Philip Kregor, M.D.
New Web site markets VU-created technologies
Vanderbilt University has launched a new e-commerce Web site that allows users to purchase innovative software, courseware and other digital products over the Internet.
The VU e-Innovations Web site features technologies developed exclusively at Vanderbilt. The link is http://vuinnovations.com/.
Setting up such online stores is the latest trend in university technology transfer efforts. At least two other universities, University of Washington and University of Minnesota, have set up similar Web sites.
“Hundreds of patents have been issued to Vanderbilt and the university has entered into numerous license agreements. We realized that a number of them were suitable for online sales,” said Peter Rousos, senior business development executive in Vanderbilt's Office of Technology Transfer and Enterprise Development, which set up the new site.
The new site has undergone several months of testing and currently offers six university-developed products:
• Parents, teachers and day-care instructors may be interested in “Play Nicely,” a video series developed by a Vanderbilt pediatrician that offers advice on how to deal with and modify anti-social and violent behavior among preschoolers.
• OLINDA/EXM is a program for doctors and researchers who work with radiopharmaceuticals. It runs on a personal computer and calculates the radiation doses that various organs will receive when different radioactive drugs are administered in given amounts.
• Three of the products — INTMAN, MOOSES and ProcoderDV — are designed to aid social scientists involved in observational studies. INTMAN and MOOSES allow the researchers to replace traditional paper-and-pencil methods for taking data with personal digital assistants, allowing them to transfer the data to desktop computers where the data can be analyzed. ProcoderDV is specifically designed to collect observational data from audio or video recordings.
• ListVUe is a software tool that aids professionals responsible for determining whether the export of certain sensitive devices and information is consistent with the United States Department of Commerce's Commerce Control List.
In the last fiscal year, Vanderbilt received more than $8.4 million in revenues from licensing technology and innovations that were developed by Vanderbilt researchers. For more information, go to www.vanderbilt.edu/technology_transfer.