UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The 2019 Richard E. Tressler Lecture in Materials will be held at 3:05 p.m. Thursday, March 21, in 26 Hosler Building at University Park. Maureen L. Mulvihill, president and CEO of Actuated Medical Inc. (AMI), will deliver the lecture “Actuated Medical, Inc. - Path from Concept to Fully-integrated Medical Device Company” and will be awarded the 2019 R.E. Tressler Award.
Mulvihill co-founded AMI on the entrepreneurial idea that an agile business could solve clinical needs using electronically controlled motion. Over the last 12 years, Mulvihill built a company that develops, manufactures and sells medical devices. Mulvihill’s lecture will focus on the growth of AMI under her leadership.
By establishing an ‘internal’ start-up ecosystem, Mulvihill’s AMI team of 23 dedicated and engaged members has the infrastructure to incubate creative ideas and quickly test them. Those ideas that demonstrate market potential are developed to commercial exits. Knowing that the U.S. Food and Drug Association’s Current Good Manufacturing Practices are key to technology valuation, AMI’s process is ISO 13485:2016 certified.
This year, Mulvihill negotiated and signed a Vizient Nationwide Innovation contract for AMI’s TubeClear System — a system which uses a mechanical method to clear clogged feeding tubes. The innovation contract is highly regarded as few products achieve this recognition. TubeClear has gained early adoption from several large hospitals across the United States. TubeClear’s market uniqueness attracted the attention of U.S. regional distributors signing with AMI, thus expanding TubeClear’s nationwide sales force and doubling commercial revenue in 2018.
AMI holds 20 issued patents, has more than 40 pending patent applications, and three products, including the TubeClear System, generating early revenue. With the greater visibility, medical technology start-ups are coming to AMI for development assistance and intellectual property out-licensing. Within Pennsylvania, AMI is partnering with clinicians and researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Penn State University Park, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State Children’s Hospital and University of Pittsburgh.
Mulvihill has been recognized over 34 times nationally and internationally for her entrepreneurial leadership. In 2017, she was a U.S. delegate to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India. Due to her experience growing a start-up, she was appointed to the Advanced Medical Technology Association’s Accel Division board of directors to represent small emerging medical device companies. She is an alumna of the competitive Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business program.
Mulvihill received her doctorate in materials from Penn State in 1996.
The Richard E. Tressler Lectures in Materials honors the very important work of Richard E. Tressler who was an international leader in the development of high temperature materials and served as head of Penn State's Department of Materials Science and Engineering from 1991 to 2001.
The lecture is free and open to the public.