MassDevice Q&A
Q&A Features
07/14/2009
by
Brian Johnson
The CEO of Switzerland's Sensimed looks to peel back the lid on glaucoma testing.
You literally cannot see glaucoma coming.
Although it's one of the leading causes of blindness in the world, frighteningly little is known about a disease group that affects 4 percent of the world's population over the age of 40. No cure is on the horizon. And due to the insidious nature of the disease, which stars gradually affecting sight from the periphery, most people don't even know they're suffering from glaucoma until it's too late.
Swiss diagnostics company Sensimed AG sees this mysterious disease as a real opportunity.
Representatives from the firm, in Boston last week for...
07/08/2009
by
Brian Johnson
The inventor of the DEKA arm, the iBOT, the Segway (and others) on healthcare reform, the contrast between the pace of innovation and its adoption by society and how he'd like to be remembered.
Dean Kamen is rarely at a loss for words. In fact, the man is rarely at a loss for anything.
At a recent conference at Boston University, Kamen, 58, took up more than triple his allotted time for a keynote speech as he worked the assembled tech-heads and computer geeks into a near-frenzied lather amid shouts of "Dean for President," and basked in the warm embrace of a nearly five-minute standing ovation. Definitely not your average conference fare.
But what else would you expect from the man who, in his spare time, decided to create a "Super...
07/07/2009
by
Brad Perriello
The GI Dynamics president and CEO on the importance of maintaining an even keel, finding the right people at just the right time and the next generation of bariatric products.
Stuart Randle, president and CEO of Lexington-based GI Dynamics, has a long career in medical devices under his belt. Originally a mechanical engineer with a degree from Cornell University, Randle got into the device world during his MBA studies at Northwestern University and never looked back.
Before joining GI Dynamics, which recently released positive results from a small pilot study of its Endobarrier system that...
07/01/2009
by
Brian Johnson
The CEO of robotic rehab equipment maker Hocoma's U.S. division on how robotics will change rehabilitation and why thinking Swiss has helped the company weather the downturn.
Charles Remsberg literally learned the medical device business from the ground up.
The 47-year-old's first job in the industry was sweeping the floors in a warehouse. That's also where he learned that it's more important to be judged by your work than your alma mater's pedigree.
The Long Island native's resumé includes stints ranging from clam digger to his current role as CEO of the American division of Hocoma Inc. in Rockland. Switzerland-based Hocoma produces the Lokomat, a robotic rehabilitation system that...
06/30/2009
by
Brian Johnson
Medical device industry veteran and Isis Biopolymer's new chief commercial officer on why the company's drug patch platform is revolutionary and the keys to bringing medical devices to market.
Shawna Gvazdauskas has a knack for bringing medical devices to market. The 53-year-old is on the third start-up of her 30-year career. In March, she left insulin management maker Insulet, where she helped bring the company's flagship Omnipod to market, for a new challenge at Isis Biopolymer Inc., which is developing a new generation of non-invasive drug delivery patches.
A "true New Englander," Gvazdauskas, who is chief commercial officer at Isis,...
06/23/2009
by
Brian Johnson
The Boston University law professor and pharmaceutical industry monitor on the origins of the Massachusetts gift ban and how medical device makers came to fall under its rules.
Kevin Outterson, an associate law professor at Boston University, is an expert on patent law and intellectual property as it applies to the pharmaceutical industry. He works to balance the incentives behind innovation with making sure low-income people have access to life-saving therapies.
MassDevice spoke with Outterson about the background behind states' efforts to rein in industry, specifically "Big Pharma," and how medical device makers came to be folded into the strict Massachusetts regulations governing industry payments to...
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