Cheng-Kung Cheng
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
2022

Dr. Cheng-Kung Cheng is a Chair Professor at the School of Biomedical Engineering and the Director of the Engineering Research Center of Digital Medicine and Clinical Translation of the Ministry of Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. With his numerous and impactful contributions on orthopaedic implant research, he was appointed as the “Thousand Talents Program Professor of China” in 2011. The United Orthopaedic Company (UOC) in Taiwan, that Dr. Cheng was involved with, has become extremely successful. Its products are now used in more than 490,000 patients from 40 countries. Still, Dr. Cheng recognized that in this highly competitive industry, the Taiwanese orthopaedic implant industry is rather small and the twenty or so companies there need to work together. So, in 2009, he founded the Taiwan Orthopaedic Device Development Association (TODDA) to unite them and to promote university-surgeons- industry collaboration for improved clinical translation. Using his own success with FDA applications (first approval in 2011), he has inspired members of TODDA to learn and todevelop confidence in submitting an application for their products to the FDA for approval in the USA.

To further expand his vision and continue his advocacy, Dr. Cheng initiated an Innovative Medical Device Summit in 2015. He provided a platform for medical doctors, research scientists, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, accountants, and government officers to educate; to better understand each other; and to continue their dialogue for closer collaboration. After he retired from National Yang Ming University of Taiwan in 2017, he took the professorship in Beijing and Shanghai to further establish a clinical translation platform of university-clinicians-industry to help clinicians to solve their unmet needs with the collaboration from the university and industry support. Indeed, Dr. Cheng has made a huge impact on the improvement of medical device design and manufacturing for better patient care.