CHOC Children’s in Orange named Terence “Terry” Sanger its first chief scientific officer.
Sanger was brought on to ramp research activity and increase collaboration with local academic institutions such as Chapman University and University of California-Irvine.
Sanger said he aims to get to a model “where a child comes into the hospital, and we say, ‘here is the standard treatment, but if that doesn’t work, here is the newest treatment available.’”
“If we leave research to universities, then we won’t have access to the best, most promising treatments. But in a hospital setting, we will not expose children to unnecessary risks and we will communicate with parents because it is our first duty to protect children.”
Sanger was also appointed vice chair for research in the department of pediatrics at the UCI School of Medicine and a professor at the UCI School of Engineering.
He was previously a provost professor in the departments of biomedical engineering, neurology and bio-kinesiology at University of Southern California and an attending neurologist at CHOC Children’s in Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, Sanger launched the HTE@USC program to bridge the gap between medical and engineering students and the D-Health incubator with Dr. George Tolomiczenko.
“I was very happy with the companies that emerged from HTE, and when I got the position at CHOC, I asked George to come with me,” Sanger said. “I want to create the same links between medicine and engineering and establish nontraditional links with many other schools at UCI.”
Tolomiczenko has since been named the director of medical innovations at the UCI School of Medicine and aims to accelerate the translation of research and development of medical devices at UCI Beall Applied Innovation.
Sanger added that he hopes to find financial models to support pediatric medical device companies, such as the hospital partnering with early-stage companies, to spur the development of products for children.
—Jessie Yount
