Darla Hutton today announced her new role as Intuitive’s global VP of cardiac surgery, saying on LinkedIn she’ll “be going back, in a sense, to lead an Intuitive team where it all started — at the heart.”
“Not only did Intuitive start its journey in cardiac surgery, but I began my own career as a cardiac ARNP,” said Hutton, who was most recently Intuitive’s regional VP for commercial operations and marketing in Asia. “And, when I first joined Intuitive, I worked with many of the original robotic cardiac surgery programs supporting the initial adoption of da Vinci robotic mitral valve procedures.”
“As the global vice president of cardiac surgery, I’m looking forward to leading our efforts in this area, with the goal of enabling cardiac surgeons and care teams to deliver outstanding clinical outcomes,” she continued. “Looking forward to sharing future updates and developments with you. More to come.”
An Intuitive spokesperson told MassDevice she did not yet have more information to share.
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Intuitive’s cardiac beginnings and recent customer interest
Intuitive sold its first da Vinci system (the device developer is now on its fifth generation) to the Leipzig Heart Center in Germany in 1998, where surgeons performed a less invasive cardiac valve repair and coronary artery bypass graft surgery.
Winning early FDA clearances for laparoscopy, thoracoscopy and intracardiac mitral valve repair surgery, Intuitive became the world’s leading surgical robotics developer in large part due to its popularity for robotic-assisted prostatectomies. So much so, in fact, that Intuitive executives have long said that the company “aimed for the heart but hit the prostate.”
Intuitive’s surgical robotics technology can also be used to perform minimally invasive coronary artery bypass surgeries.
In its latest annual report, Intuitive identified cardiac surgery as one of two areas where customers have recently shown increased interest. (After-hours surgery for emergent conditions was the other.)
“For more than 25 years, surgeons have performed robotic-assisted cardiac procedures,” the company said in the filing. “We believe there is significant clinical value for these procedures, and we are working with a dedicated and passionate group of cardiac surgeons to offer more patients high-quality cardiac surgery. We believe that over time, our da Vinci 5 platform will provide important capabilities for cardiac surgeons and improve outcomes.”
Intuitive has already invested in structural heart surgical robotics startup Capstan Medical, which is led by former Intuitive employees and recently announced the first-in-human cases using its novel mitral valve implant and robotic-assisted catheter delivery platform.
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When announcing additional funding from Intuitive Ventures in December 2024, Capstan Medical CEO Maggie Nixon told MassDevice that it was not a business development investment and Intuitive should not be considered a strategic investor.
“This is purely a financial investment on their front. … It is independent. This is not a structured deal,” she said.
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Intuitive launched its first Intuitive Ventures fund in 2020 to invest $100 million “in companies that share Intuitive’s commitment to advancing positive outcomes in healthcare.” Intuitive followed up with a second, $150 million Intuitive Ventures fund in 2023 “focused on investment opportunities in companies reimagining the future of minimally invasive care.”
As of the end of 2024, Intuitive had invested $63 million of that first fund and $5 million of that second fund.
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