Medtech Talk

TransEnterix President and CEO Todd Pope took the helm of the start-up to create a new single-port surgery system. Little did Todd know he'd be running a global robotics company that's now moving into multiple markets, including the US. In this interview, Pope takes us through the career path that led him to run the start-up in 2008. He then walks us through the company's aggressive...

David Van Sickle, CEO & Co-Founder of Propeller Health, brings his public health background to health tech start-up Propeller Health. The company has created a line of sensors that work in conjunction with inhalers and spirometers to measure medication intake and breathing capacity of people with asthma. The start-up has undertaken some bold projects with entire cities including Louisville to...

Boston Scientific's acquisition of NxThera obviously signals an end of one era. The 10-year-old start-up will live inside the global giant, of course, but we ask CEO Bob Paulson what the sale means to him on a personal level. Paulson also walks us through his unorthodox career in marketing, corporate law, accounting, and finally leading a highly successful Medtech Start-Up.

In 2010, John McCutcheon joined Ceterix, a start-up with big goals and a surer FDA path than his previous company. McCutcheon recounts the FDA's battering of that company, Emphasys, and explains how his current company is rolling today.

Intact Vascular recently secured an additional $20m to push the Tack Endovascular System to PMA approval. CEO Bruce Shook discusses the round, the potential for Tack, and shares that he's actually the CEO of TWO Medtech start-ups.

CEO Lisa Earnhardt , who appeared as the first guest on the Medtech Talk Podcast, returns in episode number 100 to share why she took the helm of the 12-person start-up 10 years ago, and how Intersect ENT has managed company culture over years of enormous growth. She also discusses where Intersect ENT is headed in the future, with new products and business development projects.

Anne Sissel, vice president of Baxter Ventures, says she followed the numbers into Medtech. Now, she enjoys using the strategic's capital to help start-ups find ways to curtail costs and create new treatments for dreadful diseases.

Jim Buck , President and CEO of Mardil Medical, shares his personal and professional Medtech stories. The common thread? He doesn't give up. One result may be Mardil pushing for the rebirth of a once high-flying Medtech technology. In this podcast you'll hear: His tragic, but uplifting path to Medtech. Where his first stint as CEO went wrong. How he came to Mardil. How he believes Mardil...

When we last spoke with Jason Lettmann , general partner at Lightstone Ventures, he had just set up his firm's shop in Ireland. Three years later, the VC returns to Menlo Park and shares his Medtech observations from abroad. In this podcast, Lettmann compares the entrepreneurial infrastructure in the US with Ireland. He also discusses Lightstone's recent fund and tries to explain why he...

John H. Stevens, MD, was too excited to sleep when he first heard what HeartFlow's technology could potentially do. Eight years later, he's sleeping a lot better, having secured $240 million to fund the company's commercial rollout of the HeartFlow Analysis system. Overview : HeartFlow has built a strong financial argument for its imaging system. Surprises : This stuff belongs on St...

The Stanford Biodesign program created another promising start-up in Zenflow. Co-founder and CEO Nick Damiano explains how the program's fellows identified the opportunity in BPH and found the right tech to excite investors. Zenflow drew some early capital from unusual sources before embarking on an exhausting pursuit of the right Series A syndicate. Damiano shares some advice for other capit...

Tripp Peake co-founded Long River Ventures in 2000, just before the tech and venture capital industries took a dive. The firm survived, thrived, and is very much alive raising a $100 million fund under a new brand, LRVHealth. The new name and tight healthcare focus reflects the firm's strong connections to hospital networks and other healthcare institutions making up its limited partner base....

Khalid Ishaque says Bioelectronic Medicine has made great strides in treating hearing loss, depression, and other maladies and shows great promise in treating neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease. Yet, most people still see it as more science fiction than science fact. But that's changing. "What we are demonstrating with advances in miniaturization, imaging, and increased...

Hard to find anyone working harder than Jonathan Norris to help us see the forest for the trees. Jon is a fixture at many conferences including – thankfully – the upcoming Medtech Conference on May 31. But we wanted to get to his insights early. In this Medtech Talk Podcast, Jon and I discuss his report, “ Trends in Healthcare Investments and Exits 2018 .” Overview : Jon shares some positive views...

Todd Berg has a bit of a winning streak going. Berg worked at three Medtech start-ups prior to accepting the CEO post at exciting new start-up Metavention , and all three companies would be acquired including Torax Medical , the GERD company Berg led from start to finish. What led Berg to Medtech? Why did he co-found Torax? How did he find success raising capital? How is he approaching his new cha...

What Went into Fractyl’s $44 million Round? CEO and co-founder Harith Rajagopalan, MD, PhD, discusses his approach to raising new capital and to building the right board.

Anders Wold, president and CEO of GE’s Clinical Care Solutions, is still fascinated by the power new technology can deliver to healthcare. So he’s understandably excited about the opportunities facing this division of GE – and the entire company as well – as we move into healthcare of the future.

The power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning looms over Medtech as a growing force that will bring change, good or bad. In this MedtechTalk Podcast, Michael D. Abramoff, MD, PhD, president and co-founder of IDx, tells how the start-up is using AI to better diagnose diabetic retinopathy. The company hopes to secure FDA approval for its IDx-DR system following the completion of clinical...

Medtech and Digital Health technology increasingly have more and more in common. In this Medtech Talk Podcast, Robert Mittendorff, MD, a partner at Norwest Venture Partners, explains how Digital Health companies are facing many of the same challenges that vex Medtech start-ups, including the need to obtain approval under new FDA guidelines and to secure reimbursement payments from insurers

Steve Goedeke says he was the kid who liked to take things apart. But he’s built a career putting things together including a promising neuromodulation start-up called Cardionomic. In this episode, Goedeke shares the thoughts – and concerns – that went into leaving a seemingly stable gig at Medtronic to lead the new company. He also reveals what ideas he’d consider pursuing before a serendipitous...

John Pavlidis, president and CEO of VytronUS, has built a strong resume leading and selling Medtech start-ups. Now the self-described engineering “nerd” is leading VytronUS, a start-up combining the powers of imaging, ablation, and robotics to create a powerful new tool that can elevate the precision of treating atrial fibrillation in the electrophysiology lab.

Medtech-device design firm Worrell now is envisioning how Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Voice-enabled Technologies like Amazon’s Alexa might treat chronic disease, manage clinical trials, and restore bonds between patients and physicians. We talk with CEO Kai Worrell and Kristen Shardlow, the company’s director of user experience, about the firm’s work in understanding these exciting tec...

Faced with an unacceptable diagnosis after her husband was seriously injured in an accident, Savonix CEO Mylea Charvat created a tool to measure cognitive function to aid his recovery. Now Savonix seeks to establish cognitive function as a standard measure of human health. The technology potentially could could fill a huge shortage of physicians while improving patient outcomes and accelerating me...

Nuvaira CEO Dennis Wahr, MD, sees similarities between interventional pulmonology today and interventional cardiology in its early days. He hopes Nuvaira, which is developing a tool to ablate lung tissue, will be able to further the field through upcoming clinical trials and fund-raising.

An ailing wife and son forced Bryan Mazlish to hack a cell phone, glucose monitor, and insulin pump to create an artificial pancreas. In this MedtechTalk Podcast, Jeffrey Brewer, CEO and president of Bigfoot Biomedical, explains how he and Mazlish came to form the privately held start-up. Brewer explains how his son’s diagnosis – and at least one near-fatal experience – pushes him forward to ensur...