DeviceTalks Boston Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

DeviceTalks and our team are finalists in the Software & Information Industry Association’s Neal Awards

DeviceTalks Editorial Director Tom Salemi (left) interviews BD Chair, CEO and President Tom Polen at DeviceTalks Boston 2023. [Photo by Jeff Pinette for Medical Design & Outsourcing]

DeviceTalks and the WTWH Media Life Sciences team — which includes editorial staff from DeviceTalks, Medical Design & Outsourcing and MassDevice — are finalists in the Software & Information Industry Association’s (SIIA) 70th Annual Jesse H. Neal Awards competition.

SIIA calls the Neal Awards “the most prestigious editorial honors in the field of business-to-business journalism.”

DeviceTalks is a finalist in the category of best range of work by a media brand for our DeviceTalks podcasts, live events in Boston and California, and print and online coverage through MassDevice and Medical Design & Outsourcing.

DeviceTalks Boston 2023: Registration is now open for our life event on May 1-…

DeviceTalks Boston 2024: Our favorite panels and new additions

Our team picks favorites from our upcoming show, including some new additions to the program.

Leaders from CMR Surgical, the developer of the Versius surgical robotics system, will speak at DeviceTalks Boston 2024. [Photo courtesy of CMR Surgical]

I enjoy reading bookstore staff recommendations. It’s nice to see how people in the know like to spend their time.

But if you asked me to pick my favorite panels on the agenda for DeviceTalks Boston, taking place May 1–2, 2024 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, I couldn’t do it.

In fact, I won’t do it. Sorry, dear reader, I’ve put too much into this agenda to pick one favorite session. Plus, I owe neutrality to our speakers — amazing professionals willing to give up two days to help me create something. That’s a covenant that I cannot violate by selecting a favorite.

But I can put our editorial team on the spot to pick their favorites. And…

Here’s our medtech events calendar for 2024

The show floor was bustling in May 2023 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center during DeviceTalks Boston and its companion Robotics Summit & Expo. The events drew nearly 4,000 people. [Image courtesy of Jeff Pinette for WTWH Media]

Medtech events have a new energy to them after the COVID-19 pandemic as industry insiders once again seek opportunities for in-person networking and learning.

Here are medtech events that we’ll be following and attending in 2024, including our own DeviceTalks conferences and expos.

JPM Annual Healthcare Conference (JPM 2024) Jan. 8–11, 2024 The Westin St. Francis San Francisco 2024.jpmhealthcareconference.org

CES 2024 Jan. 9–12, 2024 Las Vegas www.ces.tech

MD&M West Feb. 6–8, 2024 Anaheim Convention Center Anaheim, California www.imengineeringwest.com

AAOS 2024 Annual Meeting Feb. 12–16, 2024 Moscone Center San Francisco www.aaos.org/…

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

LVADs save lives: So why aren’t more available?

What’s new in 3D printing: medical devices, research, innovation, automation and partnerships

AI breakthroughs in medtech: 7 ways to enhance healthcare

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.

…

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…

LVADs save lives: So why aren’t more available?

Abbott says its HeartMate 3 LVAD is clinically proven to extend life by five years or more — but thousands of people in the U.S. still die of heart failure within a year.

Former LVAD patient Kyree Miller holds an Abbott HeartMate 3 at our DeviceTalks Boston show in May. [Photo by Jeff Pinette for Medical Design & Outsourcing/DeviceTalks]Kyree Miller, a 30-year-old college student, navigated seven long years of heart failure with the assistance of an Abbott HeartMate left ventricular assist device (LVAD).

“Before I got my LVAD, there was no way I was getting on a plane. Before I got my LVAD, there was no way I was going back to work. And I was able to do both of those things — and more. To be at Killington [ski resort] with an LVAD, I never thought it would have happened, but it did,” Miller told a group of medtech insiders during our annual DeviceTalks Boston show in May.

In August 2022, Miller received a new heart.

“Having the LVAD was crucial i…

LVADs save lives: So why aren’t more available?

Former LVAD patient Kyree Miller holds an Abbott HeartMate 3 at our DeviceTalks Boston show in May. [Photo by Jeff Pinette for Medical Design & Outsourcing/DeviceTalks]

Kyree Miller, a 30-year-old college student, navigated seven long years of heart failure with the assistance of an Abbott HeartMate left ventricular assist device (LVAD).

“Before I got my LVAD, there was no way I was getting on a plane. Before I got my LVAD, there was no way I was going back to work. And I was able to do both of those things — and more. To be at Killington [ski resort] with an LVAD, I never thought it would have happened, but it did,” Miller told a group of medtech insiders during our annual DeviceTalks Boston show in May.

In August 2022, Miller received a new heart.

“Having the LVAD was crucial in bridging the gap before the heart transplant,” he said. “Without it, I don’t think I would have been here to rece…

How medtech IP can help a startup navigate a ‘brutal’ environment

Now is the time for startups to build medtech IP for a future funding or exit, experts said at DeviceTalks Boston.

[Illustration via Adobe Stock]

There’s no sugar-coating the state of venture capital investment for young medical device companies that are looking for funding while building their medtech IP.

“It’s brutal out there,” said venture capitalist Jeremy Sohn, managing general partner at P74 Ventures. “… Is it completely bleak? Absolutely not. There’s a lot of money out there, billions and billions if not trillions of dollars sitting on the sidelines. There absolutely is money to be taken. You’ve just got to be creative” to close a financing.

Sohn was speaking in early May at a DeviceTalks Boston panel with Greenberg Traurig patent attorneys David Dykeman and Roman Fayerberg, as well as Luis Barros, an MIT lecturer and managing partner of Leadi…

5 keys to Mike Mahoney and Boston Scientific’s success
Boston Scientific’s market capitalization has grown nearly 10 times larger since Mike Mahoney joined as CEO in 2011. He shared key insights about cor

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 (NYSE: BSX) + 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. So why…

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…