DeviceTalks Boston: Here’s why you should get excited

There’s a lot to look forward to at DeviceTalks Boston, June 5–6 at the Seaport World Trade Center.
Sarah Faulkner, Program Manager – DeviceTalks

Eight years ago, DeviceTalks kicked off its inaugural event in Boston with a keynote interview featuring soon-to-be Covidien CEO Joe Almeida. A panel of next-generation executives included Abiomed chief Michael Minogue, Zoll’s Rick Packer and David Lucchino, then of Semprus Biossciences. And the recently installed director of the CDRH, Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, made a last-minute appearance.

It’s safe to say that things have changed since then. We’ve grown DeviceTalks into a two-day educational forum designed to bring together engineers, commercialization professionals and medtech leaders to share the challenges and best practices of getting medical devices to the market. The program now runs three times a year in Boston, Minnesota and California.

Here are some of the highlights from this year’s DeviceTalks Boston event, slated for June 5-6:

A look inside the big companies’ device development process. Gearing up for our eighth year in Boston, we’ve turned to some of New England’s most interesting companies to bring attendees behind the scenes of the device development and commercialization process. Kevin Bourque, Abbott’s VP of R&D, will lead a session exploring the technologies within the global medtech firm’s heart failure portfolio. Boston Scientific’s VP of corporate research, David Knapp, will share how he has worked to address unmet clinical needs across divisions at his company.

New medtech companies worth following. Attendees will also hear from up-and-coming medtech companies, like Akili Interactive. This exciting group has developed a digital therapy for ADHD that is delivered through a video game experience. Akili’s head of R&D, Jason Trees, plans to discuss how the company built this unique medical treatment.

Tackling emerging trends. My team has always focused on building content that aligns with emerging trends and technologies. That’s why at this year’s DeviceTalks Boston, we have panel discussions that will dive into topics such as building devices designed to tackle global healthcare challenges. We also have an all-star lineup of speakers that will share how they’re navigating medtech’s digital transformation.

Tapping into the local ecosystem. To ensure that we’re connecting DeviceTalks Boston attendees with the best Massachusetts-based minds in medtech, we partnered again with the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC). The group will once again host its Investor’s Showcase featuring 25 local startup companies at DeviceTalks Boston. MassMEDIC has also put together a panel discussion highlighting healthcare robotics companies from Massachusetts — a perfect complement to our co-located sister event, Robotics Summit & Expo.

A leader in diabetes treatments. In keeping with the event’s signature component, we invited the leader of one of Massachusetts’ most exciting companies to come and share their work at DeviceTalks Boston in a live keynote interview. Shacey Petrovic, president and CEO of Insulet, started as the company’s chief commercial officer in 2015 and worked her way up to the corner office. We are thrilled that she will join us at DeviceTalks Boston to share her story and insights into Insulet’s tubeless Omnipod Insulin Management System.

Medtech’s leading voice in D.C. Attendees will also hear from AdvaMed president and CEO Scott Whitaker in a live keynote interview at DeviceTalks Boston. A leading voice in the medical device industry, Scott helps to shape government policies that affect every device company. At DeviceTalks Boston, he will give attendees an inside look at AdvaMed’s priorities for the coming year.

The whistleblower who helped expose Theranos. And to close out the event, DeviceTalks Boston is hosting a live interview with Theranos whistleblower and entrepreneur, Tyler Shultz. Tyler will bring attendees behind the story that everyone is talking about: the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her diagnostic company, Theranos. Once the darling of Silicon Valley, Theranos collapsed after Shultz went public with his concerns about the company. The lessons learned from Theranos are of value to anybody working in the medical technology industry. We can’t wait to hear directly from the person at the center of this story.

This is just a snapshot of what attendees can expect at DeviceTalks Boston. I can’t wait to share with you all of the great work we’ve been busy with behind the scenes for the last six months. I hope you’ll join me at DeviceTalks Boston on June 5–6!

Sarah Faulkner, Program Manager

Who Should Attend?

DeviceTalks runs along two tracks, Engineering Better Devices and Building Better Companies. Here’s who should attend each (or both!)

Engineering Better Devices: Built for engineers, product development specialists and R&D professionals, our engineering track is designed to provide attendees with actionable lessons in a peer-to-peer format:

Human factors engineering
Patient-centric device development
R&D trends
Manufacturing and scalability
Navigating the product development process from start to finish
“How We Built This” panels with top medical device groups

Building Better Companies: Built for executives, directors, entrepreneurs, analysts and strategists, our leadership track is designed to provide attendees with insights on: