AHF Podcast

Send us Fan Mail What do you do when the greater trochanter shears off during a routine hip replacement — and the bone is too soft to hold a screw? Dr. Jeff Barry of UCSF walks through two intraoperative disasters in the same patient, and how he salvaged both. Jeff Barry, who directs the Hip and Knee Arthroplasty Fellowship at UCSF and co-directs the Arthroplasty for the Modern Surgeon course, joi...

Send us Fan Mail How does hip replacement practice really differ from one country to the next? Researcher Irrum Afzal joins the AHF Podcast to discuss the Global Arthroplasty Practice Survey (GAPS) — the first effort to map how surgeons worldwide actually perform total hip replacement. Despite roughly seventy years of modern hip replacement, there's still no global consensus on the fundamenta...

Send us Fan Mail What real-world use reveals about a medical device that no clinical trial ever could — and why the most dangerous moment in med tech innovation often comes after success, not before. A conversation about the fatigue failures, reimbursement gaps, and feedback breakdowns that surface only at scale. For ten episodes, the From Idea to Market series has followed medical innovation thro...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Sah on what it actually takes for a practicing surgeon to develop new orthopaedic tools — from first idea to OR adoption. An honest conversation about mentors, mistakes, AI, and knowing when to walk away from a collaboration. Most surgeons spot problems in the OR daily and quietly adapt to the limits of existing tools. Alex Sah, a high-volume hip and knee surgeon in Silicon V...

Send us Fan Mail What med tech investors and strategic acquirers actually evaluate when a founder walks into the room — and what separates the pitches that earn capital from those that don't. A conversation drawn from people who've sat on both sides of the table. For nine episodes, the From Idea to Market series has followed innovation from the founder's perspective — the problem no...

Send us Fan Mail Charles Lawrie, MD — president of the Anterior Hip Foundation and a high-volume anterior approach hip and robotic knee surgeon in Miami — walks us through how a frustration in his own clinic became FIOS Health, an AI-powered patient communication platform now used in orthopaedic practices across the United States. This is an extended From Idea to Market conversation about the ofte...

Send us Fan Mail What does it actually take to move a medical device from a working prototype to a product that can be built reliably at volume? In this episode of From Idea to Market, surgeons, founders, and attorneys describe the discipline that separates an approved device from a scalable company. Most medical device teams underestimate what happens after a prototype works. Manufacturing at sca...

Send us Fan Mail There is no such thing as an off-the-record innovation discussion. Even a casual conversation over drinks can create a factual record of idea sharing that impacts patent ownership, joint development leverage, and your negotiating position for years. Emily Ast, a contract attorney whose practice is 75 percent orthopedics, explains exactly what surgeon innovators need to know before...

Send us Fan Mail A patient had already signed every document — but no one had told her she would lose her stomach. That moment early in her anesthesia training convinced Marie-Isabelle Batthyány that informed consent was fundamentally broken. Years later, she built XRS Medical, a VR platform that replaces paper consent forms with immersive, avatar-delivered patient education and tracks attention i...

Send us Fan Mail Garland Surgical's flagship product, the TriActiv Hip (formerly known as the MaltaHip), replaces the ball-and-socket geometry that has defined hip arthroplasty for 120 years with a cylindrical bearing system inspired by the biomechanics of the ankle joint. Simon Mifsud, CEO of Garland Surgical, explains how this design virtually eliminates dislocation risk and reduced wear by...

Send us Fan Mail Your device just got FDA clearance. So why isn't anyone using it? In this episode of From Idea to Market, Joe Schwab and a panel of surgeons, engineers, and MedTech leaders explore why regulatory approval is only the beginning — and what it actually takes to earn a place in the operating room. Clearance tells you a device is safe and effective. It doesn't tell you whethe...

Send us Fan Mail Charlie DeCook has exited seven medical device companies while performing 1,500 joint replacements a year — all packed into three clinical days per week. In this extended interview, he breaks down exactly how he evaluates new technologies and why he now filters every opportunity through an AI and robotics lens. DeCook traces his entrepreneurial arc from his first venture in surgic...

Send us Fan Mail What actually happens between building a medical device and getting it approved? In this episode of From Idea to Market, we walk through the regulatory valley that separates a working prototype from a cleared product — and why so many promising innovations stall right here. This is the stage where progress stops being about what you can build and starts being about what you can pr...

Send us Fan Mail Doug Fairbanks left a robotics commercialization role at Johnson & Johnson to lead a deep tech startup most surgeons had never heard of. In this conversation, the president and CEO of VISIE Inc. explains why — and what their continuous anatomic auto tracking technology could mean for the future of robotic-assisted surgery. VISIE started as Advanced Scanners, a company founded...

Send us Fan Mail Most MedTech founders think financing is about getting enough money to keep building. But once you take capital, it reshapes your governance, your priorities, and your pace — and some consequences don't surface for years. In this episode of the AHF Podcast's From Idea to Market series, we explore what funding actually buys beyond time and resources, how capital decisions...

Send us Fan Mail Robert Cohen has spent four decades on both sides of the MedTech table — founding companies, selling them, and now evaluating billion-dollar acquisitions as Stryker's VP of Innovation and Technology for Orthopedics. In this conversation, he shares exactly what a global company looks for when it decides whether a startup's technology is worth acquiring. Cohen's caree...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Sebastian Rodriguez-Elizalde built a same-day anterior hip program inside a Canadian public hospital — not a private surgical center. This conversation covers what it actually takes to change your approach, your team culture, and your system all at once. Sebastian trained in posterior approach at HSS and transitioned to anterior approach early in his independent career. In thi...

Send us Fan Mail This is a deep-dive extended interview with the team behind ForCast Orthopedics — a company working to change how periprosthetic joint infection is treated. It's for orthopedic surgeons, arthroplasty specialists, and anyone interested in how a clinical idea becomes a medical device company. The conversation brings together Dr. Jared Foran (CSO and co-founder), Dr. Leo Whitesi...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is about the moment an idea needs a formal structure to move forward — and why that choice is just as strategic as any technical decision. It's for clinician innovators, med tech founders, and anyone trying to understand how organizational structure shapes what an innovation can realistically become. The episode draws on voices from across the From Idea to Market...

Send us Fan Mail This episode explores what proof of concept really means in medical device development — and why the hardest problems at this stage are rarely technical. It's for clinician innovators, engineers, and anyone navigating the gap between a promising idea and a product that can survive the real world. The episode draws on perspectives from surgeons, engineers, and founders across...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Kristoff Corten built an AI-driven platform called Hip Cloud that predicts patient outcomes after hip replacement — and it's changing the way he practices. If you're an orthopedic surgeon interested in how predictive analytics, personalized care pathways, and clinic efficiency can reshape your workflow, this conversation is for you. In this episode, Joe Schwab sits d...

Send us Fan Mail This episode explores how orthopedic innovators determine whether a clinical problem is worth solving at scale. We examine the transition from recognizing a frustration in practice to building a defensible business case for medical device development. Featuring perspectives from surgeons, CEOs, engineers, and legal experts, this conversation unpacks the critical questions that sep...

Send us Fan Mail This episode explores how medical innovation actually begins—not in labs or boardrooms, but in operating rooms, clinics, and patient encounters where routine practice no longer feels acceptable. We speak with orthopedic surgeons, engineers, and founders who've lived the journey from clinical frustration to real-world solutions. Innovation doesn't start with a breakthroug...

Send us Fan Mail This mini-series explores how medical innovation actually happens in practice—from the first spark of an idea to bringing a product to market. Whether you're a surgeon, engineer, researcher, or trainee with an idea, this series shows you what comes next. We've gathered surgeons, engineers, CEOs, attorneys, and innovators who have navigated this journey firsthand. They sh...

Send us Fan Mail Learning the anterior approach to total hip arthroplasty doesn't follow a straight line. Dr. Joe Schwab shares what happened when improving his femoral technique unexpectedly made his acetabular work feel worse—and why that unsettling experience taught him more than any single complication. This episode is for orthopedic surgeons and trainees navigating the anterior approach...