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.

In the MedTech Leaders Community we will put together two teams to be on standby.  Our program is called Ukrainian MedTech Assistance Group.  Each team will have marketing, sales, distribution, health economics, regulatory, quality and office systems expertise.  Learn more about the MedTech Leaders Community at medtechleaders.net.  Or, reach out to me via the link in the show notes.

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

God Bless Ukraine!!

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Episode 81 – In the C-Suite with Joseph Mocanu, PhD, Founder, Verge Healthtech

“Healthcare is super broken pretty much wherever you are living right now. What would the world look like if it wasn’t?” Joseph is seeking out and funding the answers across five continents.  Read Verge Healthtech’s statement of purpose…”Health is the world’s greatest wealth. This is why we focus on investing in transformative innovations to make healthcare better. Not just for some, but for all. We are the world’s first VC fund investing exclusively, and globally, in impactful healthcare technologies at the earliest stages.”

This interview is timely because we are talking about funding enterprises that are having an impact on value-based care and utilize artificial intelligence.  As you know, these two subject areas are part of an overlapping series of episodes I am releasing now.

This is a super interesting interview where we cover a lot of ground:

• From Joseph’s career and how he got into impact investing,
• What is scary about running a fund,
• Examples of a couple unique products he has invested in,
• Funding leadership,
• Scaling challenges,
• Components of leadership success and failures.
• And…we diverge into science fiction healthcare with a brief discussion of Star Trek, The Expanse and the Book of Boba Fet.

Finally, for those of you that see this video, yes, I have a shaved head and puffy eyes. I had non-invasive procedure done called a HIFU thalamectomy.  More on that in another episode.  Oh…it seems to have been successful.

Now Go Win Your Week!!

Joseph’s LinkedIn Profile link

Verge Healthtech’s website link

Recommended book:

• Traction by Geno Wickman link – https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Get-Grip-Your-Business/dp/1936661837

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Episode 80 – Big Roles for Inside Sales in MedTech with Mike Sperduti, CEO, Emerge Sales

MedTech sales and sales processes have been dramatically reshaped by the pandemic.  Many of these changes will be permanent.  One such change is the recognition of the importance and effectiveness of inside sales.  Our expert guide on the subject is Mike Sperduti, CEO, Emerge Sales.  He will explain the importance of neurolinguistics in sales dialog architecture, the 3 myths of inside sales, the 5 key elements to successful inside sales programs and much more.  When I look at the span of MedTech technologies and the variety of customer stakeholders, I am hard pressed not to find a place where inside sales adds value to MedTech companies. Many of the big companies are using inside sales aggressively.  You will enjoy this entertaining and informative episode.

It’s February!  The month of Valentine’s Day.  I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than to assist an organization dedicated to health equity for women in underserved areas of the world.  I am specifically talking about HERhealthEQ.org that was founded by Marissa Fayer.  Marissa was my guest in Episode 78.  During February, the membership fees for all new members of the MedTech Leaders community will be contributed to HERhealthEQ.  I call that a win win.  You can learn more at MedTechLeaders.net.  Membership costs about 4 cups of coffee and far less than a dozen roses and will help women in third world countries.

Now Go Win Your Week!!

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

Mike Sperduti LinkedIn profile link

Mike’s Emerge Sales website link

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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, 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!!

Jonathan Chen, MD, PhD, LinkedIn Profile link

Recommended Books:

• Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again by Eric Topol, MD – Link
• The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age  by Robert Wachter, MD – Link

Ted Newill’s LinkedIn Profile link 

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Link to Ted’s contact page 

Episode 78 – Paying It Forward in MedTech with Marissa Fayer, Founder of HERhealthEQ

What percentage of death due to cervical cancer are in 3^rd and 2^nd 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 3^rd and 2^nd 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 below 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!!

Marissa Fayer LinkedIn Profile Link

Fayer Consulting website link

HERhealthEQ website link

Marissa’s personal website link

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Medical Device Success website link 

MedTech Leaders Community link

Link to Ted’s contact page 

Episode 77 – An Introduction to AI in MedTech with Bertalan Meskó, MD, PhD

Let me lead off with three questions:

1. Do you know the 3 levels of artificial intelligence?
2. Do you know the 4 major methods of machine learning?
3. Do you know the 3 medical specialties with the greatest number of active AI technologies?

In this short podcast, you will get the answers to those questions and more.

Bertalan is the Director of the Medical Futurist Institute. He has been a guest of the podcast before in episode 36 where we talked about the future of MedTech. He and his team have advised or presented to top pharmaceutical companies, MedTech companies and government agencies. They have participated in and/or led courses at leading universities such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford.  If you haven’t subscribed to their newsletter, pause this episode and go to medicalfuturist.com and subscribe.  I subscribe to their newsletter.  Also, at the Medical Futurist website you will find a wealth of articles and eBooks on a wide variety of subjects related to the future of healthcare.  Links to this website and books we mention are in the show notes.

As regular listeners know, the emphasis of the podcasts and video casts for the first half of the year will be Value-Based Care, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in MedTech.  The past two weeks we introduced Value-Based Care with Barbara Strain.  Due to the challenge of scheduling many of these subject matter experts, the episode themes will be mixed up a bit.  Don’t worry, I will help you keep track of them.  I have got more very interesting guests lined up.

I just sent out the January MedTech Leaders community newsletter welcoming the 14 new members who joined over the past couple months. If you want to learn more about the community go to medtechleaders net.  There is a free trial and an annual subscription costs only 3 or 4 cups of artisanal coffee depending on the size of the cups.

Now Go Win Your Week!!

Bertalan Meskó’s LinkedIn profile link

The Medical Futurist Website link

Meskó, B., Görög, M. A short guide for medical professionals in the era of artificial intelligence. npj Digit. Med. 3, 126 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-00333-z

Recommended Book – Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom

• Amazon link

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More Medical Device Success podcasts link

Medical Device Success website link 

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Link to Ted’s contact page