• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

MassDevice

The Medical Device Business Journal — Medical Device News & Articles | MassDevice

  • Latest News
    • Cardiovascular
    • Orthopedics
  • Wall Street Beat
    • Funding Roundup
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Podcasts & Webinars
    • Podcasts
    • Webinars
  • Resources
    • About MassDevice
    • Newsletter Signup
    • Leadership in Medtech
    • Manufacturers & Suppliers Search
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Videos
    • Whitepapers
  • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
  • Coronavirus: Live updates
Home » You can make a buck, but can you make a difference? | 5 questions for Dean Kamen

You can make a buck, but can you make a difference? | 5 questions for Dean Kamen

July 18, 2013 By Arezu Sarvestani

Dean Kamen and Karen Licitra, MassDevice.com Big 100 East 2013

Dean Kamen poses with Johnson & Johnson Global Medical Solutions Group worldwide chairman Karen Licitra.

Photograph by Carolyn Bick

Dean Kamen is perhaps most commonly known for having invented the Segway, but he’s also invented a prosthetic robotic arm, a portable dialysis system and a robotic wheelchair that can climb stairs.

As much an advocate for children’s science education as he is a celebrity entrepreneur, Kamen is well-practiced in seeing ideas from concept to fruition. He’s given multiple talks on the TED stage and in 1989 founded the non-profit organization FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) which aims to push kids toward careers in science.

Attending MassDevice.com’s Big 100 East 2013 conference in Waltham, Mass., this week, he took some time to talk to us about the challenges and rewards of working with medical devices, and offered some thoughts on how to maintain the U.S.’s status as a global medtech leader.

MassDevice: What’s the best thing about working in the medical device industry?

Dean Kamen: The best thing about working within the medical device industry and medical devices is that when  you get one that works, it helps people build better lives. When you build a consumer product, you’re always wondering, "Was it really worth taking the amount of time and resources and energy and environmental stuff to make this thing?"

When you make a device that gives people quality of life or dignity or the ability to go live at home, you get letters from kids – "My grandmother’s home again because of your home dialysis" – and you get letters from grandmas – "My granddaughter’s wearing your product and now she’s happy and healthy." There’s very few products that you can work on where, if it works, you know in the end it’s a big deal.

There’s lots of ways to make some kind of consumer product where you might be able to make a buck, but did you make a difference? If you make medical stuff and it works you’ve made a difference.

"There’s lots of ways to make some kind of consumer product where you might be able to make a buck but did you make a difference? If you make medical stuff, and it works, you’ve made a difference." – Dean Kamen

MassDevice: What’s the hardest thing about working in the medical device industry?

DK: Unlike consumer products, failure is not an option. You’ve got to make sure you get it right, because if your product fails it’s not like, "Oh, give them back their $39 dollars and get another 1."

If you build critical stuff, it’s got to work and it’s got to work all the time. The pressure’s always on, because it’s got to be good, it’s got to be reliable, but it’s also got to be available, you got to be done, it’s got to be affordable, you got to be able to make them, you’ve got to be able to get them approved.

It’s a tough set of bars you have to jump over because you’re dealing with people’s lives.

MassDevice: What do medical device companies need to do in order to keep global medtech superiority in the U.S.?

DK: That’s easy. If you want to maintain leadership in the world in medical devices you need to create the next generation of innovators. You’ve got to create the smartest group of passionate people that are willing to risk their time, their resources, their reputation, to work on problems that literally are a matter of life and death.

If you don’t have the best technologists with the best focus, with the best perspective, with the best confidence that it’s okay to try to reach even though sometimes you stumble, you’re not going to stay on top.

MassDevice: What does the FDA need to do in order to ensure that the U.S. maintains leadership in medical devices?

DK: The most important thing the FDA needs to do is recognize that we have the same goal. We’re partners. In order for some American that desperately needs some medical device to ever get it, 2 things have to happen: It has to be invented and it has to be approved.

If the FDA takes the position that any amount of risk is too much risk and they prevent doctors and patients from being able to take what they might think is a reasonable risk as an alternative to their condition, the product won’t be available. And if it becomes known to industry that it is so difficult to jump over the bar that they set, then a lot of great minds will go work on other projects where they can bring their products to market. It’s a lot easier to make video games than it is to make medical products.

"The FDA has to recognize that industry is not the evil empire."

I think the FDA has to recognize that industry is not the evil empire. Industry is there to deliver products to the public and the FDA should be there to help them do that. If the FDA and industry can work together, the American public will get better products sooner, at lower cost, than if industry and the FDA don’t trust each other or are fighting with each other. When that happens, everybody loses, and we can’t afford to lose.

MassDevice: What’s one of the biggest mistakes young companies make?

DK: I don’t think there’s just 1. I think assuming that you can easily build a new medical product and make sure it meets all of the requirements of being safe and reliable and affordable and usable is very hard to do. You need a lot of skill, a lot of experience, a lot of discipline to make it happen and if you’re looking for a shortcut, go to some other industry.

The medical device industry is a place where serious innovators spend a serious amount of time and energy to make a difference. To me it’s about the only place that’s really worth doing it.

Filed Under: News Well Tagged With: DEKA Research and Development Corp., MassDevice Big 100 Roundtable East - 2013, MassDevice Q&A

In case you missed it

  • Boston Scientific to build new plant outside Atlanta
  • NovaXS unveils prototype for smart, needle-free drug delivery device
  • ResMed names Lucile Blaise as new Sleep & Respiratory Care leader
  • SpineX enrolls first patient in spinal neuromodulation technology trial
  • GE Healthcare’s Carescape ventilator battery recall is Class I
  • Cardinal Health starts Zipline drone deliveries of drugs and medical supplies
  • Advanced NanoTherapies closes $7.2M Series A for drug-coated balloon
  • Centerline Biomedical raises $33M Series B
  • How medical device companies are responding to abortion bans
  • Memic completes first robotic-assisted transvaginal hysterectomy procedures with Hominis
  • ‘Multiple disruptions’ slow timeline for Titan Medical’s Enos robotic surgery platform
  • Philips updates on testing results for recalled ventilators
  • Varian wins FDA IDE for Flash radiation therapy
  • Researchers develop wearable robotic exomuscle system
  • Virpax to pursue over-the-counter pathway for topical spray treatment for osteoarthritis pain
  • Inovio names new chief medical officer
  • FDA clears Acutus’ AcQCross system for use with Boston Scientific’s Watchman

RSS From Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Philips updates on testing results for recalled ventilators
    Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG) says only a small portion of returned respiratory devices displayed the sound abatement foam degradation that sparked a massive recall. Repeated ozone cleaning may have made the problem worse. Those were some of the major takeaways from an update Philips provided today on a comprehensive test and research program it implemented after its… […]
  • ResMed names Lucile Blaise as new Sleep & Respiratory Care leader
    Lucile Blaise will be the new president of ResMed’s Sleep & Respiratory Care business starting July 1, ResMed (NYSE: RMD) said today. She replaces Jim Hollingshead, who became president and CEO of Insulet (Nasdaq:PODD) on June 1. ResMed President and COO Rob Douglas is serving as interim president of the Sleep & Respiratory Care during… […]
  • Cardinal Health starts Zipline drone deliveries of drugs and medical supplies
    Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH) today started air delivery of pharmaceutical products and medical supplies via Zipline drone in North Carolina. San Francisco-based Zipline won FAA Part 135 air carrier certification for the long-range flights earlier this month. The company flew its first commercial deliveries on June 22 with an initial 16-nautical-mile flight. The flights starting… […]
  • How medical device companies are responding to abortion bans
    Days after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade’s protection of abortion rights, medical device companies are among those reassuring workers about healthcare access. Corporate communications to employees and the public at large come as trigger laws in nearly half of the states outlaw abortion immediately. Some medtech companies are not using… […]
  • Boston Centerless opens manufacturing plant in Indiana
    Boston Centerless announced today that it opened a second manufacturing plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Woburn, Massachusetts-based Boston Centerless said in a news release that the latest expansion for the supplier of precision ground bar materials for close tolerance CNC Swiss machining applications represents continued robust growth in key market segments in the Midwest and… […]
  • Dymax strikes new partnership with Quantum Systems
    Rapid curing materials and equipment manufacturer Dymax today announced a new sales partnership with Quantum Systems. Torrington, Connecticut-based Dymax said in a news release that Quantum, with its offices in Arizona as well as Sonora and Baja, Mexico, will focus its efforts on promoting and supporting the sales of Dymax light-curing solutions to the medical,… […]
  • Researchers develop wearable robotic exomuscle system
    ETH Zurich researchers have redefined the muscle shirt. Marie Georgarakis, a former doctoral student at ETH Zurich’s Sensory Motor Systems Lab, is the creator of the Myoshirt, a wearable, textile robotic device that helps users lift their arms and reach. A motorized cable works like an artificial tendon, directed by sensors and an algorithm to… […]
  • They said it at DeviceTalks Boston
    Medtech insiders convened at DeviceTalks Boston 2022 in May to discuss device design, innovation and trends shaping the industry now and in the years and decades ahead. Here are some of the most quotable insights from panelists and speakers at our live event. And make sure to save the date — and save your seat… […]
  • Summer health technology program brings diverse group of interns to Silicon Valley
    Diversity by Doing HealthTech (DxD) is holding a Summer Innovation and Exploration Series for college student interns from underrepresented groups. The series is on its second day today at Fogarty Innovation and Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign — the two organizations that jointly formed and support DxD. The event debuted last year in an online… […]
  • Clippard releases new series of isolation valves
    Clippard (Cincinnati) has Its Clippard NIV Series media isolation valve — a solenoid-operated device using a flexible diaphragm to isolate the actuation mechanism from the fluid path. Media isolation valves find everyday use in a wide variety of applications. Think uses that require precise, repeatable dispensing of media for analytical instrumentation. Clippard says media isolation… […]
  • Another Medtronic HVAD recall is serious
    A year after Medtronic ceded the LVAD market to Abbott, it has yet another Class I recall involving HeartWare Ventricular Assist Device pumps still implanted in patients. The FDA today designated a Medtronic recall involving the HVADs as Class I, the most serious level. It’s the second Class I recall designation for the HVADs this… […]

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

DeviceTalks Weekly

June 24, 2022
How innovative design, commercial strategy is building Cala Trio’s bioelectronic medicine market
See More >

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
Need Medtech news in a minute?
We Deliver!

MassDevice Enewsletters get you caught up on all the mission critical news you need in med tech. Sign up today.

MDO ad

Footer

MASSDEVICE MEDICAL NETWORK

DeviceTalks
Drug Delivery Business News
Medical Design & Outsourcing
Medical Tubing + Extrusion
Drug Discovery & Development
Pharmaceutical Processing World
MedTech 100 Index
R&D World

Device Talks Webinars, Podcasts, & Discussions

Attend our Monthly Webinars
Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
Join our Device Talks Tuesdays Discussion

MASSDEVICE

Subscribe to MassDevice E-Newsletter
Advertise with us
About
Contact us
Add us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Connect with us on LinkedIn Follow us on YouTube

Copyright © 2022 · WTWH Media LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media.

Advertise | Privacy Policy | RSS