Medtech Talk

GE Healthcare’s Agnes Berzsenyi Is Clearly Comfortable with Changing Women’s Healthcare

In this week’s podcast, Agnes Berzsenyi, president and CEO of Women’s Health at GE Healthcare, explains how her upbringing in Hungary during a time of political upheaval put her in position to succeed in Medtech. The fall of the Berlin...

Gelfand and Levin Share Lessons from Ardian’s Rise and Fall…and Rise Again. Would They Do It Again?

Howard Levin and Mark Gelfand, the principals of Coridea, return to the podcast to detail the trials and tribulations of Ardian. Ardian is one of the bigger #medtech #startup stories over the past two decades. In 2011, Medtronic agreed to...

Mark Gelfand, Howard Levin Discuss Coridea, Ardian and How They’re Innovating Medtech Innovation

Over the past decade, no other Medtech start-up has moved markets as much or as quickly as Ardian, the godfather of the renal denervation surge a decade ago. But the gold rush dried up in 2014 when Medtronic delivered disappointing...

Shyam Natarajan, CEO and Founder of Avenda Health, Explains How the Start-Up is Gaining Momentum

In this episode of the MedtechTalk Podcast, we talk with Shyam Natarajan, PhD, founder and CEO of Avenda Health, a company using imaging, AI and focal lasers to create a better treatment for prostate cancer.  The company’s original co-founders –...

Nuvaira’s Dennis Wahr Gives Presenting Tips, IDs his Role Models, Talks About Possibly Going Public

You’ll have a hard time finding a more modest man than Dennis Wahr, president and CEO of Nuvaira. But when asked what company he sees as being poised to establish the Interventional Pulmonology industry Wahr says Nuvaira might be the...

Go Go Go! Scott Huennekens Explains How Strong Bias to Action Defined Leadership at Volcano, Verb

Anyone who has swapped emails with Scott Huennekens has seen the Go Go Go signature at the bottom. They’re three little words, but they say so much about the special brand of enthusiasm Huennekens brings to leading companies like Digirad,...

KPV’s Amy Belt Raimundo Landed in VC Just Before the Bottom Fell Out. Hear How She Pivoted, Thrived

No, Amy Belt Raimundo didn’t blow anything up. But she knew early on in college that her initial career choice of chemistry wasn’t her true path. Instead, she earned an economics degree, and used insights learned to begin a stint...

Invus Opportunities Partner Ben Tsai Seeks – and Finds – Success in Medtech Investments

Benjamin Tsai says his initial plans – or the plans he’d been given – called on him being a doctor. But he quickly saw a greater opportunity working in the life sciences industry. Tsai made a quick run through consulting...

PreCardia CEO Lisa Wipperman Heine Shares Details on Path to New Role at Stealthy HF Start-Up

Lisa Wipperman Heine’s career in Medtech was launched when she answered a want ad in a newspaper – remember those?  That path took her to top regulatory and clinical affairs positions at several high-profile Medtechs including Acorn Cardiovascular, ev3, and...

Medtech Incubator NXT Biomedical Shows Stan Rowe Is Great at Innovation, Bad at “Retirement”

After leading a long, distinguished and successful career in Medtech Innovation, Stan Rowe chose a familiar, if not unusual, spot to “retire” – he co-founded NXT Biomedical, an incubator backed by Deerfield Capital and Johnson & Johnson. Rowe previously led...

GT Medical CEO Matt Likens Sets a New BHAG – Giving Longer Lives to People with Brain Tumors

Matt Likens’ two decades-plus at Baxter cultivated in him a desire to deliver “critical therapies for life-threatening conditions.” He found great success as CEO of Ulthera, an aesthetics company using ultrasound energy, but once that company was sold to Merz...

Merit Medical CEO Fred Lampropoulos Lays Out Aggressive Growth Strategy, Including Opportunistic M&A

Spoiler Alert: I missed a huge part of Merit Medical CEO Fred Lampropoulos’ life story when I did my research. I won’t say what it was, but you’ll hear it at the end. I’d fire my researcher if I had...

Santé Ventures’ James Eadie, MD, Reveals the Early-Stage Strategy That’s Producing Epic Returns

Santé Ventures partner James Eadie, MD, doesn’t recall the good old days of Medtech. He joined the Austin-based Venture Firm after two tours in Iraq with the Air Force where he led an ER and served as part of a...

SVB’s Jon Norris Reveals Medtech’s Most Prolific Investors, Hottest Areas, and Biggest Exits

Earlier this month, Silicon Valley Bank released its Trends in Healthcare Investments and Exits 2019, the latest of the bank’s annual reports on the state of healthcare investing. In this podcast we talk with Report Guru (and Managing Director) Jonathan...

Miromatrix CEO Jeff Ross Shares the Bold Plan to Eliminate the Organ Transplant Waiting List

Miromatrix straddles the line between biotech and medtech. The start-up is developing a line of “ghost organs” that can be used in humans. The technology is moving fast, and Ross hopes to have clinical trials up and running by the...

Alydia CEO Anne Morrissey Talks Car Accidents, Career Guidance and How the Start-up Raised $10m

Fortune disguised as misfortune led Anne Morrissey to embark on a Medtech career. Since that start, hard work, perseverance and some helpful mentors put her on the CEO track. Today, Morrissey leads an exciting Medtech start-up that’s testing a device...

AEGEA CEO Maria Sainz Talks Guidant and the Rewards and Challenges of Leading a Medtech Start-up

Twenty years ago, Maria Sainz faced an unusual fork in her career road. She chose wisely, building an esteemed career in Medtech that included senior leadership at Guidant and CEO posts at three Medtech start-ups. In this Medtech Talk Podcast,...

AdvaMed CEO Scott Whitaker Talks Mid-Terms, Device Tax and Innovative Programs for Smaller Companies

Scott Whitaker, the CEO of AdvaMed, has worked in DC for close to two decades. So naturally, we  asked him for his take on what the outcome of the midterm elections means for Medtech. Does it improve chances for the...

Renal Guard CEO Jim Dillon Discusses Spin Out of High Profile Reprieve Cardiovascular

Jim Dillon, president and CEO of Renal Guard, talks about the company’s decision to create Reprieve Cardiovascular, a start-up focusing on heart failure. Reprieve raised $7 million from outside investors, including Abiomed, and counts Serial Entrepreneur Howard Levin as chief...

Renal Guard CEO Jim Dillion Discusses Spin Out of High Profile Reprieve Cardiovascular

Endotronix CEO Harry Rowland Knows Medtech Start-Ups Live on the Edge. How Does He Keep Balanced?

Endotronix CEO Harry Rowland, PhD, co-founded the heart sensor company 11 years ago and assumed the CEO role in 2012. Over that span, the company has raised more than $100 million from VCs, found regulatory success in Europe, and now...

Follow ReCor Medical Founder Mano Iyer’s Unusual Path to Building, Selling a Successful Medtech

Mano Iyer’s unorthodox path to Medtech leadership led him to Europe where he co-founded a company, joined top VC firm Sofinnova, and founded ReCor Medical to test the use of renal denervation to treat hypertension. A tumultuous decade later, the...

ResMed CEO Mick Farrell Balances Career, Family, and Bringing Tech, Software, and Data into Medtech

Mick Farrell’s father questioned his son’s double degree from MIT when he didn’t immediately see the opportunity facing the sleep apnea company. But the younger Farrell quickly came around and helped build ResMed into a $15 billion company, with the...

Why Do the Principals of Cardeation Capital Think Joining Forces Makes Sense for Innovation?

In this dual podcast, we talk with leaders from the American Heart Association, Philips, UPMC, and Aphelion Capital about Cardeation Capital, a new venture fund aimed at funding start-ups in the digital health and medtech fields. How did the four...

Medcrypt CEO Mike Kijewski Says Medtech Cybersecurity Is a Growing Concern for Hospitals, Patients

MedCrypt CEO Mike Kijewski is playing a long game. At the moment, he recognizes Medtech execs aren’t placing a high priority on cybersecurity of their devices. But as technology becomes more advanced – and hospitals grow more wary – he...

Aphelion Managing Partner Ned Scheetz Discusses Medtech Investor’s Unique Approach, Unusual Name

Medtech start-ups need more firms like Aphelion Capital, investors willing to wager as little as $200,000 to get a promising idea going. Managing Partner Ned Scheetz discusses the firm’s origins, name, and plans going forward. This is the first of...

Relievant CEO Kevin Hykes Shares the Advice that Led Him to Set a Successful Course as CEO

Under CEO Kevin Hykes, Relievant Medsystems is racking up some wins. The company closed on a $58 million Series E round last month and this week announced the first commercial application of its Intraspect pain-relief procedure. In this podcast, Hykes...

Surgeon/Engineer Steve Charles Has Advice for Aspiring Inventors: Never Stop Learning; Dump Netflix

Ask renowned vitreoretinal surgeon and inventor Steve Charles, MD, if he considers himself a surgeon or engineer first and he’ll answer – both. In this podcast, Dr. Charles says the terms “inventor” and “innovator” aren’t job titles. Innovation and inventing...

Three Experienced Medtech CEOs Share Stories of Waging Successful Wars for Device Reimbursement

We were hoping to capture some real-world wisdom by putting three CEOs –Bill Facteau of Earlens, Bob Paulson of NxThera and John Stevens of HeartFlow –on a panel to share reimbursement war stories. Many of those attending the May 31st...

CEO John Pedersen Explains Why Urology – and Augmenix – Are Enjoying Such an “Interesting Time”

In this Medtech Talk Podcast, CEO John Pedersen explains why he chose to help Augmenix roll out its SPACEOAR implant, a hydrogel that's inserted between a patient's prostate and rectum to save healthy tissue from radiation exposure. In this talk,...

Three Experienced Medtech CEOs Share Stories of Waging Successful Wars for Device Reimbursement

Medtech CEOs Herbert, Elsesser on Meeting the Challenges of Leading Companies from Start-Up to IPO

CEOs often are assigned skill sets that define their stage of specialty: start-up CEOs, commercial CEOs, etc. Two of our guests at the Medtech Conference in Minneapolis defied those definitions by taking start-ups through commercial launches and onto the public...

Healthegy's Medtech Conference Bringing Together Pols, VCs and Executives to Discuss Sector's Future

Join us on Thursday at the Medtech Conference in Minneapolis to hear from Congressman Erik Paulsen. A longtime proponent of the Medtech industry, Rep. Paulsen most recently co-authored a letter asking the Trump administration to remove medical technology products from a...

Follow TransEnterix' Journey from Single-Port Surgery Start-Up to Robotics Leader with CEO Todd Pope

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...

Propeller Health CEO David Van Sickle Explains How Sensors, Data Can Help Manage Respiratory Disease

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...

NxThera CEO Bob Paulson Talks M&A, Career Twists, Family, and Lessons Learned from Selling Yogurt

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...

Ceterix CEO John McCutcheon Is Writing a Different Ending with New Tech That Can Save the Meniscus

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 CEO Bruce Shook Excited by New Round, Clinical Progress, and the Potential for Spin-off, Vesper

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.

Intersect ENT CEO Lisa Earnhardt Discusses New Products and Plans as Medtech Talk Hits the 100 Mark

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...

Baxter Ventures VP Anne Sissel Says Strategic Investors Can Help Start-Ups Reach Their Potential

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.

CEO Jim Buck Says Mardil Medical is Using Familiar Script to Rewrite the Rules on Treating FMR

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...

Lightstone's Jason Lettmann Compares and Contrasts US, Irish Medtech Scenes After Three Years Abroad

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...

CEO Stevens Says HeartFlow Took No Shortcuts to Commercialization, Raising $240 million Series E

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...

Zenflow CEO Damiano Shares Start-up's Origins, Success in Building the Right Series A Syndicate

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...

LRVHealth Tapping Providers for New $100 Million Fund

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...

Pixium CEO Sees Great Promise for PRIMA Implant

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...

SVB’s Numbers Guru Jon Norris Points to More Investors, Stronger Exits Facing Medtech in 2018

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...

New Metavention CEO Todd Berg Talks M&A, Raising Capital, and Why He’s Excited to Join the Start-up

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...

Fractyl’s Rajagopalan Shares Fund-Raising Philosophy

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.

We Ask Anders Wold, Head of GE’s Clinical Care Solutions, Where GE Fits in Healthcare’s Future

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...