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What if the future of cancer treatment meant moving the patient into position, rather than rotating an enormous machine around them?
In this episode, we speak with Stephen Towe, CEO of Leo Cancer Care, about rethinking the way radiation therapy is delivered. Leo Cancer Care is developing upright radiation and proton therapy systems designed to change the traditional treatment-room setup, with potential benefits for patients, clinical teams and hospitals.
Stephen shares the story behind a major milestone: the first patient ever treated sitting upright in a proton beam. For him, the moment was especially personal. The patient was a seven-year-old boy named Steven, the same age and name as Stephen’s own son. He also explains the journey to working with Stanford, the clinical validation behind the technology, and Leo’s vision for bringing imaging, treatment planning and radiation delivery together.
Key Topics
Why conventional radiation therapy has traditionally rotated large machines around patients, and the case for turning that model around.
The first patient treated upright in a proton beam, and the personal significance of that milestone.
Why proton therapy is particularly important for children, helping deliver radiation to a tumour while reducing exposure to healthy tissue.
How Leo Cancer Care’s upright treatment approach is designed to offer physiological and clinical benefits.
The partnership with Stanford, including the rigorous testing and validation of the technology.
The role of patient experience, including Stanford’s Avatar product, which allows children to watch videos during treatment.
Leo’s growing adoption, with 57 agreements around the world, and its work to reduce the cost, footprint and complexity of proton therapy.
The partnership with GE Healthcare and the ambition to integrate imaging, planning and treatment in one room.
Related Insights
A different way to deliver proton therapy: Upright positioning challenges the assumption that patients must lie down while large gantry systems rotate around them.
Making advanced treatment more accessible: Leo has focused on reducing acquisition and implementation costs, as well as the physical footprint required for proton therapy.
Clinical validation matters: The collaboration with Stanford involved extensive testing and measurement to establish confidence in the new treatment approach.
The patient experience is part of the technology: The integration of video experiences for children reflects the importance of making treatment more comfortable.
A more connected treatment pathway: Working with GE Healthcare, Leo is exploring how imaging, planning and treatment could be brought together, potentially reducing the time and complexity involved in conventional workflows.
Core Challenges
Radiation therapy has evolved significantly, but the physical architecture of treatment has remained familiar: patients lie on a table while large machines rotate around them. Stephen challenges whether this is still the best way to approach treatment.
The opportunity is not simply to change the patient's position. It is to rethink the entire treatment pathway. Today, imaging, planning and treatment can involve separate rooms, processes and waiting periods. Stephen discusses a future in which these steps could be brought together, potentially making treatment more efficient and reducing delays. He points to the NHS experience, where the typical time to first beam was discussed as around 67 days.
But realising that vision brings important questions: How can a new treatment approach earn clinical confidence? How can advanced proton therapy become more accessible to hospitals and patients? And what could happen when imaging, planning and delivery are designed as one integrated process?
Tune in now to hear Stephen Towne explain why Leo Cancer Care is challenging the traditional design of radiation therapy, and why it might be time to stop rotating 100 tonnes around a 100kg patient.
In this episode of Crux of Neuro, Liz is joined by Fred Walke, Founder and CEO of Wave Neuro, to explore why transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has traditionally relied on standardised treatment protocols, and whether a more personalised approach could transform the future of mental healthcare.
From becoming a CEO at just 29 and helping transform the dental industry to building a company focused on precision neuromodulation, Fred shares the unconventional journey that brought him into neuroscience. What began as scepticism towards a complex technology became a deeply personal mission after witnessing his daughter's struggles with mental health and the changes he observed following an individualised course of treatment.
The conversation examines how Wave Neuro uses electroencephalography (EEG) data to inform personalised TMS protocols, why Fred believes objective brain measurements should play a greater role in mental healthcare, and what it will take to make non-invasive treatment more accessible to patients worldwide.
Key Topics
Why conventional TMS protocols have often used standard stimulation frequencies, and what could change when treatment is tailored to an individual's brain activity
How Wave Neuro combines EEG measurements, computational analysis and TMS to develop personalised neuromodulation protocols
Fred's personal experience with his daughter's mental health struggles and why it fundamentally changed his perspective on the technology
The differences between symptom-based mental health assessments and the potential use of objective biomarkers to inform treatment decisions
How Wave Neuro approached its FDA clearance for a system used in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Why Fred believes precision, rather than simply increasing stimulation intensity, could be an important direction for TMS innovation
Related Insights
How Fred went from an unexpected leadership opportunity in the dental industry to building and scaling businesses by questioning established practices
Why understanding patients' actual needs, rather than accepting traditional treatment models, has shaped his approach to healthcare innovation
The role of individual brainwave frequencies and EEG-derived data in Wave Neuro's approach to treatment planning
How shorter treatment programmes and lower costs could help address some of the practical barriers to accessing TMS
Why Fred sees opportunities for neuromodulation to complement medication and other therapies rather than necessarily replace them
The importance of clinical evidence, regulatory clearance and reimbursement in bringing emerging neuroscience technologies into mainstream care
How the Just One Wave Foundation aims to improve access to innovative mental healthcare for underserved populations
Core Challenges
TMS has been an established treatment option for certain mental health conditions for years, yet Fred questions why patients with different patterns of brain activity should receive largely standardised stimulation protocols.
For Wave Neuro, the central challenge is moving towards a more individualised model of care. By using EEG data to inform treatment settings, the company aims to bring greater precision to neuromodulation while continuing to build the evidence needed to support its approach.
However, personalisation alone does not solve the wider challenges facing mental healthcare. Patients still encounter barriers related to treatment costs, insurance coverage, geographic availability and the time required to complete a course of therapy. New approaches must also demonstrate safety and effectiveness through rigorous clinical evaluation.
Fred also explores a broader question: why does healthcare so often wait until people are experiencing significant symptoms before intervening? His long-term vision is a future in which better measurement of brain function could help clinicians identify changes earlier and support people before their mental health deteriorates.
In this episode of Crux of Cardio, Jordan Bergin is joined by Antoine from Withings to explore how the company evolved from a consumer wellness brand into a major player in connected medical technology, now helping to monitor more than one million patients worldwide.
Having spent seven years building Withings’ B2B division, Antoine shares the challenges of bringing connected health technology into clinical care, why the healthcare system took years to catch up with what the hardware could already deliver, and what finally convinced insurers, healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies to take remote patient monitoring seriously.
From GLP-1 programmes and chronic heart failure management to AI-powered cardiovascular risk detection, the conversation explores how Withings is moving beyond simply collecting health data towards helping patients build sustainable habits, supporting clinical decisions and improving long-term outcomes.
Key Topics
How Withings transitioned from connected consumer devices to medical-grade solutions used by more than one million patients
Why trust, reimbursement and clinical workflows proved more challenging than developing the technology itself
How Withings is supporting GLP-1 and obesity care programmes, including reported patient retention of 93% at six months
Why combining connected devices, digital health services and medication could become a new standard of care for chronic conditions
How remote monitoring is changing heart failure management by helping care teams identify patients who need attention
Why real-world engagement and retention evidence finally changed how US payers viewed the value of connected health technology
Related Insights
What a hypertension analysis involving 1,873 patients revealed about monitoring frequency, engagement and blood pressure outcomes
How body composition and impedance measurements could provide more meaningful insights than weight alone in heart failure monitoring
Why Withings’ partnership with Novo Nordisk reflects a growing connection between pharmaceutical innovation and digital health
How AI could personalise patient experiences, reduce unnecessary information for clinicians and support more targeted interventions
The development of cardiovascular risk scores designed to identify potential hypertension and heart failure risks through connected scales
Why the future value of medical hardware may lie less in the device itself and more in the data, algorithms and clinical pathways it enables
Core Challenges
For years, connected health technology promised to transform patient care, but adoption remained slower than innovation. Devices could already capture valuable information from patients at home, yet healthcare systems lacked the trust, reimbursement structures and workflows needed to make that information actionable.
For Antoine, the turning point was evidence. Demonstrating sustained engagement, improved retention and meaningful real-world outcomes helped Withings move beyond being viewed as an additional cost towards becoming a potential source of value for healthcare providers and payers.
However, major questions remain. How can companies prevent clinicians from becoming overwhelmed with data? How can cardiovascular risk detection lead to appropriate clinical action without generating unnecessary concern? And how can healthcare systems move from rewarding appointment volume towards supporting prevention and better long-term outcomes?
As Withings continues to develop its cardiovascular technology, Antoine explains why the next phase of connected health will depend not only on more advanced sensors and AI, but also on stronger partnerships, sustainable business models and a clearer understanding of where technology delivers the greatest clinical value.
In this episode of The Crux of Cardio, Jordan is joined by Dr. Michael Reardon, Professor and Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Houston Methodist Hospital, to explore the evolution of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), the lessons learned from more than 3,000 procedures, and the critical questions that remain unanswered in structural heart disease.
With more than four decades of experience in cardiac surgery, Dr. Reardon shares how a once-radical idea has transformed the treatment of aortic stenosis, allowing many patients to return home the day after treatment. From the importance of patient selection and long-term valve durability to the future of transcatheter technology, he explains why the biggest decisions often happen long before a patient enters the cath lab.
The conversation also explores the realities of designing and running pivotal clinical trials, the role of the multidisciplinary heart team, and how emerging technologies such as the Dura-AVR valve could reshape the future of aortic valve replacement.
Key Topics
How TAVR evolved from a controversial concept into one of the biggest advances in cardiac surgery
What more than 3,000 TAVR procedures have taught Dr. Reardon about patient selection, procedural decision-making and achieving the best outcomes
Why understanding the populations studied in pivotal trials is essential before applying their results to real-world patients
The unanswered questions surrounding long-term valve durability and lifetime management
How valve haemodynamics, effective orifice area (EOA) and laminar flow influence cardiac workload and patient outcomes
What the Dura-AVR valve and the PARADIGM trial could reveal about the next generation of transcatheter aortic valves
Related Insights
Why collaboration between cardiac surgeons and interventional cardiologists remains critical to choosing the right treatment
How TAVR has influenced surgical practice, patient referrals and the development of research-focused cardiac programmes
Why younger, lower-risk patients raise important questions about valve durability and future reintervention
The challenges smaller medical technology companies face when financing large-scale clinical trials
How advances in mitral valve interventions could address patients who currently have few viable treatment options
What complex cardiac procedures, including cardiac autotransplantation for rare tumours, reveal about innovation, surgical experience and giving patients more time
Core Challenges
The success of TAVR has transformed the treatment of aortic stenosis, but important questions remain. How long will these valves last? Which patients benefit most from transcatheter treatment versus surgery? And how can clinicians ensure that promising trial results translate into better outcomes for the wider patient population?
For Dr. Reardon, the answers depend on more than technological innovation. Careful patient selection, robust clinical evidence, long-term follow-up and collaboration across the heart team are essential to making the right decisions. As the field moves towards younger and lower-risk patients, understanding lifetime management becomes increasingly important.
Beyond aortic valve replacement, challenges such as mitral annular calcification and the treatment of complex structural heart disease highlight the need for continued innovation, better devices and new approaches to patients who have historically had limited options.
Tune in now to hear Dr. Michael Reardon reflect on more than 3,000 TAVR procedures, the questions the field still needs to answer, and what the next decade of structural heart innovation could mean for patients, clinicians and the future of cardiac surgery.
In this episode of the Crux of Neuro, Liz Moyles is joined by Deanna Harschberger, CEO of Cala Health, to explore how non-invasive neurostimulation is changing the way we think about treating essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease.
From her early career in chemical engineering and time working in deep brain stimulation to leading Cala Health, Deanna shares the journey behind Cala’s approach to treating hand tremor without surgery. She explains how the company’s watch-like device uses transcutaneous afferent pattern stimulation (TAPS) to measure each patient’s tremor and deliver personalised stimulation designed to disrupt pathological oscillations in the brain.
The conversation also explores what it takes to move a new neurological therapy from an interesting scientific concept to a treatment that patients can actually use — from clinical evidence and physician adoption to FDA clearance, reimbursement and designing technology around real patient needs.
Key Topics
Related Insights
Core Challenges
Developing a new neurological therapy requires more than promising technology. It requires clinical evidence, patient-centred design, physician confidence, regulatory progress and a pathway to reimbursement.
For people living with essential tremor, the challenge is also deeply personal. As tremor progresses, patients can lose independence and begin avoiding everyday activities and social situations. Cala’s approach is focused on making neurostimulation easier to use, personalised to the individual and integrated into everyday life.
Tune in now to hear how Deanna Harschberger and the Cala Health team are working to expand the role of non-invasive neurostimulation, what it takes to build clinical evidence for a new category of therapy, and why the future of neurological treatment may involve increasingly personalised approaches to brain stimulation.
In this episode of the Crux of Neuro, Liz Moyles is joined by Dr. Ramses Alcaide neuroscientist, inventor, and CEO of Neurable, to explore what happens when brain-computer interface technology leaves the lab and enters the headphones in your ears. From tracking cognitive fatigue in real time to detecting neurodegeneration before symptoms appear, Ramses sets out a vision of brain health that goes far beyond anything current wearables can offer and explains why 14 years of R&D was the only way to get there.
Key Topics
What brain-computer interfaces actually are and why the comparison to an Apple Watch matters
How Neurable's EEG headphones track focus, cognitive fatigue, and brain age in real time
The military, clinical, and consumer applications of scalable BCI technology
Why Neurable licenses its technology rather than building its own headphone brand
The concept of brain span and why it may be shorter than your lifespan
Related Insights
Why most people are 10 years into cognitive decline before they know it
How Merck's venture arm is investing in brain data to transform pharmaceutical precision
The neuroethics infrastructure being built to protect brain data before the market scales
What a world with longitudinal brain data at scale means for AI development
Core Challenges
The brain is perceived as more sacred than any other data source education and demonstrated ethics will be essential to adoption.
14 years of R&D were required to get medical-grade EEG data out of a consumer headphone. Most companies cannot clear that bar.
Fewer than 1% of consumers know that brain-sensing headphones exist. Distribution and awareness are the next frontier after product-market fit.
Tune in now to hear why Dr. Ramses Alcaide believes your brain has been the most under-tracked organ in your body and what Neurable is doing to change that.
In this episode of the Crux of Neuro, Liz Moyles is joined by Christian Howell, CEO of Cognito Therapeutics, to explore what happens when neuroscience, light, sound, and clinical research come together to tackle one of the biggest challenges in brain health: Alzheimer’s disease.
From MIT research on 40Hz gamma activity to a home-based therapy using light and sound, Christian explains the science behind Cognito’s approach and what it takes to translate breakthrough neuroscience into something patients can actually use.
Key Topics
How MIT research into 40Hz gamma activity led to a new approach to Alzheimer’s treatment
How light and sound stimulation can induce and sustain 40Hz brain activity
What researchers are learning about synapses, myelin, mitochondria, blood flow, and neuroinflammation
What Cognito’s 673-person clinical study is designed to reveal
How personalised, home-based brain stimulation could make neurological therapy more accessible
Related Insights
Why Alzheimer’s is a challenge affecting entire families and caregivers
How EEG, proteomics, MRI, and cognitive testing can help measure the impact of a therapy
Why partnerships with institutions such as Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute and Ochsner Health matter
How the platform could eventually be explored across conditions including Parkinson’s, stroke, MS, and traumatic brain injury
Core Challenges
Turning breakthrough neuroscience into a real therapy requires more than promising science, it requires clinical evidence, regulatory progress, patient trust, and accessibility.
Making innovative neurological technology available to the people who need it most remains a major challenge.
Cognito’s approach is grounded in balancing scientific rigor with the responsibility to take patients’ hopes seriously.
Tune in now to hear how Christian believes 40Hz sensory stimulation could change the future of brain health, and what it takes to move breakthrough neuroscience from the lab into people’s homes.
In this episode of the Crux of Neuro, Liz Moyles sits down with Dr. Nicolas Vachicouras, PhD, CEO and Co-Founder of Neurosoft Bioelectronics, a Geneva and New York-based neurotechnology company spun out of EPFL, developing the world's softest, stretchable brain interfaces.
Nicolas takes us through his journey from studying the bionic eye, to building brain interfaces for epilepsy, tetraplegics, and severe tinnitus and why the key to all of it starts with matching the mechanical properties of the brain itself.
KEY TOPICS
How soft, stretchable electrode materials unlock access to the brain's hidden 50%
The minimally invasive deployment method that replaces large craniotomies
Why Neurosoft chose epilepsy as its beachhead indication and what comes next
Tinnitus as a neurological condition: 120 million severe cases, and no cure
Building an objective biomarker for tinnitus and why pharma should be paying attention
European vs. US investor mindset and why Nicolas is relocating to New York
The Science Corporation partnership and the Max Hodak mentorship
What it really means to de-risk a neurotechnology platform before going into humans
RELATED INSIGHTS
Why ECoG data collected in epilepsy patients can be used to decode motor intent for tetraplegic BCIs
The regulatory and reimbursement divergence and why you have to design for both from day one
Why US investors back vision and team, while European investors demand proof first
How partnering with Science Corp accelerated Neurosoft's ASIC and wireless back-end without diluting their core IP
The case for building your neurotechnology company in the US even if your tech and talent is European
CORE CHALLENGES
The brain and spinal cord are extraordinarily soft and constantly in motion yet for decades, we have interfaced with them using rigid, static devices. The resulting mechanical mismatch causes foreign body reaction, device degradation, and limits long-term viability.
More than 50% of the brain's cortex sits hidden within its sulci (folds). Existing surface electrode arrays miss most of it and reaching those areas historically requires invasive large-scale craniotomies.
Severe tinnitus affects 120 million people worldwide, has no cure, and is almost completely misunderstood by the investor community. Objective biomarkers do not yet exist making it hard to measure, treat, or run efficient clinical trials.
Neurotech is capital-intensive and long-cycle. Specialist venture capital with genuine risk tolerance for decade-long timelines is plentiful in the US but rare in Europe, forcing companies to move or fail.
🎧 Tune in now to hear how Nicolas Vachicouras is rethinking the fundamental materials of brain surgery and why soft electrodes could be the unlock that takes BCIs from the lab to 120 million patients.
In this episode of Crux of Neuro, host Liz Moyles is joined by Dr. Leo Petrossian, CEO of Kandu, Inc. the company formed from the merger of Neurolutions and Kandu Health. Leo has spent over 20 years at the intersection of neurotech and clinical care, and under his leadership, Neurolutions secured FDA breakthrough clearance for the IpsiHand®: the first non-invasive, at-home brain-computer interface for stroke rehabilitation. He also navigated the first BCI-specific CMS billing code and led a randomised controlled trial that was stopped early for efficacy. In this conversation, Leo and Liz cover the systemic failures in post-stroke care, the science behind the IpsiHand®, the brutal realities of getting novel devices covered by insurance, and what it will take to give 8 million stroke survivors in the US a real shot at recovery.
Key Topics
The "level 10 to zero" problem: why stroke survivors are abandoned at discharge
How the IpsiHand® uses non-invasive EEG and ipsilateral brain signals to restore arm function
The real cost of neurological disease and why most people underestimate it
Navigating FDA breakthrough designation, de novo clearance, and the first BCI billing code
Why the RCT was stopped early and what an NNT of 2.2 actually means
Building Kandu: why combining a clinical device with a virtual care platform changes outcomes
The barriers to adoption: awareness, insurance coverage, and clinician education
Related Insights
Why neurological disease spend is already approaching cardiovascular and still climbing
The indirect cost of stroke: pulling caregivers out of the workforce and what that costs the system
Why "neurons that fire together, wire together" is more than a mantra, it's the therapeutic mechanism
How CMS's "reasonable and necessary" standard creates a maze that FDA's "safe and effective" never prepared you for
The case for collaboration over competition in neurotech and what Kandu is actively building toward
Core Challenges
Post-stroke care is structurally broken: patients go from 24/7 hospital monitoring to zero follow-up overnight, with no systematised path back to function.
The IpsiHand® has FDA clearance and a CMS billing code, but formal coverage policy remains the "final frontier," leaving most patients navigating reimbursement case by case.
Novel device makers face a gap that drug companies don't: FDA has a clear pathway for innovation, but reimbursement bodies haven't built the equivalent and two attempts (MCIT and TCET) were both cancelled.
🎧 Tune in now to hear why one in four people will suffer a neurological disease and how the IpsiHand® is giving stroke survivors a genuine shot at recovery, years after they were told rehab had run its course.
The Crux of MedTech podcast is brought to you by Cruxx, a specialist surgical robotics recruitment agency.
To learn more about Cruxx, click here.
A big thank you to our sponsors on this season of the podcast;
TTP plc With a 35-year track record, TTP excels in turning innovative ideas into market-ready solutions. Their team of 300+ experts deliver breakthrough solutions in areas ranging from endoluminal robotics and navigation systems to ultrasound imaging. Whether you're a startup or a multinational, TTP plc can accelerate your development with the latest technologies. Learn more at TTP.com
In this episode of the Crux of Neuro, Renee Ryan, co-founder and CEO of PinPrint and former CEO of Cala Health. Renee traces her path from Wall Street healthcare banker to one of medtech’s most prolific investors and operators. She explains why, in neurotech today, getting reimbursed is often harder than getting cleared and how data became the whole story.
Key Topics
Renee’s path from healthcare investment banking to leading J&J’s medtech investing (JJDC)
Founding Verb Surgical and investing across J&J’s surgical-robotics portfolio (Auris, Verb)
Crossing from investor to operator as CEO of Cala Health
Winning Medicare coverage for wearable, at-home neuromodulation
Launching PinPrint and high-resolution 3D-printed microneedle patches
Related Insights
Why “if it’s not published, it doesn’t exist” to payers
How a connected device turns real-world data into reimbursement evidence
The shift in medtech from “get FDA approval” to “prove you can get paid”
Pharma and medtech converging around sensors, biomarkers and real-time data
Core Challenges
Wearable, at-home neuromodulation didn’t fit existing reimbursement codes forcing Cala to build the clinical evidence and the payment pathway from scratch, through repeated appeals.
Microneedle/microarray patches have existed for decades without FDA approval; PinPrint argues the real bottleneck has been manufacturing precision, which high-resolution 3D printing now addresses.
🎧 Tune in now to hear how Renee Ryan turned data into dollars in neuromodulation and where she’s taking the body’s next interface with PinPrint.
The Crux of MedTech podcast is brought to you by Cruxx, a specialist surgical robotics recruitment agency.
To learn more about Cruxx, click here.
A big thank you to our sponsors on this season of the podcast;
TTP plc With a 35-year track record, TTP excels in turning innovative ideas into market-ready solutions. Their team of 300+ experts deliver breakthrough solutions in areas ranging from endoluminal robotics and navigation systems to ultrasound imaging. Whether you're a startup or a multinational, TTP plc can accelerate your development with the latest technologies. Learn more at TTP.com
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