The MedTech Conference Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

How can medtech companies innovate their business models?

From left: Veronica Acurio, Gio Di Napoli, Brian Montgomery and Simran Sabharwal talked business model innovation at AdvaMed’s The MedTech Conference.

In an ever-changing medtech space, how do companies keep up with the pace of change? How do companies adjust and innovate their business models to reflect that?

Leaders from some of medtech’s biggest names attempted to answer some questions around that at AdvaMed’s The MedTech Conference yesterday. (Want to find out more? Leaders from major medical device companies will discuss innovation in surgical robotics, diabetes tech, cardiovascular and neurovascular tech, oncology and more at DeviceTalks West, Oct. 18–19 in Santa Clara. Register here.)

A panel on “Disruptive Business Models in Medtech: The Next Frontier of Value-Centric Innovation” included:

Veronica Acurio, president of the Medical Solutions division, 3M; Gio Di Napoli, president of the GI operating unit at Medtronic; B…

MedTech Innovator announces 2023 Grand Prize winner

StrokeDx accepts its MedTech Innovator 2023 grand prize. [Image courtesy of Helen Shik/MedTech Innovator]MedTech Innovator, a global medtech accelerator, today announced that StrokeDx won the grand prize in its 2023 Global Competition.

StrokeDx develops a rapid, portable and affordable stroke diagnostic device. The Pasadena, California-based company won a live audience vote at AdvaMed’s The MedTech Conference on Oct. 10. It beat out four other finalists within the 2023 MedTech Innovator cohort.

Phiex, which will participate in a panel at DeviceTalks West in Santa Clara, California, Oct. 18-19, won the grand prize last year. (Learn about that panel and more at West.DeviceTalks.com).

(And want to find out more about all 10 finalist in the competition? Our DeviceTalks Weekly podcast has you covered with interviews with each of the 10 startup CEOs.)

The winner StrokeDx seeks to speed up stroke diagnosis in the critical window

The primary objective …

State of the industry — Execs ‘more bullish than ever’ on medtech

From left: Kevin Lobo, Lisa Earnhardt, Deepak Nath, Bernard Zovighian. All spoke about the state of the industry at The MedTech Conference.

Ernst & Young’s 2023 Pulse of the Industry medical technology report may not have been overly positive, but medtech executives certainly are.

The EY report highlighted sluggish revenues and post-COVID-19 corrections leading to a growth decline. In fact, it was the lowest growth in medtech since 2015. Roughly half of medtech stock price gains realized in 2021 were wiped out by the end of 2022.

However, leading medtech executives, including Stryker CEO Kevin Lobo, only see upwards.

“I feel as bullish as I’ve ever felt in my time in medtech,” Lobo declared.

Lobo, Abbott EVP of Medical Devices Lisa Earnhardt, Smith+Nephew CEO Deepak Nath and Edwards CEO Bernard Zovighian all have positive outlooks for the space. They outlined their views on a panel based around the EY report Monday at T…

‘Love, yet fear’ — how medtech is stepping into the digital sphere

Robert Cohen of Stryker offered his thoughts on how medtech is adopting digital technologies. [Photo courtesy of Stryker]Dr. Rajiv Sethi likes to compare the implementation of digital technologies and automation in medtech to the automation in an airplane.

If the pilots experienced an issue with their technology or the weather, for instance, they could manually interject, he says. But, the “vast majority of the work” goes down to automation.

Sethi serves as a clinical professor for health systems and population health and executive director of the Center for Neurosciences and Spine at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Virginia Mason Medical Center. He explained his airplane and operating room analogy today at AdvaMed’s The MedTech Conference in Anaheim, California.

Sethi spoke on a panel titled “Digital is the New Frontier: Are We Stepping Into it Boldly?” (Want to find out more about digital surgery, artifici…

How Medtronic, Abbott, Resmed see healthcare improving through ecosystems

Medtronic’s Geoff Martha (left), Abbott’s Lisa Earnhardt (middle) and ResMed’s Mick Farrell (right). The trio discussed the medtech ecosystem at AdvaMed’s The MedTech Conference in Boston.

According to McKinsey & Company Senior Partner Rajesh Parekh, “ecosystem” is a word used plenty in the tech world. Now it’s coming into the medtech space.

So, what is an ecosystem? How can medtech companies take advantage of one to provide better care and improved patient outcomes? How can they do so with speed in an ever-changing environment? Three major medtech leaders joined Parekh at AdvaMed’s The MedTech Conference in Boston to try and explain that.

Medtronic Chair and CEO Geoff Martha, Abbott EVP of Medical Devices Lisa Earnhardt and ResMed CEO Mick Farrell offered their views on ecosystems in the space.

What is an ecosystem in healthcare?

Earnhardt said an ecosystem brings a variety of stakeholders together to …

5 top trends shaping the medtech industry

Ashley McEvoy (left), Michael Minogue (middle) and Barry Rosenberg (right) speak at AdvaMed’s The MedTech Conference in Boston.

Ashley McEvoy is an industry veteran and the EVP and worldwide chair of Johnson & Johnson MedTech. Michael Minogue, another veteran, serves as chair, president and CEO of heart pump maker Abiomed.

Together, the two bring a wealth of medtech industry knowledge to the table. They demonstrated that in a “CEOs Unplugged” discussion at AdvaMed’s The MedTech Conference today.

McEvoy and Minogue joined Boston Consulting Group Managing Director and Senior Partner Barry Rosenberg onstage to discuss major medtech trends. The two went in-depth on five that they see in the industry right now: AI, health equity, hospital care, talent and climate change.

Here is more about the five trends:

1. AI

McEvoy said there is discussion over the potential framework for how to embrace artificial intelligence (AI) and m…

The MedTech Conference is coming to Boston in 2022

[Boston image from Unsplash]Trade group AdvaMed plans to return to an entirely in-person event for The MedTech Conference, with the annual event slated for Boston on October 24–26, 2022.

AdvaMed in September 2021 held a hybrid event that included virtual sessions as well as live sessions in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. (The year before — in pre-COVID vaccine times — the event was entirely virtual.)

“We recognized the strong desire to gather in-person at our 2021 hybrid conference, and will continue to plan for a live event while closely monitoring the status of COVID-19 in the coming months. Rest assured, the safety of our staff and attendees remains our top priority,” AdvaMed EVP Ray Briscuso and SVP Wendy Siminski said in an announcement yesterday.

MassDevice and Medical Design & Outsourcing‘s DeviceTalks is also returning in 2022 with live events: Boston May 10–11, Minneapolis June 6–7, and Santa Clara, California October 19–20.

AdvaMed honors former BD CEO Ludwig with its Lifetime Achievement Award

Former BD CEO Edward Ludwig

AdvaMed this week honored former BD CEO Edward Ludwig with its 2021 AdvaMed Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ludwig received the award on September 27 during an in-person and live-streamed event as part of The MedTech Conference.

Ludwig joined BD in 1979 and rose through the ranks to eventually become chair and CEO, retiring from the company in 2012.

AdvaMed in a news release praised the leadership that Ludwig demonstrated at BD:

He was instrumental in bringing the BD BACTEC 9000 system to market, a family of continuous blood monitoring and blood culturing instruments, revolutionizing the way blood culturing was performed, ultimately improving patient care and safety for health care workers.

With the goal of developing current and future leaders in the company, Ludwig established BD University, a management-driven leadership development program within the company. At BD, everyone who worked with him could tell you abo…

CDRH’s Shuren says they’re ‘starting to turn the corner’ from COVID-19

CDRH director Dr. Jeff Shuren [Image courtesy of FDA]Medical device industry insiders will have to wait until the new year to get a better idea of the post-pandemic priorities at the FDA’s CDRH.

That was one of the big takeaways from Dr. Jeff Shuren’s remarks at the virtual CDRH Town Hall held yesterday at AdvaMed’s The MedTech Conference, which takes place this week as a combination of virtual presentations and live presentations events in Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis.

Shuren, the director of FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said the center is “starting to turn the corner” on catching up on submissions. Additional funding from Congress, he said, allowed CDRH to bring on more people, leverage contractors and make changes in policy and process.

Get the full story on our sister site Medical Design & Outsourcing.

The MedTech Conference by AdvaMed to be a mixture of in-person and virtual

To hold an event or not to hold a live event. Medtech trade association AdvaMed chose both for The Medtech Conference, which takes place next week.

The September 27–30 conference includes a mixture of virtual presentations and in-person events in Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis. AdvaMed CEO Scott Whitaker mentioned several conference agenda highlights during a news conference today:

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel will deliver an afternoon keynote on Monday, September 27, in Washington, D.C. CMS’s chief medical officer Dr. Lee Fleisher will discuss his work during a late morning talk on September 27. FDA’s Virtual CDRH Town Hall — a perennial favorite at the conference — will take place virtually on the evening of September 27. The in-person Minneapolis events September 29–30 include a who’s who of medtech CEOs, including Abiomed’s Michael R. Minogue (also the present AdvaMed board chair), Edwards Lifesciences’ Michael…