We aren’t your traditional research institute.
The field of critical care medicine wouldn’t be what it is— literally—without Dr. Max Harry Weil. Regarded as a founder and father of critical care, Dr. Weil envisioned a unique space where the most gravely ill and injured patients could be tended to at all times by multidisciplinary teams of expert healthcare providers. His work would establish a new field of medicine, save countless lives, and forever change the way care is delivered.
As the Weil Institute, our mission is in lockstep with Dr. Weil’s vision: transforming critical care. It’s three simple words, but, like the field itself, the singular goal behind those words is incredibly complex and requires teams of all stripes working together.
But we are Weil, and transformative team science is what we do.
Check out the video below to learn more about us, our namesake, and what it means to be “Weil."
Weil Means "Innovation"
When we say we are “transforming” critical care, we mean we are totally re-imagining every aspect of the field, from understanding the basic science of diseases, to engineering new solutions, to supporting patients and their families.
To that end, members of the Weil Institute are developing hundreds of technologies and therapies that redefine what we know as critical care. These are solutions that will diagnose patients sooner, treat them faster and more safely, and extend care outside the physical walls of the hospital—ensuring patients get exactly what they need in the seconds, minutes, and hours following a traumatic and/or unexpected medical emergency.
Weil Means “Integration”
Dr. Weil conceived of putting critically ill patients together in a unique space where they could be tended to by not only doctors and nurses, but whole teams of interdisciplinary experts.
Like Weil, we know critical care takes a team. We are strategically integrated throughout the University of Michigan to connect all types of critical care providers with basic scientists, engineers (including chemical, mechanical, electrical, biomedical, etc.), computer and data scientists, and many others to transform care from every angle.
We provide these teams with essential support services that enable them to quickly and effectively take their ideas from concept to reality.
Weil Means “Entrepreneurship”
Transformative life-saving technologies don’t get to the patient’s bedside by themselves. They require an understanding of intellectual property, regulatory challenges, and the commercial market. Dr. Weil himself owned more than 20 patents for medical equipment and devices that he developed.
At the Weil Institute, our ideas are informed and infused with serious entrepreneurship and commercialization expertise at very early stages, making our ability to develop new companies and work with industry partners a key ingredient to saving lives.
