“This is going to be a broad approach. … There’s a big list to go after, but we’re committed to make a difference,” the former Edwards Lifesciences leader says.
Linda and Mike Mussallem have been married since 1976. [Photo courtesy of the Linda and Mike Mussallem Foundation]
In an interview with Medical Design & Outsourcing for the cover story of our January 2025 Leadership in Medtech magazine, Mussallem discussed his plans to support innovation in medtech and healthcare through the Linda and Mike Mussallem Foundation and the Stanford Mussallem Center for Biodesign.
Related: What Mike Mussallem learned from his first (and maybe worst) jobs after engineering school
Mussallem said his foundation is focused on two broad areas and two underserved groups. The first broad area is innovation in health care.
“Healthcare could be so much better than it is today,” Mussallem said. “When you think about how we deliver healthcare today compared to what our parents got or our grandparents got, it’s dramatically better. What do you think about the future — do you think we’re done? I don’t think we’ve even gotten going. … We’re going to make dramatic improvements, and the idea of innovating in that area and having policies in our government and in our world that encourage innovation is something that’s really important. We are big believers in that.”
Mussallem said the second broad area — whole-person health — is likely going to generate “a lot of ideas in the future.”
“There’s so much specialization in our world that it’s easy to lose the whole person. You become characterized by some measurements of your heart or your kidney or your knee, and the person and their own desires often get lost along the way, including various alternative treatments, therapies, etc.,” he said.
Beyond those high-level topics, Mussallem will focus on improving quality of life and care for people with Down syndrome (he and his wife both had older brothers with the genetic condition) and better treatment of pediatric heart defects.
“Most Down syndrome folks just don’t get high quality care,” said Mussallem. “… Trying to do something to elevate the care for that group of individuals is something that we’re passionate about.”
At Edwards Lifesciences, Mussallem was surprised to learn that 1% of all children are born with heart defects.
“And they’re not all the same. There are some very nominal defects, and there’s some very profound defects — a full range. I’ve come to learn that these kids are almost like snowflakes. No two are exactly alike, and this is a condition that often affects them for their entire life.”
“When you compare it to investing in adult cardiovascular disease, all the investment has gone toward the adult side — obviously, it’s much larger,” he continued. “There’s really been a lack of innovation. I have so much respect for the doctors in this space. They have become MacGyvers. They take devices and technology that were designed for other purposes and use them on these kids — and adults, for that matter — to try and help them. The idea here is to really transform care, and I believe it’s very much possible. Innovation will be a key part of that.”
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Mussallem said he’s not yet ready to detail how he’ll support these areas, but to watch for more later this year.
“This is going to be a broad approach that encompasses everything from the innovation that could help physicians deliver care, to new care pathways, to having a deeper understanding of the disease and actually be an advocate for the conditions as well,” he said. “There really is a lack of understanding out there. For example, people think that children with cancer is a bigger condition than children with heart defects, and it’s the exact opposite in a dramatic way. And part of it is there just hasn’t been a voice. There’s a big list to go after, but we’re committed to make a difference.”
In 2024, Mussallem’s charitable family foundation renamed the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign as the Stanford Mussallem Center for Biodesign through what the university characterized as a “generous naming gift.”
“The amount is confidential, but it is a meaningful start to our endowment campaign to secure the future of Biodesign for generations to come,” Stanford Biodesign co-founder and Director Dr. Josh Makower told MDO.
Asked about the Stanford Mussallem Center for Biodesign’s expanded scope and what might be most relevant to medical device developers and manufacturers, Makower said the initiatives are focused on advancing health outcomes and equity through three pillars of innovation: education, translation and policy.
“To enable this, we’re expanding Biodesign’s innovation training into all lifesciences (medtech, biotech, digital health and diagnostics), enabling innovation to advance global health equity (by example, our new program in East Africa) and have started an innovation policy program (delivering impactful research on reimbursement, the FDA and digital health/AI),” he said. “Biodesign supports a number of educational programs accessible beyond Stanford students and faculty including our 10-month Biodesign Innovation Fellowship, an Executive Education program, a global faculty training program and various webinars, events and convenings on a variety of topics.”
In tax filings for recent years, the Mussallems reported donations of $1.2 million to Massachusetts General Hospital for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) research and more than $11 million to the Orange County Community Foundation for the George and Bob Fund (named after Mike and Linda’s brothers).
The foundation’s website lists more charitable activities here. Its assets grew from $10.5 million in 2016 to more than $104 million by the end of 2023, according to those filings.
“We never would have imagined we’d have the privilege of having a foundation,” Mussallem said. “For my wife, Linda, and I to be in a position to be able to give back is something that we take very seriously.”
Related: What Edwards Lifesciences CEO Bernard Zovighian learned from Mike Mussallem
