Dr. David Shulkin, Under Secretary for Health for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) www.va.gov/health appeared on February 3, 2016 before the House Veterans Committee http://veterans.house.gov to discuss the VA’s Technology Transfer program.”
As Dr Shulkin told the Committee, “The Technology Transfer Program focuses on protecting and commercializing intellectual property plus helps facilitate tech transfer and research among academic partners, local VAMCs, and industry.”
The VA’s Tech Transfer Office www.research.va.gov/programs/tech_transfer is housed within the Office of Research and Development www.research.va.gov. Research supports over 2,000 projects at over 100 VA Medical Centers (VAMC) with an FY 2016 appropriation of over $620 million.
The VA research program also provides private and federal grants to VA researchers so that the total resources available are expected to exceed $1.8 billion this year. In general, VA research focuses on VA-relevant biomedical laboratory, clinical, rehabilitation, and health services research.
The tech transfer program has provided products that can greatly improve life for veterans but may not be particularly commercially valuable. This means that the technology would probably not exist without the program.
For example, tech transfer played a role in the development of several kinds of prosthetic feet such as a foot that allows veterans with lower leg amputation to easily change shoes without experiencing balance issues.
Many clinicians and researchers have laboratory access at both VA and academic affiliates. Therefore, most VA inventions are jointly owned by VA and their academic affiliates making tech transfer a necessary collaborative effort.
To provide for more efficient tech transfer, the program has executed Cooperative Technology Administration Agreements on VA’s behalf with many academic affiliates. This makes it possible for the affiliates to take the lead in the management of the co-owned inventions, while maintaining VA’s joint ownership. It has been found that the affiliates may have greater flexibility with licensing terms and perhaps greater access to private sector partners.