Business workshop to be held this Friday

This Friday, Cook Group Inc. will sponsor a workshop as part of the Indiana Life Sciences Collaboration Conference Series hosted by the Kelley School of Business. The workshop, titled “Biological and Physiological Differences Across the Population: Implications for Research and Development Along the Life Sciences Value Chain,” is the second in a series of four workshops scheduled to take place throughout the academic year. \nThe workshop will address the trend of specialized health care products “directly focused on some segment of the population,” said Lawrence Davidson, professor of business economics and public policy at Kelley.\nAn example Davidson provided was Zimmer, a biotechnology company that specializes in prosthetic knees and hips. The company will be represented at the workshop. Zimmer is focusing on how to develop prosthetic knees designed to suit women’s lifestyles and physiology, Davidson said. \n“It’s an important trend in the health care environment,” Davidson said. “More and more medical products and services are specialized towards specific groups for (increased) efficiency.”\nThe overall goal of the Life Sciences Collaboration is to address scientific issues relevant to Indiana. The Kelley School asked several Indiana-based companies to be involved with the conferences series, including the Cook Group, which agreed to host this event. Additional sponsors include the Indianapolis-based law firm Sommer Barnard PC and various schools within the University itself. \nThe workshop will have speakers including Kem Hawkins, president of Cook Group; Dr. Saralyn Mark, the senior scientific policy adviser for the Cook Group as well as the senior medical advisor to NASA; Dr. Paris Roach, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the IU School of Medicine; and Dr. David Flockhart, chief of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at the IU School of Medicine and part of the National Institute of Health Pharmacogenetics Research Network.\nThe goal is to address the need for the medical industry to move from “the idea to get a remedy put on the shelf for most of the population” to more specialized practices, Davidson said. He said this step will help optimize medical practices.\nThe workshop will take place at Cook Medical Headquarters in Bloomington. While it is geared more toward people involved in the business aspect of health care, such as manufacturers and suppliers, any students interested in the business aspect of science and technology are welcome to attend. \nStudents attending institutions of higher learning can attend for free; however, registration is mandatory. Information is available at the Web site www.kelley.iu.edu/lifesc/conferences/confreg.html.