John Parrish, MD, Founder and Director, CIMIT

Dr. Parrish is the Director and founder of CIMIT, the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology.  CIMIT brings together financial resources, scientific insights and business expertise from leading academic and industry participants.  Its mission is to catalyze technologic innovations that will have a major beneficial impact on healthcare. Under John's leadership, CIMIT has evolved into a successful consortium of academic medical centers, engineering research laboratories, universities and over 65 private sector companies.  Annually, CIMIT selects 30-40 multidisciplinary research teams to develop novel technologies while transcending barriers in regulation, intellectual property and business development. CIMIT-supported projects have led to the formation of 10 sustainable ventures, 170 invention disclosures, 80 patent applications, 350 publications and over $120 million in supplemental grants. Dr. Parrish is professor and chairman of the Harvard Medical School Department of Dermatology and MGH's chief of dermatology.  Dr. Parrish is a member of the Institute of Medicine and serves on the National Space Biomedical Research Institute board of directors.  He has authored over 300 publications, including 6 books. Dr. Parrish founded the Wellman Center for Photomedicine, the first and now the world’s largest multidisciplinary research group to systematically study the basic nature of laser effects on tissue.