MassDevice Q&A
Q&A Features
04/05/2012
by
Brad Perriello
In his last interview as CEO of Philips Healthcare before taking the corner office at Quest Diagnostics, Steve Rusckowski tells MassDevice why 2011 was a tough year for the world's 7th-largest medical device maker, why things are looking up this year and how innovation can go hand-in-hand with lower costs.
It's not exactly news that the med-tech industry is under pressure from a variety of fronts – an uncertain regulatory environment, a looming tax burden and, not least, downward pricing pressure from its health care provider customers.
That last issue is particularly acute for medical device makers because their business model has long been anchored by developing high-ticket products and raising...
03/28/2012
by
Brian Johnson
MassDevice discusses innovation, robotic surgery and Silicon Valley culture with Intuitive Surgical CEO Gary Guthart.
Gary Guthart knows a little something about disruptive innovation.
The 45-year-old CEO of Intuitive Surgical (NSDQ:ISRG) has been working to change the way minimally invasive surgery is performed since his days on the research team at SRI (formerly Stanford...
03/07/2012
by
Arezu Sarvestani
The threat that the fusion of humans and medical machines may leave patients vulnerable to the hackers and bugs of the digital world is beginning to resonate with device makers.
Karen Sandler was 31 years old, working at a non-profit organization providing free legal help to computer programmers, when she was diagnosed with an enlarged heart and informed that she'd need a machine to help keep her alive.
Her mother accompanied her the day a doctor recommended that Sandler undergo surgery to implant a medical device into her chest. He handed Sandler a pager-sized machine called a cardioverter defibrillator – a miniature,...
03/05/2012
by
Arezu Sarvestani
Accuray CEO Euan Thomson tells MassDevice about being a small fish in a big pond, managing growing pains and his strategies for breaking out in a well-established market.
02/27/2012
by
Brad Perriello
After more than a year in the corner office of the newly pure-play medical device maker, Teleflex CEO Benson Smith tells MassDevice about dealing with the vagaries of Wall Street, what attracted a onetime history major to the medical device field, why Teleflex is poised to give the big kids on the block a run for their money and what the company looks for in potential acquisitions.
Teleflex (NYSE:TFX) made news last year when it began a series of divestitures aimed at eliminating its non-medical-device holdings, ditching a cargo systems business and its aerospace arm.
With the transformation plan in motion, the Limerick, Pa.-based company tapped board member Benson Smith...
02/21/2012
by
Arezu Sarvestani
LayerWise co-founder Peter Mercelis tells MassDevice about the disruptive potential of 3D printing in the medical device space.
LayerWise made headlines this month when it unveiled the world's first custom-made total lower jaw implant, "printed" from a 3D schematic.
The device was constructed layer by layer from a digital file mapped to the patient's jaw, a process called "metal additive manufacturing" that Belgium-based LayerWise has used in making custom spinal implants, cranial plates and acetabular implants.
"The great advantage is...
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