In an effort to match the engineering prowess of Silicon Valley with the increasing use of new technology in the development of medical treatments, a new master’s program incorporates UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco, both leaders of their respective fields. The new program has been given a $1.5 million jump start by former Intel CEO Andrew Grove, whose personal experience with prostate cancer and Parkinson’s disease sparked an interest in streamlining the development of medical technology.

“What we have learned from decades of rapid development of information technology is that the key is relentless focus on ‘better, faster, cheaper’ — in everything,” Mr. Grove said in a statement. “The best results are achieved through the cooperative efforts of different disciplines, all aimed at the same objective.”

As reported by The New York Times, this type of interdisciplinary approach to the growing field of “translational medicine” is gaining steam, viewed by many as yielding greater results than traditional research and development within big pharmaceutical companies.