Medical Device Success, Inc.

07/18/2022

Episode 93 – Corporate Accounts…What Has Changed with Frank Ripullo II, Managing Partner, Excelerant Consulting
Great insights and advice on Corporate Accounts in MedTech.

Multiple factors have impacted the relationships between MedTech companies and their customers over the past 2 years. The pandemic started a cascade of events influencing elective surgeries, budgets, HCP shortages, HCP costs, supply chains and so on. One area these factors have come together to create change is in the management of corporate accounts. To help us understand these changes and what we can do about them is Frank Ripullo, II, Managing Partner at Excelerant Consulting. Frank and his team are well known across the MedTech industry as the go to firm to help companies of all sizes tackle the strategic issues related to corporate accounts.

By the way, I do not take compensation for interviews like this. I have known Frank now for a couple years and participated in numerous webinars with him. It was through that exposure that I came to know how knowledgeable he and his team are in this area. Frank’s LinkedIn link and website link are in the show notes. Check out the blog at their website. It is excellent.

Now Go Win Your Week!!

Podcast Link - https://bit.ly/3ILMr23

The pandemic started a cascade of events influencing elective surgeries, budgets, HCP shortages, HCP costs, supply chains and so on. One area these factors have come together to create change is in the management of corporate accounts. To help us understand these changes and what we can do about the...

03/24/2022

Episode 84 – In the AI C-Suite with David Golan, CTO and Co-Founder of Viz.ai

Then the FDA team had an “Aha!” moment! At first, the meeting didn’t start off that well. The FDA heard the term “artificial intelligence” and were immediately skeptical. Then the Viz.ai team hit the pause button and said this was about speed to treatment for stroke, not necessarily doing a better job interpreting images. “Aha!!” The rest is history. What if your company could develop a product that reduces hospital stays by 2.5 days, demonstrates a 37% improvement at discharge from the hospital and a 40% improvement 90 days after discharge? And, what if this product resulted in a 38% improvement in speed to treatment for a critical condition? This life altering technology is offered by Viz.ai. In today’s episode we Zoom travel to Israel to visit with David Golan, CTO and Co-Founder of Viz.ai. This is our fifth episode related to artificial intelligence in MedTech. Not only is Viz.ai an amazing life altering technology, it is also a great story. While artificial intelligence plays an important role in their technology, David explains that it is only part of the total product.

Don’t forget that in the months of February and March all new member dues for the MedTech Leaders Community are being contributed to HERhealthEQ.org. Furthermore, I am matching ten of these contributions. Membership costs about the same amount as 4 cups of artisanal coffee. Learn more at medtechleaders.net.

Check the show notes for links to the David’s linkedin profile and Viz.ai website. There will also be links to me in the event you have questions or feedback. And, if you like this podcast, please share it with a friend using the share link in your podcast player.

Now Go Win Your Week!!

Podcast Link - https://bit.ly/3Irc72f

Then the Viz.ai team hit the pause button and said this was about speed to treatment for stroke, not doing a better job interpreting images. “Aha!!” The rest is history. What if your company could develop a product that reduces hospital stays by 2.5 days, demonstrates a 37% improvement at discha...

03/11/2022

Episode 82 – Ukraine Health-Tech, What You Didn’t Know

Do you know two of the big successes in Ukrainian startups? They are nearly household words in North America. As the tragedy in Ukraine unfolds, what many don’t know is how robust the health tech and MedTech startup ecosystem was. In this episode, we explore the ecosystem and why it was so successful. We go through the financial data that reveals among other things that Ukraine is ranked in the top 4% in the world in growth of innovative companies. Then we ask if we can be prepared to help resurrect the MedTech industry in Ukraine. These intelligent, creative, inventive and ambitious people deserve our support.

I apologize for using the term “the Ukraine” in parts of the episode. It should be just Ukraine.

God Bless Ukraine!

Podcast Link – https://bit.ly/35ATc7R

Do you know two of the big successes in Ukrainian startups? They are nearly household words in North America. As the tragedy in Ukraine unfolds, what many don’t know is how robust the health tech and MedTech startup ecosystem was. In this episode, we explore the ecosystem and why it was so success...

02/10/2022

Episode 79 - Foundation of AI in Healthcare and MedTech with Jonathan Chen, MD, PhD, Stanford

Let me start out with a factoid. Every day…let me repeat those two words…Every day data from over 70 clinical trials and 11 systematic reviews are published. How in the world are clinicians and hospital systems expected to keep up with that data to be sure they are delivering the best care for their patients? How are MedTech companies to know how they fit in? To help us understand this huge issue is our guest, Jonathan Chen, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Stanford Department of Medicine and the Center for Biomedical Informatics. Jonathan will help us out in this second episode related to Artificial Intelligence in medicine and MedTech. He is one of a new and unusual breed of clinicians that has extensive education and training in medicine and computer sciences and informatics. I am calling this episode “Foundation of AI in Healthcare and Medtech” because we spend a lot of time talking about the key foundational elements for AI and where it may make the biggest difference related to our scarcest resource in medicine today. That scarce resource is trained healthcare professionals. We will explore:
• the difference between bioinformatics and medical informatics
• recommender algorithms
• the iron triangle of healthcare
• “The decaying relevance of Clinical Data…”
• “The Wisdom of the Crowd or the tyranny of the Mob”
• what can be done with the masses of unlabeled data
• and where does MedTech fit into all of this.

I recommend listening to Episode 77 – An introduction to AI in Medtech with Bertalan Meskó, MD, PhD, The Medical Futurist. Look to the show notes for links to Jonathan’s LinkedIn profile and a couple books he recommends. If you are like me, you may listen to podcasts at higher playback speeds. I don’t recommend that today. Jonathan and I move quickly through a lot of information. If you like this podcast, recommend it to a friend via the share link in your preferred podcast player.

During the month of February, all new membership fees to the MedTech Leaders community are being contributed to HERhealthEQ.org. You learned about HERhealthEQ last week when I interviewed Marissa Fayer, the founder of this organization. For those of you that don’t know, MTL is an online community of MT professionals. Annual membership costs about 4 cups of coffee and there is a free trial. You can learn more at MedTechleaders.net.

Now Go Win Your Week!!

The Medicial Device Success podcast is ranked #2 in the top 20 medical device podcasts by Feedspot https://blog.feedspot.com/medical_device_podcasts/

Podcast Link – https://bit.ly/3GxTokP

Let me start out with a factoid. Every day…let me repeat those two words…Every day data from over 70 clinical trials and 11 systematic reviews are published. How in the world are clinicians and hospital systems expected to keep up with that data to be sure they are delivering the best care for t...

02/04/2022

Episode 78 – Paying It Forward in MedTech with Marissa Fayer, Founder of HERhealthEQ
What percentage of death due to cervical cancer are in 3rd and 2nd world countries? You will be shocked by the answer. It is inexcusable considering how simple the test is to detect it. HERhealthEQ is a non-profit organization that is a little different than what you may consider the typical medically related non-profit looks like. Today, you will learn more about the inequity in women’s health in 3rd and 2nd world countries and how Marissa’s efforts contribute to bringing equity to underserved populations of women. She frequently jokes that this journey started in a bar. You will learn about that too. Marissa is also a successful MedTech engineering and business consultant. By the end of the podcast you will have some ideas about how you can contribute to heath equity.

Most of you know that I am also the host of the MedTech Leaders community. It is a place where professionals like yourself get together to share ideas and solutions and learn from subject matter experts. Tell you what, for the month of February, all funds from new memberships will go to Marissa’s HERhealthEQ.org. Membership costs about 3 or 4 cups of artisanal coffee. So, it is not expensive. Seven new members will equal a $100 contribution. I call that a win win. You can learn more at medtechleaders.net

Be sure to look in the show notes for links to Marissa’s HERhealthEQ website, her consulting website and her LinkedIn profile link. If you like this podcast, please recommend it to a friend. An easy way to do that is to share it using the share link in your preferred podcast app.

Now Go Win Your Week!!

Podcast Link – https://bit.ly/3Gi3whg

Reading time: 2 – 4 minutes What percentage of death due to cervical cancer are in 3rd and 2nd world countries? You will be shocked by the answer. It is inexcusable considering how simple the test is to detect it. HERhealthEQ is a non-profit organization that is a little different than what you ma...

01/06/2022

Episode 74 - Knowledge is MedTech Power – A system for knowing your customer, market and industry
Let’s get the new year off to a good start and know our customer, market and industry better than your colleagues and competition. Let’s create a knowledge gathering system for you. It will pay off in terms of your professionalism, your results and your career! Early in my career I just took what the company told me as the gospel about what was going on in the medical specialties I was selling to and the industry I participated in. Granted waaay back then…the multitude of knowledge access points that exist today did not exist (YouTube, eNewsletters, News aggregators, Webinars, Facebook, Twitter, Specialized websites, etc.). With all these access points there is really no excuse not to know what is going on in your market and to know your customer.

In today’s podcast and video cast I will share my approach to this. No doubt, after you listen or view this episode, you will have good ideas to add. Please let me know and I will mention them in the next podcast.

We will review:
• Four categories of knowledge you should be investigating every week.
• Four methods to stay up to date.
• Examples of how to put these methods to action.

When you are done listening and or viewing, you will have a very clear idea of how to set up your knowledge gathering system and you will be better for it.

Finally, a warm welcome to several new MedTech Leaders community members that joined in December!! Medtechleaders.net

Now Go Win Your Week!!

Podcast Link - https://bit.ly/3qH2c1V

Let’s get the new year off to a good start and know our customer, market and industry better than your colleagues and competition.

12/09/2021

Episode 71 Strategic Planning Part 1 for Companies and Individuals

Only 23% of companies follow a formal strategic planning process. Companies with strategic plans are 12% more profitable. The big MedTech companies are in the final phases of the 2022 strategic plans. What about the small to medium sized companies? What about you as an individual? Imagine how much more productive and profitable you might be with your own personal plan. This is part 1 of a 2-part series to offer some guidance on creating a strategic plan whether it is for a company, a function or you as an individual. Today we will cover Assumptions, the SWOT analysis, Opportunities and Gaps and finally Key Goals and Objectives. In part 2, I will cover strategies and tactics and executing the plan. This is important because only 13% of companies successfully execute their annual plan.

I will be using slides. For podcast listeners, I will try to clearly explain my progress through the slides. There is a way you can get copies of the slides. You have heard me talk about the MedTech Leaders community. This is where MedTech professionals get together to help each other out with best practices, problems, solutions and ideas. You can learn more at medtechleaders dot net. Members of the MTL community can request a free copy of the slides. There is a very low annual fee and there is a free trial. It costs less than 4 Starbuck’s coffees. Why charge anything you ask? To keep the spammers out and cover basic community costs. I guarantee you I am not making money from the community. It is more of a passion project than a profit project at this point.

Now Go Win Your Week!

Podcast Link https://bit.ly/30PNb4S

Only 23% of companies follow a formal strategic planning process. Companies with strategic plans are 12% more profitable. The big MedTech companies are in the final phases of the 2022 strategic plans. What about the small to medium companies? What about you as an individual? Imagine how much more pr...

11/23/2021

Episode 70 - In the C-Suite with Patricia Zilliox, CEO, Eyevensys
"Instead, they turn a little muscle in the eye into a protein factory."

Today’s guest is Patricia Zilliox, CEO of Eyevensys, a clinical stage biotechnology company based in Paris, France and Dallas, Texas. Patricia is running a very exciting startup that combines a medical device and gene-therapy that is targeting some of the biggest causes of blindness. The idea behind this biotechnology is the brainchild of Founder Francine Behar-Cohen, MD, PhD. What I find fascinating is the fact that they do not use a virus to transport the therapy. Instead, they turn a little muscle in the eye into a protein factory. There are advantages to this approach that you will learn about in a few minutes. We will talk about the technology, Patricia’s career and some of the early challenges in being in her first CEO role.

For those of you looking for a community of like-minded MedTech professionals, consider looking at the MedTech Leaders community. I am the host of this community. You can learn more at medtechleaders dot net. One advantage of being in the community is that most of these podcasts/video casts start out as live events. Members can attend and ask questions. And I am working on events related to AI in MedTech, Value Based Care, Telehealth and of course more C-Suite interviews.

Now Go Win Your Week!!

Podcast link – https://bit.ly/3ngn2Vf

Today’s guest is Patricia Zilliox, CEO of Eyevensys, a clinical stage biotechnology company based in Paris, France and Dallas, Texas. Patricia is running a very exciting startup that combines a medical device and gene-therapy that is targeting some of the biggest causes of blindness. The idea behi...

11/11/2021

Episode 69 - Back to the Front Line of MedTech Sales with Chip Helm
Today we head back to the front line of sales with my guest Chip Helm, Account Executive, Government Accounts for Cook Medical. This is a great conversation. Chip is passionate about sales as a career and very enthusiastic about his career with Cook Medical. We are going to talk about the foundation of his career, the differences between government sales and community hospital sales, how Cook Medical helped field sales reps throughout Covid and how the sales environment has changed with the pandemic. Chip will confirm that sales is harder work in this pandemic environment.

Chip is also an author of two books on sales. In the show notes you will find links to Chip’s LinkedIn profile, his books and his personal website.

Now Go Win Your Week!

Podcast Link -

Today we head back to the front line of sales with my guest Chip Helm, Account Executive, Government Accounts for Cook Medical. This is a great conversation. Chip is passionate about sales as a career and very enthusiastic about his career with Cook Medical. We are going to talk about the foundation...

10/27/2021

Episode 66 – Game Changing Subcategories and Storytelling in MedTech with David Aaker, PhD
“It is a big fallacy that your audience is rational”
Our guest today is David Aaker, PhD, considered by some to be the Father of Modern Branding. In this episode we are talking about creating game changing subcategories and storytelling in high tech and MedTech. Dave is Professor Emeritus at Stanford University and is the Vice Chairman of the consulting firm Prophet. He has written numerous best-selling books on branding, marketing, leadership and now story telling. A couple weeks ago we talked to Geoffrey Moore about moving through the Technology Adoption Life Cycle. Today we add another layer of sophistication to this with the concept of creating a game changing subcategory for your product to help separate it from the competition and thrive. To support this effort, we also spend some time on story telling as a tactic to support your brand. Think about it, as an individual, when you share a story about yourself with friends or colleagues, you are probably hoping to enhance your personal brand. How you do this and what you include or leave out may make all the difference. The same can work for the products you make or represent.

As always, you will find links to Dave, Prophet and some of his books in the show notes. And, again, you will hear me refer to a couple attendees from the MedTech Leaders community. You can learn more about this community at MedTechleaders net.

By the way, I recorded Dave while on the road in a hotel room. Yes…I have to do some field work too. So, the audio and video may not up to my usual quality level. I appreciate your patience with this.

Now Go Win Your Week!

Podcast Link - https://bit.ly/3n6cdUk

“It is a big fallacy that your audience is rational”. Our guest today is David Aaker, PhD, considered by some to be the Father of Modern Branding. In this episode we are talking about creating game changing subcategories and storytelling in high tech and medtech. Dave is professor emeritus at St...

10/19/2021

Episode 65 – Big Changes and High Demand in MedTech Recruiting with Paula Rutledge and Chris Miclot, Legacy MedSearch

“More change in the last 18 months than in the past 30 years.”

Over 30 years ago, Paula began her career in the medical device industry and in 2005, founded Legacy MedSearch and turned it into one of the most highly sought after MedTech search firms in the USA. Despite being a small boutique company, Legacy MedSearch has been honored as one of the 100 “Forbes Best Recruiting Firms in America” out of the 20,000 search firms for the last three years. (Note, they do have international clients as well). With Paula and Chris’s help, we will explore the big changes taking place in recruiting whether they are hiring a sales force or they are helping an emerging growth company fill out its C-Suite and/or Board of Directors. They also talk about how Legacy MedSearch literally becomes embedded in the strategic planning and executive sourcing for emerging growth companies. Here is a hint regarding the big changes – some C-Suite positions are being filled entirely virtually. That’s right…with no face-to-face interview. And, it is a candidates market. Paula and Chris will explain why and what that means to candidates and employers. Are you prepared for this new environment? They offer great advice and resources. Regardless of your functional position in MedTech, you will find this very informative and helpful.

As in the past couple podcasts, you may hear me refer to a couple members of the MedTech Leaders community asking questions in the chat. If you want to learn more about MedTech Leaders go to medtechleaders.net.

If you get value out of this podcast, please consider giving it a rating on your podcast provider, sharing it with a friend and/or subscribing.

Now Go Win Your Week!

Podcast link - https://bit.ly/3FxDB6e

10/07/2021

Episode 64 – Riding the Technology Adoption Life Cycle Curve in MedTech with Geoffrey Moore, Author, Crossing the Chasm

This is a special episode. Our guest today is Geoffrey Moore, Author of Crossing The Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers which is on Inc. Magazines list of top 10 Marketing Books of All time. He has written several other books on marketing relative to disruptive technologies. Geoff is highly regarded throughout the high-tech world. Today, Geoff will take us on a tour of the Technology Adoption Life Cycle and then we dive into details of early market challenges and then the ultimate challenge of crossing the chasm into the mainstream market. We talk about disruptive technologies, early adopters, key opinion leaders, signs you are approaching the chasm, the pragmatists on the other side of the chasm, pragmatists in pain, the bowling alley, the tornado, mistakes to avoid and much much more. By the way, in our discussion the terms visionary and early adopter are interchangeable. Also, the terms pragmatists and early majority are also interchangeable. Everyone involved in leading a MedTech company and marketing and sales will learn a lot from this episode.

You will hear me refer to several attendees to this event. Three countries are represented. The Netherlands, the Czech Republic and the United States. These people are all members of the MedTech Leaders community. I always set up interviews as live virtual events so members can attend. If you want to learn more about the community, go to medtechleaders dot net.

Now Go Win Your Week!

Podcast link - https://bit.ly/3isYp51

Video cast link - https://youtu.be/yLIXW9a2KwE