Title

Michael A Fisher

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Title/Position
Director of Biomedical Innovation and Development (MBID) Program, Professor of the Practice, Jim Pope Create X Fellow
Contact

Contact

UAW 2114Georgia Tech
774.766.2793
Biography

Biography

Michael Fisher has two degrees in Engineering Mechanics from Virginia Tech ('93 and '96), 25 years of medical product development experience, and 3 years of teaching experience.  His career spans the fields of tissue engineering, orthopedics, neurosurgery, women’s pelvic health, urology, plastic surgery, and engineering consulting. He was named a “Company Innovator” at Johnson & Johnson and his team won “Revenue Growth Franchise of the Year” at Becton-Dickinson. In 2014, Michael joined Georgia Tech as a director for the Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI) – a unique product development consultancy designed to enable translation of academic work into products within the highly regulated medical device space. In 2022, he joined the Biomedical Engineering Department as a Professor of the Practice and became the director of the Master of Biomedical Innovation and Development (MBID) program in 2023. MBID is a one-year master of science issued by Georgia Tech’s biomedical engineering department that prepares its 25-35 annual graduates for careers in medical product development.

These career experiences helped Michael to appreciate the process for developing and vetting new medical products and interventions. He also learned about pilot and scale-up manufacturing, green field development of facilities and manufacturing systems, program management, project finances, intellectual properties, risk mitigation strategies, and managing multiple teams of distributed personnel with International supply chains. This job afforded him the opportunity to live around the world in highly diverse environments.

Mike developed and launched products worth over $1billion in revenues while leading six successful 510(k) applications. He is also a named inventor on over 70 US patents.

Outside of Georgia Tech, Mike sits on several advisory boards for Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering. He has two sons and lives in Grayson, GA. For hobbies, he likes to turn perfectly good wood into sawdust in his wood shop while maintaining his fleet of family cars.

Education

Education

  • BS, Engineering Science and Mechanics, Virginia Tech, 1993
  • MS, Engineering Mechanics, Virginia Tech, 1996
Academic Appointments

Academic Appointments

Biomedical Engineering Department, Georgia Tech
Research Interests

Research Interests

Translation of research into commercial products, engineering education, medical product development, and medical device design.

Teaching Interests

Teaching Interests

Medical product development - concept, product opportunity assessment, feasibility, design & development, intellectual properties, manufacturing, scale-up production, market introduction, and field assurance.
Publications

Publications

Devices and methods for minimally invasive disc space distraction and implantation are provided. For example, in intervertebral operative spinal procedures, separate or pre-attached spreader blocks can be used to control the directional growth of a distracting balloon. The spreader blocks can provide an initial distraction of the disc space while the distracting balloon provides further distraction of the disc space. When distraction is achieved, an intervertebral implant may be inserted into the distracted disc space. After the implant is firmly implanted, the balloon and spreader block may be removed.
Ureteral or bladder catheters and systems are provided, including (a) a proximal portion; and (b) a distal portion, the distal portion including a retention portion including an outer periphery or protective surface area which prevents mucosal tissue from occluding one or more protected drainage holes, ports, or perforations disposed within the outer periphery or protective surface area upon application of negative pressure through the catheter.
Various spinal implants and methods for stabilizing the spine are provided. In one exemplary embodiment, a spinal implant is provided having an expandable container with an interior volume that is selectively expandable between a compressed condition and an expanded condition. The expandable container is coupled to a superior endplate member having a bone-contacting surface and an engagement surface effective to mate with a superior surface of the expandable container, and an inferior endplate member having a bone-contacting surface and an engagement surface effective to mate with an inferior surface of the expandable container. In addition, at least one inlet port is formed in the expandable container and is effective to communicate a fluid to at least one cavity disposed within the interior volume of the expandable container.
A spinal implant is provided having an elongate member with a longitudinal axis and threads extending over at least a portion of the outer surface thereof. The implant includes a stabilization feature associated with the elongate member that is selectively configurable between a delivery configuration and a deployed configuration in which the stabilization feature is oriented at an angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the elongate member. Also, at least a portion of the implant can include a fusion-promoting bioactive material. In another aspect, the invention includes methods for providing stabilization within a facet joint by delivery of an articulating intra-facet screw.
An adaptor for connecting a syringe to an aspiration and/or irrigation device, typically a medical device such as a catheter, cannula or needle, is described herein. The adaptor is comprised of two components: a deformable elastomeric expansion sleeve and a relatively rigid insertion body. The expansion sleeve is essentially an elastomeric plug that forms a tight seal about the inner and outer surfaces of the syringe tip when deformed by the relatively rigid insertion body. The adaptor assembly described herein allows for full visualization of the syringe contents when in use and is compatible with multiple syringe components. The adaptor assembly is also relatively easy to manufacture and maintain. It provides a fluid-seal that adequately tolerates the mechanical loads such as torsion, mechanical moment, shear, and longitudinal loads expected during normal use.
Non-load-bearing, drug-eluting components, such as a rod cover, that can be added to load bearing spinal implants.
Mechanical modifications to a spinal rod that will enable the rod to accept various coating technologies in such a way that the spinal construct's biomechanical performance is not compromised. These modifications preserve construct biomechanics in the presence of a coating and increase the bactericidal payload of an anti-infective spinal rod coating.