Rodney Perkins (born 1936), a physician and entrepreneur, is Professor of Surgery at the Stanford School of Medicine.[1]
Born in 1936, Perkins grew up in Evansville, Indiana.[2] He attended Indiana University, initially enrolling as a dental student, but changed in his first year to pre-med, and then continued his studies at Indiana University School of Medicine. In his fourth year, as he was learning surgical procedures, he designed a medical device that cooled the blood prior to cardiac surgery that won first place in the AMA’s Medical Student Research Competition.[3] [4] He graduated in 1961. He works as a Neuro-Otologist in Woodside, California.
Perkins moved to San Francisco in 1962 and one year later entered a surgical residency at Stanford University.[3] In 1968 he started his own practice adjacent to the Stanford campus.[5] This ultimately became the California Ear Institute at Stanford.[6] Perkins’ long tenure at Stanford was also celebrated with the dedication of the Rodney Perkins Microsurgery Laboratory in 2008.[7]
Perkins’ research and career as an entrepreneur has mainly focused on the field of otology. He is the founder of the California Ear Institute at Stanford and a founder or cofounder of Soundhawk, Collagen Corporation,[8] Laserscope,[9] ReSound, Novacept, Pulmonx,[10] Sound ID,[11] EarLens,[12] and DFine Inc.[13] [14] Three of these companies have been taken public.[15] [16] [17]
Perkins is the founder of three public companies: Collagen Corporation (collagen-based implant materials),[3] Laserscope (surgical lasers),[9] and ReSound Corporation (high tech signal processing hearing devices).[17] He is also the founder and Chairman of Novacept (women's health), sold to Cytyc Corporation,[18] Sound ID (hearing science),[19] Pulmonx (interventional pulmonology and emphysema treatment),[20] and was Chairman of Surgrx (electrosurgical instrumentation), which was sold to Ethicon Endo-Surgery,[21] a division of Johnson & Johnson,[22] in 2008.
Currently, Perkins is founder, Director and CMO of Earlens Corporation, which is developing what it hopes will be a new method of sound transduction for hearing improvement.[23] Perkins is co-founder and Chairman of Procept,[24] a company developing a biorobotic minimally invasive solution for benign prostatic hypertrophy.[25]
Perkins received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Medical Futures,[2] a British organization that fosters innovation in medicine. He also received the Distinguished Medical Alumnus Award from Indiana University and was inducted into the Evansville Hall of Fame.[26]