NxStage Medical (NSDQ:NXTM) was founded in 1999 on the premise that patients with chronic kidney disease would benefit from bringing hemodialysis out of the clinic and into their homes.

Seventeen years later, NxStage founder & CEO Jeff Burbank’s hypothesis has proven out. His Lawrence, Mass.-based company is topping more than $300 million in annual sales and, more importantly, is making a real difference in the everyday lives of dialysis patients.

NxStage took on some of the biggest names in medtech along the way and managed to beat them back, as evidenced by Baxter‘s (NYSE:BAX) decision to pull the plug on its competing Vivia home hemodialysis device. And Burbank has remained firmly in place as the founding CEO, a rarity in a medical device world, where founders are usually replaced after the development phase in favor of a more seasoned executive.

In this interview, recorded at MassDevice.com’s DeviceTalks Boston event Sept. 28, we sat down with Jeff to discuss how he’s kept his focus over nearly 2 decades as a founder & chief executive and his game-changing vision to improve the lives of dialysis patients.