From Concept to Clinic: Accelerating Medical Device Innovation with AI

Kevin Sexton
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Kevin W. Sexton, MD, is a surgeon-scientist with board certifications in Surgery and Clinical Informatics. He is currently Professor of Surgery and Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he also serves as Vice Chair of Innovation for the Section of Surgical Sciences. His work centers on innovation education and entrepreneurial science in healthcare, aiming to bridge the gap between technological advancements and practical clinical applications.

Dr. Sexton has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and has a track record of extramural funding from the National Institute of Health, Health Resources and Services Administration, Department of Defense, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, and the United States Department of Commerce among others. 

Dr. Sexton has been involved with health tech startups for the last 15 years and currently servesas an advisor to companies such as hDrop Technologies, Inc., Decisio Health, Inc., HoopCare, Inc., Qventus, Inc, and Doximity, Inc. He is also a professional coach who specializes in working with healthcare executives and healthcare software companies.

Nate Downing, JD
Manging Attorney
Gardner Law, PLLC

Nathan focuses his practice on FDA-regulated clients. His industry experience allows him to provide actionable legal advice on a variety of health law matters.

Nathan regularly advises FDA-regulated clients on regulatory and compliance matters. He advises clients on their advertising and promotion programs, represents clients in front of the FDA on a variety of matters, and assesses industry initiatives for compliance concerns. Nathan’s extensive regulatory experience allows him to advise clients regarding a variety of medical products, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, medical foods, and nutritional supplements.

Patricia Khashayar, MD, PhD, MBA
Director, International Institute for Biosensing (IIB)
Research Associate professor, Research Computing Department,
R&I Office, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Patricia Khashayar is the Director of the International Institute for Biosensing (IIB) in the Research Computing, Research & Innovation Office at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. In this role, she leads a coordinated and collaborative national and international initiative that brings together experts from academia, nonprofits, industry, and government agencies. Her work focuses on developing real partnerships, identifying barriers to advancing biosensing research, and generating innovative solutions.

A Medical Doctor by training, Patricia holds a PhD in Nanobiotechnology and Biomedical Engineering. She got her MBA in entrepreneurship from London Business School. She has led and participated in numerous national and international projects aimed at improving personalized care. Her research spans from multimorbidity studies and identifying risk factors, exposomes, and shared biomarkers to developing multi-modal multi-omics biosensors and point-of-care (PoC) tools for patient stratification, early diagnosis, and treatment monitoring. She has obtained various grants from the European Commission to develop proteomics and genomics point of care solutions for various diseases such as osteoporosis and cervical cancer. She has published more than 150 articles, 1 granted patent and 1 monograph.

As a Research Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, she continues her research in precision sensing and exposomics, expanding her focus to applications that enhance human well-being beyond healthcare.

Before joining the University of Minnesota, Patricia was affiliated with the University of Gent, where she remains a Guest Professor. In her role, she served as an expert on various panels such as the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO) interdisciplinary Panel and European Innovation Council (EIC) SME for the European Commission. 

Patricia is also active in various international organizations. She is a member of the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF)’s Committee of Scientific Advisors (CSA), which provides global recommendations for osteoporosis and other musculoskeletal diseases. Additionally, she is the chair of IEEE Twin Cities Sensor Council Chapter as well as IEEE Twin Cities Women in Engineering Affiliated section.

Christopher Tignanelli, MD, MS, MBA
Associate Professor, Division of Critical Care & Acute Care Surgery
Co-Director, Clinical Quality, Outcomes, Discovery and Evaluation (CQODE)
Scientific Co-Director, Program for Clinical, Center for Learning Health System Sciences
Associate Dean for Data Science
University of Minnesota

Genevieve Melton-Meaux, MD, PhD
Professor, Division of Colon & Rectal Surgery
Director, Center for Learning Health System Sciences
Professor and Core Faculty Member, Institute of Health Informatics
Senior Associate Dean for Health Informatics and Data Science
Chief Health Informatics and AI Officer, Fairview Health Services
University of Minnesota