Our Women in Medtech profile of Abbott EVP and Medical Devices Group President Lisa Earnhardt (pictured here with a FreeStyle Libre 3 sensor) was one of Medical Design & Outsourcing‘s top stories of 2024. [Photo courtesy of Abbott]
As we reflect on 2024 and prepare to kick off 2025, here’s a look at the most popular topics and stories we covered at Medical Design & Outsourcing, as ranked by a variety of factors including traffic to our website and engagement with our posts on LinkedIn (where you can follow me and MDO).
Nitinol was 2024’s top story in medtech as I argue here, from huge deals and changes in the supply chain to groundbreaking approvals of nitinol-enabled devices like pulse-field ablation systems and new ways that device developers are using this medtech material. But for this post, we’re going to focus on everything except for nitinol and PFA.
1. Medtronic tech, manufacturing moves and executive insights on Medical Design & Outsourcing
Medtronic successfully defended its title as the world’s largest medical device developer in 2024 when we published our annual Medtech Big 100 ranking by revenue. With so many of our readers who work in or with Medtronic, it’s no surprise that our articles about the company are regularly among our most popular at our website, in our email newsletters and on LinkedIn.
One of our most-read Medtronic stories of the year was a supply chain and outsourcing update from Medtronic CEO and Chair Geoff Martha, who said in January that the company planned to close manufacturing sites, consolidate distribution centers and end business relationships with approximately 200 suppliers. Our analysis of Medtronic executive pay and the company’s latest workforce stats was another top story of 2024. After November’s election, readers were also keenly interested in Medtronic’s preparations for new import taxes under President-elect Donald Trump.
Medtronic Chief Technology and Innovation Officer Ken Washington (left) and Medtronic Endoscopy Chief AI Officer Ha Hong pose with a scope used with the GI Genius Intelligent Endoscopy Module at the company’s facilities in Santa Clara, California. [Photo by Hardy Wilson for Medical Design & Outsourcing]
Read more of our Medtronic coverage — including a variety of nitinol-enabled advances — here.
2. Surgical robotics: DV5’s debut, bots in space and robot research
The biggest product launch of the year was Intuitive Surgical‘s fifth-generation da Vinci 5 robotics system. We covered the DV5’s major design changes after it won FDA clearance in March, put DV5 on our July magazine cover and shared lessons from the limited launch with other device developers. We also covered Intuitive’s plans to tap data collected by its systems to innovate new features and products, as well as experiments using Intuitive’s da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK) for augmented dexterity and task automation through imitation learning.
NASA astronaut and Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara poses with Virtual Incision’s spaceMIRA aboard the International Space Station. [Photo courtesy of NASA]
In other top surgical robotics articles of 2024 for Medical Design & Outsourcing:
- Structural heart startup Capstan Medical reported progress on its system for robot-assisted, catheter-delivered heart valve replacement.
- Levita Magnetics tested its unique system in combination with 3D vision and augmented reality technology, as well as a second surgical robotics platform.
- CMR Surgical co-founder Dr. Mark Slack offered surgical robotics development and regulatory advice after winning won FDA de novo authorization for CMR’s multi-port, soft tissue Versius platform.
- And Medical Microinstruments CEO Mark Toland offered his perspective on the future of surgical robotics, with a big emphasis on AI.
3. Medtech leadership insights from Medical Design & Outsourcing
Synchron co-founder and CEO Dr. Tom Oxley giving a TED Talk with an image of the Stentrode device displayed behind him. [Photo courtesy of Synchron]
We started the year with our January 2024 Leadership in Medtech cover story featuring Synchron co-founder and CEO Dr. Tom Oxley, and also saw a huge response on LinkedIn for our interview of the brain-computer interface developer’s chief technology officer, Riki Banerjee.
Our Women in Medtech cover story with Abbott medical device leader Lisa Earnhardt was another hit in print, at our website and on LinkedIn. And while we haven’t yet printed our January 2025 Leadership in Medtech edition, our two big interviews from that magazine are already online: former Edwards Lifesciences Chair and CEO Mike Mussallem and FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health Director Dr. Michelle Tarver.
4. Medtech industry analysis
The Medtech Big 100 ranks the world’s largest medical device companies by revenue. [Illustration by Matthew Claney/Medical Design & Outsourcing]
The first is the Medtech Big 100 ranking of the world’s largest medical device companies, where we compile and crunch financials from public and private companies to not only show how medtech’s biggest players stack up, but to identify major trends in employment, revenue growth, R&D spending and M&A.
Our second major project is Women In Medtech, featuring device industry leaders, researchers and innovators, as well as our annual analysis of gender diversity in medtech leadership.
Our analysis of medtech industry pay for executives and workers also constantly ranks among our most-read stories, lead by our previously mentioned Medtronic pay analysis. Our medtech industry pay analyses for 2024 included Stryker, Boston Scientific, Penumbra, Intuitive and Johnson & Johnson MedTech.
5. New medical device sterilization regulations and options
Vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) sterilization got a boost from the FDA in 2024 as regulators and the industry seek alternatives to ethylene oxide. [Photo courtesy of Steris]
That made it easier for device manufacturers looking for EtO alternatives to switch to VHP if it made sense for their products.
Top sterilization headlines at MDO also included contract sterilizers adding capacity and a new wave of EtO sterilization lawsuits.
Related: Medtech’s top leadership changes of 2024: Hirings, firings, promotions and retirements
