i360 Medical founder Derek Young dies

Derek Young, an engineer who founded a one-stop source for outsourced medtech product research and development, has died.

Mr Young, who was 51, had an underlying illness for many years. He died at the Hermitage Clinic in Dublin.

He built a business on the mantra of “if you’re going to fail, fail fast”, helping medtech inventors to discover quickly whether their ideas had real commercial potential.

His i360 Medical was spun out of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 2012 – where it was established in 2009 to give Irish surgeons a path to roadtest their ideas for surgical innovation. He subsequently replicated that model with some of the largest US hospital systems, including Northwell and the Cleveland Clinic.

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i360 Medical chairman Bob Mitchell, an industry veteran, described Mr Young as a visionary and one of Ireland's leading entrepreneurs and innovators in a sector of growing importance for the State.

“Derek was the proud founder and driving force behind i360medical. He was a deeply connected, accomplished innovator and leader in the medical device industry,” Mr Mitchell said. “But the true legacy he leaves behind is that of a husband, father, and friend.”

Mr Young, who was originally from Co Laois, had lived in Wexford for many years.

An inventor in his own right, Mr Young had over 32 patents with commercial success globally to his name and had been involved in a number of successful European medical device start-up companies – including Medtech, Advanced Surgical Concepts and Haptica – before spinning into the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI) in Dublin.

Over the last 12 years, he spearheaded and completed at least a dozen medical device exits with leading multinational players in the healthcare industry.

Mr Young's funeral will take place at St Brigid's church, Blackwater, Co Wexford at 11am on Saturday.