July 2023 edition: Life-saving LVADs, supplier innovations and AI breakthroughs

Life-saving LVADs, supplier innovations and AI breakthroughs

Kyree Miller recalls the day his heart stopped beating.

“I remember the entire room going white,” he said. “And I actually turned over on my side and I said, ‘Tell my mom I love her.’”

A couple of weeks later, the heart failure patient — who was only in his 20s at the time — received his first left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implant while he waited for a heart transplant. One year passed, then two, then three. Finally, after surviving on LVAD technology for seven years, his new heart came.

“When you get your transplant, there’s a whole new energy that you get. … But I can honestly say there was a whole new energy that I got when I had my LVAD,” Miller said.

He shared his story at DeviceTalks Boston in May, joined by Abbott and Brigham and Women’s Hospital officials who described the challenge of expanding access to LVADs for heart failure patients who need more time.

“We know that this technology can save lives,” Miller said in a conversation led by Executive Editor Chris Newmarker, who wrote this edition’s cover story. “We know that the LVAD can bridge to transplant. We have this technology available. So let’s use it. Let’s get it out there.”

DeviceTalks Boston coverage from our team doesn’t end there. IP experts at the show offered advice for startups looking for an exit in a “brutal” funding environment, medical device manufacturers shared tips and red flags for selecting contract manufacturers, ZimVie discussed how their device for pediatric scoliosis came to be, and Medtronic dove into nitinol applications for heart devices.

Capping it all off is new DeviceTalks Managing Editor Kayleen Brown, who rounds up the most notable quotes from the show in her Medical Design & Outsourcing debut this month. Look for more from Brown in print and online in the months ahead as we gear up for our DeviceTalks West show Oct. 18–19 in Santa Clara, California.

This edition of MDO also features supplier innovations, ranging from a new method of medical device sterilization to sustainable device coatings and 3D printing technology.

And make sure to check out our continuing coverage of hot topics in medtech with Newmarker’s feature on AI breakthroughs and a roundup of diabetes tech startups by Associate Editor Sean Whooley.

As always, I hope you enjoy this edition of Medical Design & Outsourcing — and thanks for reading.

– Jim Hammerand, Managing Editor
Medical Design & Outsourcing
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