Boston Scientific Archives - Page 2 of 6

Artificial intelligence: What medtech’s top influencers think

Artificial intelligence’s effect on medtech was a question that came up continually during our DeviceTalks Boston show in early May.

Here is what some of the top influencers in the industry had to say:

Boston Scientific CEO Mike Mahoney [Photo courtesy of Boston Scientific]

Boston Scientific CEO Mike Mahoney on artificial intelligence and medtech

“I’ll give you some practical applications. … We have manufacturing plants around the world, and we have great quality systems, and we have great quality engineers who inspect everything, and we have a zillion microscopes looking at every little product that we have all over the world. Our team is leveraging AI capabilities for visualization inspection rather than the human eye constantly doing that with the mistakes that are inherent and scrapping products and so forth. … We’re seeing cost productivity and better quality by just leveraging AI in our…

Boston Scientific’s Kathryn Unger on how to stand up an ESG program

Kathryn Unger is VP of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) at Boston Scientific. [Photo courtesy of Boston Scientific]

Kathryn Unger, VP of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) at Boston Scientific, joined the medical device developer and manufacturer in September 2022 to form the ESG team.

“The patient is and must be at the center of everything we do,” she said DeviceTalks Boston in May. “We’re constantly trying to ensure that we have the absolute best patient outcome, from a risk-to-the-patient perspective, period. That has to be our guiding principle, right? However, that’s not an excuse to not improve the design of our medical devices. … There has to be product stewardship that starts before you get to the manufacturing piece. And that design needs to be circular and consider the full life cycle.”

Unger had advice for companies that want to launc…

5 keys to Mike Mahoney and Boston Scientific’s success

DeviceTalks Editorial Director Tom Salemi (left) interviewed Boston Scientific CEO Mike Mahoney (right) in front of a crowd of medtech insiders at our DeviceTalks Boston show in early May. [Photo by Jeff Pinette for DeviceTalks/MDO]

Boston Scientific is one of the bright spots as the medical device industry goes through a rough patch.

It’s more expensive to run a business, and health provider customers face operational challenges. But while other medtech companies are laying off workers, Boston Scientific is hiring. The interventional medical device giant’s workforce grew 10% over the past year to 45,000 employees.

Boston Scientific sales grew 6.7% to $12.7 billion in 2022, and CEO Mike Mahoney and other top company officials expect it to grow another 8.5–10.5% this year.

“Thankfully, we have a very strong innovation cadence right now. In Europe, we grew 20% [operationally] in the first quarter. S…

They said it at DeviceTalks Boston 2023

Medical device industry leaders from Boston Scientific, Abbott, ZimVie, Medtronic, Stryker and more met at DeviceTalks Boston to share lessons learned and their perspectives on industry trends, device design and medtech innovation.

BD Chair, CEO and President Tom Polen (right) at DeviceTalks Boston with DeviceTalks Editorial Director Tom Salemi [Photo by Jeff Pinette for Medical Design & Outsourcing]

Bidding farewell to DeviceTalks Boston 2023, we look back at an exceptional two-day medical device conference teeming with insights from over 100 top industry leaders.

These experts unfolded many complexities of the medtech industry in more than 35 sessions, walking attendees from the medical device product development continuum through the latest medical innovations and strategies to tackle regulatory challenges, prototyping, manufacturing, product launches and more.

Between the high-profile keynote int…

The top cardiac care innovation news at Heart Rhythm 2023

The future of cardiac care was on display at the Heart Rhythm Society’s 2023 annual meeting.

Medical device companies showcased groundbreaking technologies at Heart Rhythm 2023, May 19-21 in New Orleans. The innovations presented during the event offer new avenues for diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of cardiovascular conditions, providing hope for patients worldwide.

Boston Scientific, Abbott, Medtronic, Philips, and iRhythm unveiled advances that have the potential to revolutionize the field of cardiology and improve patient outcomes.

The cardiology devices showcased at the Heart Rhythm 2023 hold promise for the future of cardiovascular care. As these innovations continue to advance, they have the potential to significantly improve the lives of patients worldwide. Stay tuned as we delve deeper into the details of these groundbreaking technologies and their impact on the field of cardiology.

Get the full story on o…

How device manufacturers are mitigating high-risk exposure to hospital budgets

Surgical robotics systems are among the most expensive hospital purchases. [Photo via Adobe Stock]

Medical device manufacturers face volatile equipment orders from hospitals in the next couple of years, with some more exposed to capital budget risk than others.

A new report from Moody’s Investors Service identified eight medtech companies with exposure to changes in hospital capital budgets and examined how well they mitigated that risk with recurring or noncapital sales.

This balance is an important consideration for medtech developers of all sizes as hospitals continue to face staffing and budget challenges with no relief in sight. The report also highlights the importance of innovation in overcoming macroeconomic challenges.

“With a potential recession and inflationary pressures driving up hospitals’ cost of labor, utilities and other expenses, medical device original equipmen…

March 2023 Issue: Incredible enabling technologies

Stryker on steroids: How enabling technology will supercharge surgical robotics

How Penumbra’s smart-sucking algorithms and catheters speed up clot removal

What Abbott learned about COVID-19 and cardio devices

Genascence believes gene therapy can transform the treatment of knee osteoarthritis

What to expect in diabetes care in 2023

Incredible enabling technologies

The FDA has cleared or approved more than 500 devices enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning, and the list keeps getting longer.

Medtech AI is helping physicians diagnose, treat and monitor patients like never before. Sometimes the software works as a medical device all on its own. But the real fun starts when device developers pair software with other enabling technologies like robotics, miniaturization, 3D printing and advanced materials.

For example, take Stryker…

Medtech jobs: The world’s largest medical device companies are hiring

Medical device companies are trying to fill thousand of medtech jobs. [Photo by ijeab – stock.adobe.com]

The world’s largest medical device companies are still hiring for medtech jobs despite layoffs in tech and other industries.

Medtech developers — and medtech jobs — are resilient, with the industry’s COVID-19 pandemic performance only bolstering its recession-proof reputation.

That’s not to say there haven’t been job cuts in medtech, led by thousands of layoffs at Philips as it struggles with a massive recall of deadly respiratory devices. But most medical device manufacturers are still hiring, and in some cases they can’t attract enough candidates to fill every vacancy in a tight labor market.

Stryker, for example, grew to approximately 51,000 employees as of the end of 2022, increasing its headcount by nearly 11 percent last year. Boston Scientific reported nearl…

How these engineers make DeviceTalks Boston go!

We love engineers here at DeviceTalks.

It’s obvious why. Engineers are the straw that stirs medtech’s drink (apologies to Reggie Jackson). Nothing happens — financing, manufacturing, approval, help for patients — without a well-conceived product.

And engineers often transcend their typical design roles. They grow into business leaders, technology evangelists, startup CEOs, and yes, some stay to lead ground-breaking research and development groups.

So I’m thrilled to be bringing engineers of all types into the agenda of DeviceTalks Boston. We’ll have engineers from Abbott, ZimVie, Philips, Boston Scientific, Stryker and many other companies on hand to talk about being an engineer.

But we’ll also hear from engineers who have followed their careers into other parts of the medical device industry.

In this column, we’ll walk you through some of their career highlights as told in interviews on our DeviceTalks Weekly podcast. We’ll explain t…

29 cutting-edge medtech innovations recognized with Edison Awards

More than two dozen medical technology developers are winners of the 2023 Edison Awards.

The 29 medtech winners include products from Boston Scientific, Shockwave Medical, Thermo Fisher, DermaSensor and Endiatx. They span four categories: engineering and robotics; health, medical and biotech; manufacturing and logistics; and personal technology and gadgets. Subcategories include smart wearables, noninvasive medtech, advanced drug delivery, AI-assisted medicine, operating room integration and more.

The winners are all finalists for gold, silver and bronze awards. Those awards will be revealed at the Edison Awards Gala on April 20, 2023, in Fort Myers, Florida.

Endiatx co-founder and CEO Torrey Smith with PillBot [Photo by Hardy Wilson for MDO]

Special honors went to Endiatx, which stands by itself as a “game changer” among the approximately 150 Edison Awards winners. Medical Design &…

5 tips from medtech leaders for the next generation

Mike Mahoney is chair and CEO of Boston Scientific. [Photo courtesy of Boston Scientific]

When interviewing senior executives on our DeviceTalks podcasts I always start by asking how they got into medtech.

Starting at career square one allows us to walk through the decisions that led to their success. I like to spend a few minutes examining those critical crossroad moments when the guests chose to leap into a new opportunity.

These interviews are full of lessons and tips for younger medtech professionals to equip themselves with experience and insights that will help develop them into leaders of the future.

RELATED: Move over baby boomers, former Medtronic CEO Bill George says

You’ll need to listen to our past episodes for every bit of great advice. But we pulled these particularly helpful tidbits to help you build your successful career.

Tip 1: Run to the fire

Michael Mahoney surpri…

What’s so special about Apollo Endosurgery’s stomach-shrinking weight loss tech?

The Apollo Endosurgery OverStitch Sx endoscopic suturing system [Image courtesy of Apollo Endosurgery]

Apollo Endosurgery — set to be purchased by Boston Scientific for $615 million — develops new devices and minimally invasive procedures for weight loss.

The procedure is called endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) and the device that made it possible is the OverStitch endoscopic suturing system.

Austin, Texas-based Apollo Endosurgery first won 510(k) clearance for OverStitch in 2008, with successive clearances for improved designs over the years. Most recently, in July the FDA granted de novo clearance for Apollo Endosurgery’s Apollo ESG, Apollo ESG Sx, Apollo REVISE and Apollo REVISE Sx systems. They’re the first FDA-authorized devices for ESG and endoscopic bariatric revision procedures.

Medical Design & Outsourcing spoke with Apollo Endosurgery Chief Medical Officer Dr. Christo…