Scott Nelson Live

In this episode, we sat down with Anthony Fernando, President and CEO of Asensus Surgical.

Asensus is expanding the role of robotics in the OR with its performance-guided surgery platform — a digital-first, AI-enabled system designed to enhance precision and real-time decision-making. 

A mechanical engineer by training, Anthony has more than two decades of experience spanning medtech, robotics, and global operations. He joined Asensus in 2015 and previously served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer. Earlier in his career, Anthony held leadership roles at Stryker, Becton Dickinson, PerkinElmer, and Varian, where he focused on advancing automation and medical device innovation across international markets.

In this interview, Anthony shares how the Durham, NC–based Asensus navigated uncharted regulatory territory for a first-of-its-kind technology and proactively made the case for acquisition — well before KARL STORZ came to the table.

If you'd rather read than listen, here's a link to the full interview with Anthony Fernando.

In this episode, we had a really engaging conversation with James (Jim) Corbett, CEO of AVITA Medical.

AVITA Medical’s RECELL system uses Spray-On Skin Cell technology to accelerate healing for patients with severe burns and wounds. 

Jim brings nearly 40 years of medical device leadership experience to AVITA Medical. His career spans global commercial and operational roles, including President of Boston Scientific and General Manager of Scimed Life Systems. Jim has served as CEO of six companies, including three publicly traded entities — Microtherapeutics, ev3, and Alphatec Spine — as well as CathWorks, Home Diagnostics, and Vertos Medical.

In this interview, Jim shares lessons from a career spanning global medtech leadership positions — including the importance of hands-on fundraising, adapting sales strategies as products mature, and how generating clinical evidence beyond FDA requirements serves commercial adoption.

In this episode, we sat down with Todd Usen, CEO of Adagio Medical.

Adagio specializes in catheter-based ablation technologies for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, with a focus on ventricular tachycardia (VT).  

Todd has over three decades of leadership experience in the medical technology industry, with particular expertise in commercial strategy, operational performance, and business transformation. Before joining Adagio, Todd served as CEO of Minerva Surgical, a women's health company, and as CEO of Activ Surgical, a digital surgery startup. Todd has also served in executive positions at Olympus, United States Orthopedics, Smith and Nephew, and Boston Scientific.

In this interview, Todd shares insights on making usability central to commercialization strategy, leveraging breakthrough designation beyond regulatory validation, and assembling effective boards by carefully selecting both investor and independent members who bring operational expertise.

In this episode, we sat down with Stuart Long, CEO of InfoBionic. 

InfoBionic's virtual cardiac telemetry platform, MoMe ARC®, brings together a tiered hospital-grade monitoring capability powered by advanced AI-enabled analysis for cardiac interventions.

Stuart has over two decades of experience in the medical device and healthcare technology sectors, with a focus on driving rapid commercial growth. His leadership spans roles including CEO of Monarch Medical Systems, global chief marketing and sales officer at CapsuleTech, and executive positions at Philips Healthcare, Agfa HealthCare, AMICAS, and FUJIFILM USA. At CapsuleTech, he developed strategic initiatives that led to the company’s acquisition by Qualcomm Life. 

In this interview, Stuart shares insights on combining debt and equity financing, hybrid commercial approaches, and positioning startups for acquisitions through adjacent market development — all while maintaining the persistence needed to survive the long game.

In this episode, we sat down with Shreya Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Zenflow.

Zenflow is a medical device company focused on treating benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

A biomedical engineer, Shreya brings over 15 years of experience in medtech, including serving as a lead reviewer at the FDA, where she specialized in cardiovascular devices. Shreya co-founded Zenflow in 2014 out of the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellowship. The company was one of the first medical device startups backed by Y Combinator and also received early support from StartX and the UCSF Rosenman Institute at QB3.

Shreya's experience at Zenflow reveals strategies for grounding innovation in patient needs, building productive FDA relationships, and leveraging accelerator programs to transform academic concepts into viable businesses.

In this episode, we sat down with Dr. Arun Menawat, Chairman and CEO of Profound Medical. 

Profound is commercializing the TULSA-PRO system, an alternative approach to prostate cancer treatment that uses MRI-guided thermal ultrasound to target and eliminate cancerous tissue without surgical incisions. 

Before joining Profound in 2016, Arun served as the Chairman and CEO of Novadaq Technologies for 13 years, guiding the company from a startup to one of the fastest-growing, NASDAQ-listed medical technology businesses with a market cap exceeding one billion USD. Earlier in his career, Arun served as President of Cedara Software, a company that developed the industry’s first medical imaging software platform. Today, it’s part of IBM’s Watson Health.

In this interview, Arun shares insights on building credibility with physicians, the strategic approach to clinical trials that led to their recent Medicare reimbursement coverage, and his vision for transforming the future of surgery beyond prostate cancer.

In this episode, we sat down with Claire Dixon, CEO of Neuraura.

Neuraura is developing LoOop, an over-the-counter wearable that targets PCOS through low-frequency electrical stimulation.

Claire brings over 25 years of international leadership experience to her role as co-founder and CEO of Neuraura. With a master's degree in engineering from Cambridge and an MBA from Harvard, she spent 15 years as a strategic consultant to capital-intensive businesses before transitioning to entrepreneurship. She was recently named among the “Top 200 Trailblazing Leaders in Women's Health and femtech” by Women of Wearables.

In this interview, Claire shares insights on navigating regulatory pathways, designing for real user needs, and building strategic partnerships to bring innovative women's health solutions to market through a direct-to-consumer approach.

In this episode, we sat down with Vicky Demas, CEO of identifeye HEALTH (formerly Tesseract Health), who's leading the company's efforts to democratize access to retinal imaging. Using advanced algorithms and automated systems, identifeye's technology captures and analyzes retinal images to detect early signs of disease.

Before joining identifeye HEALTH, Vicky led new product development at GRAIL, supporting the creation of the company's multi-cancer early detection test (Galleri). She was also a founding member of Google Life Sciences (later Verily) within Google [x], where she led teams focused on diagnostics, medical devices, and translational laboratory science. An engineer and scientist, Vicky holds over 20 patents and has authored numerous scientific publications across multiple disciplines.

In this interview, Vicky challenges founders to consider: Are you building a diagnostic solution that can scale globally or a product limited to specialized healthcare settings? She also discusses why understanding real-world implementation challenges early can prevent costly missteps later.

In this episode, we sat down with Randy Pritchard and Erica Rogers, leaders of Axena Health. Axena is transforming pelvic floor therapy with Leva, a device bringing clinically-proven, supervised pelvic floor muscle training into women’s homes. 

Randy, CEO of Axena, brings nearly 25 years of healthcare experience to the company, most recently as CEO of Pillar Biosciences and previously holding leadership positions at Roche Diagnostics, where he spent 18 years developing commercial expertise. Erica, who sits on Axena's Board of Directors, spent a decade as President and CEO of Silk Road Medical, leading the company from early clinical trials through IPO and eventual acquisition by Boston Scientific. A returning guest to the podcast after nearly half a decade, Erica previously held roles at Medicine360, co-founded two other medical device companies, and spent over 12 years at Boston Scientific prior to her role at Silk Road.

In this interview, they share essential medtech commercialization insights: identify your specific patient segment, build continuous clinical evidence, and communicate consistently with investors. Their experience offers invaluable lessons for medical device entrepreneurs navigating today's complex healthcare landscape.

In this episode, we sat down with Ryan Rhodes, CEO of EDAP TMS. EDAP is changing prostate cancer treatment through Focal One, a robotic high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) system that doesn’t require the use of surgery or radiation. 

Ryan has over 30 years of experience in market development, with two decades focused on medical robotics. Before EDAP, Ryan was CEO of Restoration Robotics, where he guided the company to a successful merger with Venus Concept. He spent 13+ years at Intuitive Surgical, establishing the global Urology franchise, which became the company’s entry point for broader adoption of the da Vinci system. He also spent 11 years at Ethicon (J&J) in sales, marketing, and market development.

In this interview, Ryan challenges founders to ask: Are you creating a scalable medtech solution or a product with limited growth potential? He unpacks why standardization and scalability are critical for adoption, how clinical data fuels credibility and reimbursement, and why early adopters take the biggest risks — but also reap the biggest rewards.