David Knapp, VP of corporate research at Boston Scientific, has spent 20 years developing devices that cut across divisions at the medtech giant. At DeviceTalks Minnesota 2019, he gave attendees an insider’s view of what he’s learned about device development and healthcare. Want to see these interviews live? Join us at DeviceTalks West – Dec. 9-10 in Santa Clara, CA.
In his 20 years at Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX), David Knapp has learned a lot about how to develop a medical device. His approach to identifying an unmet clinical need that could be tackled by a new technological therapy is well-defined: it all starts with empathy.
“There are people who have a pair of eyes that I don’t have, that see things that I don’t see. And those are the kinds of people we try and put in these kinds of roles where they’re observing procedures. Ethnography is a huge part of this, but it can’t be the only thing. Really [we need] a deep understanding of physiology, disease state,” he said in an interview at DeviceTalks Minnesota 2019.
“The other thing I’ll say is that it’s incredibly important to me to prioritize needs based on multiple criteria. The three questions I think about are ‘will it work?’, ‘can you prove it?’ and ‘is there a business case around this to add value to the healthcare system?’ And if you can bring those three questions together and put a team around those, then you’ve got something.”
Get the full story at our sister site, Medical Design & Outsourcing.