Medical Device Link.

Originally Published MX May/June 2006

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Newly appointed members of the MX editorial advisory board discuss the market data and technological innovations driving the medtech industry.

In the high-stakes realm of medical device development, few moves are made without numbers to back them up. In plotting a company's path as well as its product pipeline, executives rely on market research and business intelligence not only to gauge customer needs, but also to track the progress and course of their competition. Market data derived from multiple sources help companies determine which technologies are ripe for industry adoption—and which need to stay on the vine a while longer.

Just as companies often look to outside experts to guide their growth and development, MX looks to trusted industry professionals to help to steer the overall direction and content of the publication. Throughout 2006, MX is announcing members of its new editorial advisory board. In this issue, MX is pleased to present the newly appointed members of the advisory councils for two areas of critical importance to medtech executives: market intelligence and technology development.

Market Intelligence

Driscoll

Patrick Driscoll is founder and president of MedMarket Diligence LLC (Foothill Ranch, CA), a source of market intelligence and insights in the medical technology industry.

"In this information age, there is clearly no shortage of medical device information sources," says Driscoll. "There are few hurdles preventing low-quality sources from flooding the market with device information. There nonetheless remain many qualified sources, but the challenge for manufacturers is in clearly matching the intelligence needed with the information source and the source's methodology."

Driscoll cofounded Medtech Insight LLC (Newport Beach, CA), now a division of Windhover Information, and was a principal at Medical Data International.

According to Driscoll, market intelligence is strongest when it provides the user with a clearly competitive edge by revealing market opportunities and challenges well ahead of general market awareness.

Driscoll received a BS from the University of Dallas and an MBA from the University of New Hampshire's Whittemore School of Business and Economics.

Gunderson

Thomas J. Gunderson is a managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. (Minneapolis), where he follows cardiology and other medical device companies.

According to Gunderson, the quality of intelligence available in the medtech industry varies greatly by sector. "For markets like drug-eluting stents, with two players and a limited number of cath labs, intelligence can be gathered regarding adoption, procedures, contracts, etc.," Gunderson says. "But for many other device areas, markets are decentralized and it's difficult to pick up quality information."

Gunderson holds a bachelor's degree from Carleton College, a master's degree in cell biology from the University of Minnesota, and a master's degree in business administration from the University of St. Thomas.

Emerging companies sometimes base their planning—and their appeals for funding—on limited or uncritical intelligence. "Investors only hear good stories," Gunderson says. "The markets are huge, the unmet need desperate, the solution perfect . . . at least on paper or an Excel sheet. In my experience, the investment community is well aware of the limits of general market information and research."

Hagemeyer

Dale Hagemeyer is a research vice president for the manufacturing sector of industry advisory services at Gartner Inc. (Stamford, CT). His area of expertise is in customer-facing processes and applications for the consumer goods and life sciences industries, including the biotech, pharma, and medical device sectors.

According to Hagemeyer, the intelligence currently available to device companies does not yet provide sufficient information on which to base their business decisions. "Understanding the market is a long continuum," he says. "Once you understand things on a transactional level, there is always the need to use predictive modeling to better understand outcomes. There is also the potential to be more real-time in performing analysis."

Hagemeyer says the ability to understand practitioner behavior through data sets, such as those provided by Health Market Science, has been a great leap forward. "However, when you consider the massive amounts of data available to the pharmaceutical companies, as an example, there is clearly room to glean more insights, and do so more frequently," he says.

Hagemeyer holds a bachelor's degree in finance and in Spanish from the University of Utah and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Scholz

Manfred Scholz, PhD, is president of Scholz Consulting Partners (Medford, MA), a strategic planning and business development consultancy for diagnostics and life sciences firms.

"There is no substitute for knowing your industry and reading financial statements of your competitors," Scholz says. "Development-stage ventures often gain intelligence from their investors and security analyst reports. Off-the-shelf market reports are a starting point to learn about fashions in the medical device industry. To understand and forecast the success probability of a new, derivative, or substitute device comprehensively, a detailed strategic road map from patents to regulatory processes, from manufacturing to sales channels, requires expert analysis."

Scholz previously served as vice president for business development at Iquum Inc., as president and COO of Stem Cell Preservation Technologies Inc., as senior director of business development for Large Scale Biology Corp., and as senior consultant for Boston Biomedical Consultants Inc.

Scholz holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees from Goethe University (Frankfurt, Germany) and an MBA from Babson College (Wellesley, MA).

Technology Development

Bevington

Dale Bevington is cofounder of Product Innovation Partners (London), a group that specializes in product design and development for consumer and industrial products, and has wide-ranging experience in the development of medical devices.

"A technology area that we think has great potential for improving medical products and patient care is radio-frequency identification (RFID)," Bevington says. "Already, strides have been made in the technology for patient ID systems and asset management."

According to Bevington, developing industry standards for information stored in a patient ID system could become problematic. "For companies pursuing RFID in the medical arena, the standards obstacles really are going to take perseverance," he says.

Bevington studied industrial design at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, AB, Canada), undertook postgraduate studies in design at the Royal College of Art (London), and studied polymer engineering at Brunel University (Uxbridge, UK).

D'Agostino

Charles F. D'Agostino is the founder and executive director of the Louisiana Business and Technology Center (LBTC) at Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, LA). He currently serves on the board of directors of the Association of University Research Parks, and previously served for seven years on the board of the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA).

According to D'Agostino, translational research, which moves technology down the pathway from discovery to therapeutically useful products, is critical to efforts to improve patient care. "Neuromedical devices, cancer-medication- delivery systems, stem-cell regeneration devices, and nonintrusive diagnostic devices are in demand and can greatly improve patient care," he says. "The major obstacle, in my opinion, is the slow process of getting technology out of the labs, through trials, and into the marketplace."

D'Agostino holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry and a master's in business administration from Louisiana State University.

Hwang

Juin-Jet Hwang, PhD, is the chief technology officer of SonoSite Inc. (Bothell, WA). Hwang joined ADR Ultrasound in 1980. He was involved in the development of the ADR 4000 system, a portable array imaging system. In 1983, ADR Ultrasound merged with ATL Ultrasound.

Since October of 1995, Hwang has been involved in the development of handheld ultrasound devices. He served as chief scientist in ATL's handheld systems business group until its spin-off as SonoSite in 1998.

"It is technologically feasible to develop a handheld ultrasound imaging device the size of a cellular phone," Hwang says. "The challenge is to implement a number of new image processing algorithms in the form of a battery-driven handheld device."

Another obstacle to technology development is insufficient physician training, says Hwang. "Most physicians today lack sufficient training in reading diagnostic ultrasound images," he says. "Therefore, ultrasound imaging data must be presented in such a way that it greatly resembles the natural human anatomy." Hwang holds a master's of science from the National Taiwan University, Taipei, and a doctorate from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, both in electrical engineering.

Odell

Kathy Odell is cofounder and chief executive officer of Inogen Inc. (Goleta, CA), a manufacturer of advanced oxygen therapy devices for treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Prior to joining Inogen in 2002, Odell served as vice president of enterprise services for Agility Communications, a venture-backed photonics start-up engaged in the development and manufacture of tunable lasers.

Preceding Agility, she was cofounder and COO of Medical Concepts Inc., which over a five-year period became the world's leading designer and manufacturer of video systems for minimally invasive surgery, resulting in its acquisition by Karl Storz Endoscopy GmbH (Tuttlingen, Germany).

Odell says that the area with the greatest potential for improving medical products and patient care in the near term is information technology. "Leveraging information technology will be key to delivering quality healthcare in the face of the escalating demand for services and the shortage of healthcare professionals," she says.

Odell says that the most serious challenge facing the development and adoption of new medical technologies is reimbursement. "Both Medicare and the private sector are struggling with escalating costs and are often unable, or unwilling, to recognize new technologies that could improve standards of patient care or reduce costs in the system," she says.

Odell is a graduate of Stanford University.

Pope

Rhall E. Pope, PhD, is vice president of research and development at Smiths Medical MD Inc. (St. Paul, MN), a manufacturer of infusion pump and vascular access devices.

Pope has more than 25 years' experience in the development of high-tech products for both the medical device and aerospace industries. His area of expertise is electronic systems and related hardware, software, and sensor technology.

"Since most of our products use commercial electronics and power sources, the technology is really being driven by other industries," Pope says. "Our issues then become ensuring that we have high-quality component sources and reasonable lifetimes before obsolescence.

"For our products, low-power electronics and electronic miniaturization are key technologies for reducing the size of infusion pumps," he adds. "Though ease of use is sometimes not viewed in terms of technology, it can be a critical component in improving patient care."

Pope holds a BS from Duquesne University and an MS and PhD from Purdue University. He has served on FDA's science review board and is a member of the University of Minnesota Biomedical Engineering Institute's industry advisory board.

Prabhakar

Samuel Prabhakar is director of the medical solutions practice for IBM Technology Collaboration Solutions (Rochester, MN).

Prabhakar joined IBM in 1984. His work has included VLSI chip design and diagnostic software programming for workstation controllers. His work on a diagnostic tool for the AS/400 resulted in a U.S. patent for the design. Prabhakar moved into management in 1989, and his responsibilities have included leading teams in North America, Japan, India, Canada, and Germany.

Most recently, Prabhakar has focused on developing customized solutions for customers. Drawing on IBM's extensive patent portfolio and technologies, Prabhakar's team identifies solutions where IBM technology can enhance or differentiate customers' products and services.

Prabhakar graduated with a BS in electrical engineering from the College of Engineering Guindy, Madras, India. After moving to the United States, he earned an MS in electrical engineering from Ohio State University.

In upcoming issues, MX will present its advisory board members in the areas of corporate governance, governmental and legal affairs, and sales and marketing. To nominate medtech industry experts in these or other fields, contact MX editor-in-chief Steve Halasey at 310/445-4274 or via e-mail at steve.halasey@cancom.com.

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