The CIMIT congress was held over two days (27th and 28th October 2009) in Boston, MA. We received an introduction and warm welcome from John Parrish, Executive Director of CIMIT followed by the keynote speakers and special guests, including our very own Prof. Sir Robert Boyd (Chairman of the MIMIT board), who highlighted the exciting progress MIMIT has made over its first 18 months.

We then had the opportunity to delve into the Exploratorium, the perfect place to mix with other delegates and see up-and-coming technology that addresses specific unmet clinical need.

The following day was full of sessions dedicated to three main areas of focus:

1. Transforming patient care through IT
2. Caring for the injured soldier
3. Introducing new technologies into clinical care

There were many interesting speakers and two particular highlights were Clay Christensen (innovator, author and Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School), discussing how best to address the issues in healthcare today, with particular reference to looking at ‘jobs to be done’ rather than the perceived desires of customers (healthcare professionals and/or patients).

Susan Axelrod, president and founder of CURE, gave a heart-rending account of her family’s struggle with epilepsy. Re-telling her and her daughter's experience, when treatments and medications could only give partial respite, emphasized the need to keep searching and developing healthcare improvements.

The day concluded with a series of stimulating short talk sessions and the knowledge that although the next CIMIT congress won’t be until October 2011, it will be eagerly anticipated.

The CIMIT Innovation Congress, held October 27-28, is the only conference where preeminent trailblazers of medical device technology join with national healthcare leaders to explore new ideas and build coalitions that facilitate solutions to our most critical healthtcare problems.

MIMIT is pleased to announce that we will be attending the Congress; key members of the team will be travelling to Boston to meet with industry and our CIMIT partners, forging stronger links with our US and international colleagues.