Keeping the Faith in the Inventor Journey

In our Inventor Chronicles video series Cleveland Clinic inventors share their backgrounds, goals, challenges, and advice for new inventors. Each episode follows a different inventor’s journey with Cleveland Clinic Innovations, from initial inspiration to life-changing invention.

“Your ideas can come to fruition and there will be a million frustrating moments. You just have to keep the faith in your ideas and in yourself and be persistent, don’t give up.” – Margot Damaser, PhD.

Dr. Damaser, a Biomedical Engineer at Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute, invented a new way to help patients with stress urinary incontinence with a wireless bladder monitoring device. Her lab focuses on using tools such as wireless communication and integrated circuit design to improve treatments for conditions that are common among the elderly.

This Uro monitor and associated patents and technology were licensed last year to a startup with hopes of FDA approval for commercialization and full clinical use by end of 2024. “And that will be the most rewarding thing is being able to know that it’s being used in clinics and helping patients,” says Dr. Damaser.

Cleveland Clinic Innovations brings the best ideas from the brightest minds in medicine to patients around the world by connecting inventors and their ideas with strategic industry partners to create products that transform the future of healthcare. Since our inception in 2000, Cleveland Clinic Innovations has helped inventors receive 2,400+ patents, executed more than 800 licenses and launched over 100 start-ups to turn ideas into next-generation products for patients.