Bio

Dr. Christopher Shen is an Adjunct Professor in the Stanford School of Medicine, the Director of Global Programs at the Stanford Mussallem Center for Biodesign, and a member of the Stanford Biodesign Leadership Council. Dr. Shen is also the Founding Executive Director of the Singapore Stanford Biodesign Program.

Dr. Shen has been a longstanding member of the Stanford community since 1991, completing degrees in Biological Sciences, Biomechanical Engineering, Business, and Medicine. He has been teaching graduate and undergraduate students since 2001.

A strong proponent of interdisciplinary and experiential education, Dr. Shen has dedicated his career to teaching medical, engineering, and business students at Stanford and abroad in foundational concepts underpinning design-thinking, clinical immersion, ideation, rapid prototyping, innovation, and entrepreneurship. In addition, Dr. Shen is responsible for establishing and/or managing collaborations between Stanford and Biodesign-like programs on every continent except Antarctica! He continues to annually mentor diverse groups of students to develop and implement innovative medical solutions to serve patients around the world.

Dr. Shen is the founding and current U.S. Executive Director of Singapore Stanford Biodesign since its inception in 2010. As the first Biodesign program in East Asia, its mission is to train the next generation of medical technology innovators throughout the Pacific Rim, focusing on the unique medical needs in the region. Supported by Singapore's national level research institute, the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (ASTAR), and the National Research Foundation (NRF), the program has uniquely built bridges across Asia, spanning Singapore, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Korea, Australia, and Malaysia. In total, the program has trained 60 Fellows and hundreds of students throughout the region.

Dr. Shen is also a Partner at Novo Holdings, the asset manager of the Novo Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the world. With headquarters in Denmark, Novo Holdings is committed to investing in innovative companies that improve the health of people and planet. Dr. Shen started his career in medical innovation as a Senior Design Engineer at Guidant Neurovascular, where he was the principal inventor of one of the original stentriever devices for ischemic stroke. He has been issued twelve patents in the fields of interventional neuroradiology and interventional cardiology.

Dr. Shen was a Stanford Asia/Pacific Scholar and a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow.

Academic Appointments

Professional Education

  • MBA, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business (2002)
  • MD, Stanford University, School of Medicine (1999)
  • MSE, Stanford University, Biomechanical Engineering (1998)
  • BS, Stanford University, Biological Sciences (1995)

Additional Info

  • Profile:
    Christopher Shen MD is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine and Director, Global Programs at Stanford Biodesign.

Links

All Publications

  • Relationship between hypnosis and personality trait in participants with high or low hypnotic susceptibility NEUROPSYCHIATRIC DISEASE AND TREATMENT Zhang, Y., Wang, Y., Shen, C., Ye, Y., Shen, S., Zhang, B., Wang, J., Chen, W., Wang, W. 2017; 13: 1007-1012

    Abstract

    The relationship between normal personality and hypnotic susceptibility is important for understanding mental processing and mental disorders, but it is less consistent in normal people or in patients with a psychiatric disorder. We have hypothesized that the correlation exists but varies in individuals with different levels of hypnotizability.We invited 72 individuals with high (HIGH group) and 47 individuals with low (LOW group) hypnotic susceptibilities to undertake tests of NEO-PI-R and the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (SHSSC).The HIGH group scored significantly higher than the LOW group did on openness to experience and its facet openness to feelings. In the LOW group, SHSSC total was positively predicted by openness to ideas; age regression was positively predicted by openness to experience and negatively predicted by extraversion; anosmia to ammonia was negatively predicted by agreeableness; and negative visual hallucination was positively predicted by openness to experience. In the HIGH group, hallucinated voice was positively predicted by openness to experience and negatively predicted by agreeableness, and posthypnotic amnesia was positively predicted by extraversion and negatively predicted by openness to experience.The associations between normal personality traits and hypnotic susceptibility items were weak and different in the two groups, which imply that managing mental or somatoform disorders might be through adjusting hypnotizability and mobilizing personality functions.

    View details for DOI 10.2147/NDT.S134930

    View details for Web of Science ID 000398557700001

    View details for PubMedID 28435270

  • Outcomes from a Postgraduate Biomedical Technology Innovation Training Program: The First 12 Years of Stanford Biodesign ANNALS OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING Brinton, T. J., Kurihara, C. Q., Camarillo, D. B., Pietzsch, J. B., Gorodsky, J., Zenios, S. A., Doshi, R., Shen, C., Kumar, U. N., Mairal, A., Watkins, J., Popp, R. L., Wang, P. J., Makower, J., Krummel, T. M., Yock, P. G. 2013; 41 (9): 1803-1810

    Abstract

    The Stanford Biodesign Program began in 2001 with a mission of helping to train leaders in biomedical technology innovation. A key feature of the program is a full-time postgraduate fellowship where multidisciplinary teams undergo a process of sourcing clinical needs, inventing solutions and planning for implementation of a business strategy. The program places a priority on needs identification, a formal process of selecting, researching and characterizing needs before beginning the process of inventing. Fellows and students from the program have gone on to careers that emphasize technology innovation across industry and academia. Biodesign trainees have started 26 companies within the program that have raised over $200 million and led to the creation of over 500 new jobs. More importantly, although most of these technologies are still at a very early stage, several projects have received regulatory approval and so far more than 150,000 patients have been treated by technologies invented by our trainees. This paper reviews the initial outcomes of the program and discusses lessons learned and future directions in terms of training priorities.

    View details for DOI 10.1007/s10439-013-0761-2

    View details for Web of Science ID 000323736800002

    View details for PubMedID 23404074

  • Feasibility of external beam radiation for prevention of restenosis following balloon angioplasty INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RADIATION ONCOLOGY BIOLOGY PHYSICS Razavi, M., Rege, S., Zeigler, W., Mather, K., Shen, C., Smathers, J., GOMES, A., Withers, R. 1999; 44 (2): 363-367

    Abstract

    Brachytherapy has been shown to inhibit neointima formation after vascular balloon injury. This study was done to test the feasibility of low dose external radiation for prevention of restenosis in a non-stented balloon injury model.Twelve red Duroc swine underwent balloon overdilation injury of both iliac arteries. Twelve Gy was delivered to one side using a Theratron T-1000 Cobalt unit with the other side used as the control. Twelve weeks post injury arteriograms were performed. The animals were then sacrificed and iliac arteries explanted. Histomorphometric analysis of arterial cross sections was performed. Results: Neointima formation was observed in all arteries. Unilateral thrombosis was noted in two animals. The mean neointimal thickness in the radiated and control arteries was 0.63 +/- 0.17 mm and 0.72 +/- 0.31 mm, respectively. The differences in minimal luminal diameter and the neointimal thickness between the two groups were not statistically significant. Complications included superficial hair loss in the radiation port in 4 animals, and 2 deaths prior to the completion date (1 of hemorrhagic enteritis possibly related to the radiation, and 1 of iliac rupture).External radiation at this low dose is not effective in preventing vascular restenosis following balloon injury in this animal model.

    View details for Web of Science ID 000079910400020

    View details for PubMedID 10760432