Medtech Talk

In his early education Anton Clifford was advised against focusing on both science and economics. But he’s put that education to good use in his entrepreneurial career. With a foundation in engineering, Clifford quickly turned to medical devices. First in his native Ireland and later in the US with Abbott Laboratories, Clifford got firsthand experience with device engineering as well as the challenges of launching new products, divisions, and companies.  

On the journey to his current endeavor, Clifford had narrowed his focus to finding an engineering problem with a mechanical component: a massive unmet need with a surgical solution that was under-adopted. As he considered market opportunities, a friend and mentor, Josh Makower, directed him: You’re not trying to make something work; you’re trying to kill ideas.  

The last idea standing, so to speak, was an implantable shock absorber, reducing load to the knee joint. After years of development, Moximed has released its FDA study on the most recent product—Misha—with “phenomenal outcomes.” Compared to a surgical alternative, Misha showed superior recovery, pain, function, and no mechanical failures.  

Medtech Talk Links:  
Cambridge Healthtech Institute
Medtech Talk 
Gilde Healthcare 
Moximed 

With a background as a trauma nurse and experience running clinical research programs, Stacey Pugh brought quite a bit of patient-focused experience with her when she shifted to industry. After several roles in the neurovascular space, now she’s leading the charge at Endogenix, which is using pulsed electric fields to treat Type 2 Diabetes. She and host, Geoff Pardo, talk about a medical officer’s first experience doing sales, the challenges in affecting change management in primary care, funding businesses with SPACs, and more.  

Medtech Talk Links:  
Cambridge Healthtech Institute   
Medtech Talk 
Gilde Healthcare  
Endogenex 

Derek Herrera, founder and CEO of Bright Uro, grew up in a military family with a curious mind and a skill for building things. After graduating, he entered the Naval Academy, studied systems engineering and robotics, and became a Special Operations Marine Raider. When an injury left him paralyzed from the waist down, he launched a new career to improve the lives of spinal cord injury patients through medical innovation.  
 
Herrera speaks with podcast host Geoff Pardo about his extensive military career and the leadership skills fostered during that time. He also talks about his first entrepreneurial pursuit creating a fully internal and remotely controlled device for chronic urinary retention, a common issue for spinal cord injury patients. Herrera discusses his new business, Bright Uro, which leverages advanced technology to create urological diagnostic devices. He says, “Not only will we offer a superior patient and customer user experience, a more comfortable technology, and improve clinical efficiency, we’re unlocking data that’s never been obtained before because there’s never been the capability to do so.” 

Links from this episode:  
Gilde Healthcare
Bright Uro 
UroDev Medical 

Growing up in Austria as the daughter of two physicians, Lisa Anderson, co-founder and CEO of Paragonix Technologies, spent many evenings around the dinner table discussing patient care with her parents. After pursuing advanced studies in biomedical sciences and medical genetics, Anderson ventured back into patient care and launched a donor organ preservation and transport company to dramatically improve the standard of care for many donor recipients.
 
In this episode, Anderson speaks with host Geoff Pardo about the current issues in organ transport and how their first device—the Paragonix SherpaPak Cardiac Transport System—significantly decreases the number of adverse events less than 24 hours after heart transplant surgery. She also talks about the company’s transition to a service-based business with the development of the Paragonix app, their expansion into transporting lungs, livers, and kidneys, and the strategies used to develop a straightforward and high-performing device. She says, “We wanted to provide a simple device that provides superior clinical outcomes, is easy to us, and has an intuitive user profile when [organ recoveries] occur. We provide [surgical teams] with superior organ preservation.”

Links from this episode:  
Gilde Healthcare
Paragonix Technologies
Paragonix SherpaPak Cardiac Transport System 

Fred Khosravi, chairman and CEO of Imperative Care, returns to the podcast for another engaging conversation with host Geoff Pardo about his personal and professional experiences in the medtech space. He speaks about the elements of preparedness that help entrepreneurs seize new opportunities, the importance of maintaining intellectual honesty in one’s work, and why a “market-first” mentality leads to industry success. He says, “It’s not a great medical innovation unless it ends up helping a lot of patients. Otherwise, it’s just a great invention.” 

Khosravi generously shares three decades worth of entrepreneurial wisdom and recounts stories of the people who profoundly impacted his career. He talks about viewing investors as partners not parents, the attributes that spur venture capitalists to invest in a CEO, the lessons learned from developing the number one intravascular filter in the global market, and his work at Imperative Care—a stand-alone comprehensive stroke and thrombectomy company. He also explains why he believes “freedom and innovation” set the American medtech industry apart and the path forward to make it even better.  

Links from this episode:  
Gilde Healthcare
Imperative Care 
Incept Medical Incubator (Axtria, Ostial, Neurolutions, Instylla, Tulavi Therapeutics) 

This month host Geoff Pardo speaks with one of the most prolific entrepreneurs in the medtech industry, Fred Khosravi, chairman and CEO of Imperative Care, about the path that led him to start over 24 healthtech startups. Khosravi recounts leaving Iran at 17 and studying mechanical engineering at Tennessee Tech. He talks about his first experiences with medical device manufacturing and how he designed a fully automated process for making cataract lenses. Khosravi also shares his pioneering work in developing cardiac stents, how serendipity is really “opportunity meets preparedness,” and why every entrepreneur needs a board of directors. He clarifies, “Not your company’s board of directors, but your own personal board of directors: people who care about you to be skeptical about you and tell it to you like it is.” 

Links from this episode:  
Gilde Healthcare
Imperative Care 

As a trained neurosurgeon, Dr. Chris Mansi is familiar with the challenges patients face in accessing lifesaving treatments. After earning an MBA from Stanford and enrolling in their Biodesign Medical Innovation track, he learned to develop multifaceted and technology-based solutions to improve healthcare workflows. 
 
In this episode, host Geoff Pardo speaks with Mansi about Viz.ai, a revolutionary application that increases patient access to life-saving treatments in over 1,200 hospitals. Every minute an ischemic stroke patient waits for treatment equates to approximately 2 million neurons lost and a week of disability. Viz.ai abbreviates the sometimes five-hour-long process of securing a specialist to merely minutes, changing the course of patients’ lives. Mansi also discusses how to address naivety in entrepreneurship, the value of an interdisciplinary mindset in improving patient outcomes, and the importance of creating a value-based company with mission-driven employees. 

Links from this episode:  
Viz.ai 

Dr. Josh Makower is one of the few multidisciplinary leaders making a tremendous and broad-reaching impact on the medical device and consumer product industries. As an inventor, professor, CEO, and venture capitalist with experiences in medicine, bioengineering, business, and big pharma, Makower has led the charge in creating some of the most unique and practical designs.  

In this episode, host Geoff Pardo speaks with Makower about his interests in science and technology at an early age, his college transition from music to engineering, and what he believes is the future of biodesign. Makower details the mechanics of his inventions for incontinence, chronic sinusitis, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and women’s health as part of the nine companies he created in the past 25 years. Finally, he speaks about the joy of teaching and offers sage advice to up-and-coming medtech innovators: “My classic piece of advice for anyone getting into any health-related field is you really have to be perseverant. You have to never give up because there are so many reasons to turn away and give up, but if you have a dream and believe in what you’re doing and are willing to listen and adapt, that’s key. I think anyone can win, and it’s just about believing in yourself and your vision.” 

Links from this episode:  
Stanford University
Stanford University School of Medicine
ExploraMed, a medical device incubator
Coravin 
Willow 

Before he began his Ph.D. program in biomedical engineering, Andy Doraiswamy bought a one-way ticket to Southeast Asia to explore and “find himself.” He was successful: discovering a love for mountain climbing’s physical and mental challenges and developing a practice of meditation that has proven helpful in both climbing and commerce. Since leaving academia, he’s been involved in startups at Advanced Vision Science, Oculeve, and now Koya Medical. Doraiswamy has a huge bias and love for eye care, he says, particularly intrigued by its complexity. He and host Geoff Pardo discuss how medical devices fare in academia, letting go of promising technology in an acquisition, and the shifts required when transitioning from COO to CEO. 

Links from this episode: 
Koya Medical 

Host Geoff Pardo talks with Adam Berman, CEO of Alleviant Medical, about the groundbreaking device treating heart failure without hardware or permanent implants. The Alleviant device mitigates shortness of breath in patients with diastolic heart failure by leaving behind a shunt cut from interatrial septum tissue. The shunt moves blood from the left atrium to the right, diminishing pressure on the lungs. Berman speaks about his start in biomedical engineering, gaining invaluable experience in the operating room, developing sales tactics and industry knowledge as a medical device field representative, and switching gears to create novel devices for cardiac care.  

Links from this episode:  
Alleviant Medical