I had a call earlier this week from Mary. Mary started her career in the medical device industry. Several years ago, she put her career on hold to raise her kids. Now that Mary’s kids are older, she has an interest in getting back into the medical device field. Mary started networking in her local business community. Several of the contacts she made suggested that Mary contact Creo Quality for what to do next.

I’m glad Mary called. We’re happy to help. Interestingly, Mary’s question was one we’ve heard many times before. It just hit me that since Mary and others have had this question, maybe I should spend a little bit of time writing down my response for others to review too.

Mary is interested in networking and meeting medical device professionals in Indiana. I suggested that she check out the following:

• INpact – A network of medical device service providers. INpact’s program is structured around issues around medical device product development. Monthly events are attended by service providers (such as designers, engineering firms, regulatory, quality, intellectual property), inventors, entrepreneurs, and startups.
• Indiana Biomedical Entrepreneur Network (IBEN) – Monthly events feature topics pertaining to medical device / life science startups. Attendees include inventors, entrepreneurs, startups, service providers, and investors.
• Indiana Medical Device Manufacturers Council (IMDMC) – Frequent events typically focused on FDA-related medical device issues. Attendees are typically comprised of Indiana’s medical device manufactuers.
• Indiana Health Industry Forum (IHIF) – Monthly lunch events draw larger crowd but attendees represent a much broader spectrum of backgrounds. Plus, IHIF caters more to life sciences industry as a whole rather than just medical devices.
• BioCrossroads – They host and sponsor a few events throughout the year. Again, like IHIF, BioCrossroads has a wider scope of life sciences and has historically skewed more towards pharmaceuticals.

I also shared with Mary that we try to post many of these events on the CQ blog.