurgery, endovascular catheter/stent/balloon technologies, standalone endoscopic, and endoscopic-assisted microsurgery are applicable to all facets of the SPI Surgical product development.

 

Dr. Kim received his medical degree from Columbia University, and completed his residency and fellowship training at the Barrow Neurological Institute.

 

Board of Advisors

 

Michel Kliot, MD:

 

Dr. Kliot has been involved with several successful startups and is also an attending neurosurgeon at both University of Washinton Medical Center and Veterans Administration Puget Sound Health Care System.  He is a founding scientist of Glitech, Inc., a biotechnology company that at one time was listed on the NASDAQ and brought to the clinic an antiscar bioabsorbable gel placed at the time of surgery to reduce scar formation.  He is also a founding scientist of UltraImage, Inc, which merged with Pathway Medical Inc., a biotechnology company that developed and has brought to the clinic several types of phase array MRI surface coils to improve the imaging of important biological structures.  Physiosonics (formerly Allez Physionix, Inc) is another biotechnology company for which he is a founding scientist.  The company focuses on ultrasound technology to develop non-invasive devices for 1) measuring intracranial pressure, 2) localizing pathological tissues within the body, and 3) measuring blood flow and emboli within the head in a user independent manner.

 

Dr. Kliot completed his BA and MA in Biology from Harvard University, and his MD from Yale University.  He did further graduate work on neurobiology at Stanford University before finishing his neurosurgical residency at Columbia College and Physicians at The Neurological Institute in NYC.  He has been a Professor at the University of Washington Department of Neurosurgery since 1990, where he is currently a Professor.    He is also Chief of the Section of Neurosurgery at the Puget Sound VA Health Care Center in Seattle.

 

Hal Tashman: 

 

Mr. Tashman is a retired executive from the plastics/medical device manufacturing industry.  He began his professional career working on Wall Street for a major public accounting firm. In 1972, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona, joined a small plastics company as controller. He added two successful start-up companies to the Tech Group as their founding President/CEO, which also transformed him from employee to partner in 1983.  Throughout his tenures, they developed and manufactured dozens of products for leading medical device corporations.  After growing the company 200 times reaching 12 manufacturing locations in 3 continents, Hal and his partner Steve sold their mostly medical business to West Pharmaceutical Services in 2005 as part of their exit plan and merged their Asian operations with a public company based in Singapore.

 

Mr. Tashman is a graduate of Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey and came to New York for his MBA from Columbia University in 1968, majoring in corporate finance as a Fulbright scholar. 

 

He is actively involved in various non-profit organizations and resides in Phoenix, AZ.

 

 

Seth Tropper:

 

Mr. Tropper is an experienced entrepreneur with a proven track record in operations, finance and strategy.  He was founding partner of a high-tech startup, PlasmaSol, Corp., which was acquired by Fortune 100 medical device maker Stryker Corp for $20 million, and is now Founder/President of Switch to Health,  a corporation focused on commercializing innovative products based on proprietary technology to motivate individuals of all ages to begin, maintain, and increase their level of physical activity.

 

He holds an Executive Masters of Technology Management degree from Stevens Institute of Technology and an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Applied Statistics from St. John's University.

 

Mr. Tropper also serves on the Board for the New Jersey Technology Council, chairs the NJTC Environmental, Energy, and Engineering Industry Network, and is advisor to the Rutgers Technology Commercialization Fund and the NJ Ecomonic Development Authority's Technical Advisory Board.

 

 

Don J. Weiss:

 

Mr. Weiss is Chairman of DocuSys, Inc., a manufacturer of systems for monitoring drug injections.  He is also the owner of Self Storage Depot, LLC.  From 1970 to 1996, he was the owner and CEO of White Systems, Inc, the leading US manufacturer of automated retrieval systems for the storage of small parts and documents.

 

He was selected as "NJ Manufacturing Entrepreneur of the Year" by the American Institute of Entrepreneurs.  He was also selected as "Manufacturing Business Leader of the Year" by New Jersey Success Magazine.  He has also been featured on the cover of INC. Magazine and was awarded the "1993 Botwinick Prize for Business Ethics" from the Columbia University School of Business.

 

Mr. Weiss is active in the Chief Executives Organization, the World Presidents Organization and was active in the Young Presidents Organization, serving as New Jersey Chapter Chairman.  He is an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Columbia University School of Business, and serves on the boards of Alembic Insurance, Altura Inc., Malia Mills Inc. and Cornell University Entrepreneurial Studies Program.  Mr. Weiss has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Columbia University.