Interview With The Innovator Budimir Drakulic

Budimir Drakulic is an innovator who has many patented inventions in the area of micro-electronics.

Presently, Drakulic serves as the Chief Scientist at BioSig Technologies, Inc. This is a company that develops innovative medical devices.

His experience in the biotech area is over three decades long and encompasses design, development and integration of hardware and software modules for biomedical microelectronics circuits and systems.

Over the course of his work life, Drakulic has held a number of positions in different companies.

What is Drakulic’s profession?

Budimir Drakulic: People often say that my career in micro-electronics is impressive. I was awarded the prestigious Ralph and Marjorie Crump Prize for Excellence in Medical Engineering on multiple occasions. Also I am a prolific author, quoted by Fortune 100 companies in their patent applications. I have been director of Microelectronics Lab, Crump Institute of Medical Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles - along with other positions at UCLA of a similar nature - for many years.

Amplifiers developed by me are used by public and private agencies worldwide including The National Institute of Health.

I am a passionate innovator of medical devices with a number of patented innovations. Some of the patents include:

• System for, and method of, acquiring physiological signals of a patient,

• Amplified system for determining parameters of a patient,

• Apparatus for, and method of, determining the condition of a patient's heart,

• Electrode for, and method of, indicating signal characteristics at particular positions in a patient's body,

• System for, and method of, monitoring heartbeats of a patient,

• Systems and methods for evaluation of electrophysiology systems,

• Eeg system.

Furthermore, I have achieved technological advancements unrivalled by any corporation or individual.

What is the best moment Budimir Drakulic had in his career?

Budimir Drakulic: I fell satisfied when I get recognition for my work. In 2006 I received 2006 Frost & Sullivan Award for Technological Innovation.

Also, I received the Marjorie Crump Prize for Excellence in Medical Engineering from UCLA in 1985.

Those were truly satisfying moments.

How did Drakulic come to micro-electronics technology?

Budimir Drakulic: I hold a Bachelor’s of Science Degree, Master’s Degree and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Since then I have had a great interest in the micro-electronics technology. Soon, I created a number of successful bioengineering technology innovation projects, and I haven’t stopped ever since.

What motivates Budimir Drakulic to be a medical devices innovator?

Budimir Drakulic: Since forever I wanted to make a contribution to the advancement of medicine. My innovation work is focused on developing systems that minimize noise and artifacts from cardiac recordings during electrophysiology studies and ablation. I consider that this area of medicine gives the most opportunities for innovation.

How can you assure yourself you are on the right track?

Budimir Drakulic: You have to embrace failure in your experimentation. I have the mindset that the impossible does not exist. Just imagine yourself, 300 years in the past, thinking about the idea of flying home on a plane, with a cell phone in your pocket. From that time distance, this seems impossible.

What is innovation for Drakulic?

Budimir Drakulic: Innovation is an experimentation and learning process. An innovator embraces the future with uncertainty and failure is his friend. This is because anytime you fail, you learn something new, and it strengthens your ability to make good decisions the first time around. Failure forces you to do something no one else has done before.

How to define the innovator?

Budimir Drakulic: There are two types of people. The first type are the experts, those who know everything. These people come with a plan with all the ideas and details worked out. This type of people is the most frequently seen.

The second type, however, are rarely seen. These people have vision, however they usually admit they have no clue how they will reach their end goal. Nevertheless, these people have the strongest vision and know that they will fail. But, they do not mind failure. They treat failure like an opportunity to grow.