In this month’s episode of Medtech Talk, host Geoff Pardo speaks with Rodney Perkins, M.D., serial medtech inventor and founder of several companies, including Collagen Corporation and Laserscope. Perkins delves into his extensive history as one of the industry’s most prolific and successful entrepreneurs whose inventions have helped shape many medical specialties. Perkins discusses what drew him to medicine and medtech, how to navigate the challenges of starting new companies, and why being aware of your own skillset is important to the growth of a company. He also offers advice on how to handle the stresses of entrepreneurship, including his own “entrepreneur’s survival kit” of self-care and understanding your limits. 

Starting a company is an intimidating feat. Starting multiple companies is even scarier. In this month’s episode of Medtech Talk, host Geoff Pardo speaks with Amr Salahieh, founder and CEO of Shifamed, about his extensive experiences of entrepreneurship in the medtech ecosystem. As the founder of several companies, including Sadra Medical, Maya Medical, and Apama Medical, Salahieh shares his tips and tactics on finding the right markets, taking care of your investors, and overcoming challenges when a company fails. He also offers his thoughts on the biggest obstacle in the medtech sector today and how Shifamed has remained sustainable compared to other organizations.

Medtech Talk Links: 
Cambridge Healthtech Institute   
Medtech Talk 
Gilde Healthcare   

Shifamed Links:
Shifamed 

Though the stigma around mental illnesses has lessened, there is an ongoing mental health crisis affecting the country—and the rest of the world. In this episode of Medtech Talk, host Geoff Pardo speaks with Nolan Williams, M.D. Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, about how electrical signaling abnormalities in the brain could be behind mental illnesses and the different options used to treat these ailments. Dr. Williams also delves into how his background in psychology and neurology helped him better understand patients in crisis, how Magnus Medical’s methods differ from traditional transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy, and the difficult circumstance of the current state of hospitals and inpatient units.

Medtech Talk Links: 
Cambridge Healthtech Institute   
Medtech Talk 
Gilde Healthcare  

Magnus Medical Links:
Magnus Medical

Stanford University Links:
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford University 

How does one decide to invest in the right company? In this episode of Medtech Talk, host Geoff Pardo speaks with Justin Klein, MD, JD, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Vensana Capital, about how he uses his legal background to determine the best investment strategy, how he found his way into the medtech industry, and which areas of medicine fascinate him the most. He also talks about his experiences and lessons learned during his time as a partner at NEA, as well as his thoughts on what is working in the industry and what challenges obstruct it from its goals. 

How does one navigate the difficult road of entrepreneurship? How do you find the right industry for you? In this episode of Medtech Talk, host Geoff Pardo speaks with serial founder and med device CEO Keegan Harper, about overcoming the challenges of being your own boss and finding what you’re good at. Harper discusses what inspired him to become an entrepreneur, how he became interested and involved in medtech, and his experiences managing several start-up companies. He also details how he found his knack for choosing technology to invest in and develop, meeting the right people, figuring out the build-to-buy system, and his experiences at multiple companies, including Ablation Frontiers, TheraCardia, Bird Flex, and, now, Bolt Medical. 

Ceribell’s rapid seizure triage product for critical care received FDA’s Breakthrough Designation with an exclusive New Technology Add-on Payment (NTAP) from CMS. Everything about the ClarityPro product—from the innovative EEG headband to the EEG recorder and physician portal has been engineered to enable quick detection and response to non-convulsive seizure in a critical care or ED setting. In this episode of the Medtech Talk podcast, host Geoff Pardo speaks with Jane Chao, CEO of Ceribell, about the path to develop an innovative new product and her personal journey as well.

Chao’s own story started with a love of numbers, a highly exclusive spot earned in a prestigious chemistry program in Beijing, a Ph.D. in biophysics, and roles at McKinsey, Novartis, and Genentech. For Ceribell’s genesis, Chao took lessons from all of those experiences—business knowledge gained at McKinsey, and a rich, interdisciplinary scientific background—to launch a new medtech business and engineer a new device to meet a critical, unmet medical need. 

Medtech Talk Links:  
Cambridge Healthtech Institute   
Medtech Talk
Gilde Healthcare  

How has the bullishness of 2016-2022 impacted public markets and private companies? In this special episode of Medtech Talk, we share Geoff Pardo’s Medtech MVP 2023 panel, featuring Tak G Cheung, Partner at New Enterprise Associates; J.P. Peltier, Managing Director of Global Head, Healthcare Investment Banking at Piper Sandler; Michael Ryan, VP of Venture Capital & Business Development at Boston Scientific Corp; Gwen Watanabe, Managing Director at H.I.G. Capital; and Rob Winklemann, Managing Partner & CEO at Credo 180. The panelists discuss the implications for private companies, particularly those that were financed during the boom times, as well as strategies for keeping private companies financed, and the outlook for liquidity via M&A or IPO.  

Doug Godshall, President and CEO of Shockwave Medical, started off selling T-shirts as an engineering student. Today, he leads the most successful high-growth medtech company in the last twenty years. In this episode of Medtech Talk, host Geoff Pardo speaks with Godshall, who discusses his start in medical devices, experiences in a major medtech company, leadership and culture, and what it takes to succeed in the field. Godshall details the strategies behind sales such as understanding your customer’s full needs and why the quality and usefulness of your product is more important than the amount you sell.  He also shares his perspective on the type of company culture that creates a comfortable and collaborative environment that paves the way to success. 

Medtech Talk Links: 
Cambridge Healthtech Institute   
Medtech Talk 
Gilde Healthcare  
Shockwave Medical 

In his early education Anton Clifford was advised against focusing on both science and economics. But he’s put that education to good use in his entrepreneurial career. With a foundation in engineering, Clifford quickly turned to medical devices. First in his native Ireland and later in the US with Abbott Laboratories, Clifford got firsthand experience with device engineering as well as the challenges of launching new products, divisions, and companies.  

On the journey to his current endeavor, Clifford had narrowed his focus to finding an engineering problem with a mechanical component: a massive unmet need with a surgical solution that was under-adopted. As he considered market opportunities, a friend and mentor, Josh Makower, directed him: You’re not trying to make something work; you’re trying to kill ideas.  

The last idea standing, so to speak, was an implantable shock absorber, reducing load to the knee joint. After years of development, Moximed has released its FDA study on the most recent product—Misha—with “phenomenal outcomes.” Compared to a surgical alternative, Misha showed superior recovery, pain, function, and no mechanical failures.  

Medtech Talk Links:  
Cambridge Healthtech Institute
Medtech Talk 
Gilde Healthcare 
Moximed 

With a background as a trauma nurse and experience running clinical research programs, Stacey Pugh brought quite a bit of patient-focused experience with her when she shifted to industry. After several roles in the neurovascular space, now she’s leading the charge at Endogenix, which is using pulsed electric fields to treat Type 2 Diabetes. She and host, Geoff Pardo, talk about a medical officer’s first experience doing sales, the challenges in affecting change management in primary care, funding businesses with SPACs, and more.  

Medtech Talk Links:  
Cambridge Healthtech Institute   
Medtech Talk 
Gilde Healthcare  
Endogenex 

Derek Herrera, founder and CEO of Bright Uro, grew up in a military family with a curious mind and a skill for building things. After graduating, he entered the Naval Academy, studied systems engineering and robotics, and became a Special Operations Marine Raider. When an injury left him paralyzed from the waist down, he launched a new career to improve the lives of spinal cord injury patients through medical innovation.  
 
Herrera speaks with podcast host Geoff Pardo about his extensive military career and the leadership skills fostered during that time. He also talks about his first entrepreneurial pursuit creating a fully internal and remotely controlled device for chronic urinary retention, a common issue for spinal cord injury patients. Herrera discusses his new business, Bright Uro, which leverages advanced technology to create urological diagnostic devices. He says, “Not only will we offer a superior patient and customer user experience, a more comfortable technology, and improve clinical efficiency, we’re unlocking data that’s never been obtained before because there’s never been the capability to do so.” 

Links from this episode:  
Gilde Healthcare
Bright Uro 
UroDev Medical