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The Medtech Innovation Podcast

The Medtech Innovation Podcast

Written by: Spencer Jones
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 Medtech Innovation Podcast: Spencer Jones dives deep into winning medtech startup strategies. Each episode unpacks hot takes and insider tactics from the trenches of medtech innovation. Join physician inventors, founders, engineers, and healthcare market makers as they share actionable insights to navigate the FDA, secure medtech funding, and drive medtech breakthroughs. No-nonsense advice to be a change maker in medtech.©️ 2024 XO Medtech Careers Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Personal Success
Episodes
  • Medtech Investor Secrets

    Medtech Investor Secrets
    Jan 8 2026
    I'm joined by Monica Vajani, Executive Director of the MedTech Accelerator at mHUB, as we explore the broken early-stage funding model, the evolution of value-based care's impact on medical device purchasing, and why Chicago is becoming a powerhouse for hard tech innovation.Living Through the Value-Based Care Revolution→ Monica witnessed firsthand the transition from physician-driven purchasing decisions to complex value analysis committees requiring clinical evidence and cost justification→ The fundamental disconnect: hospitals take on financial risk through value-based care models, but medical device companies still sell based on static clinical trial data from months or years ago→ Value analysis committees are overwhelmed, making decisions without real-time outcomes tracking, leading them to focus on simple cost reduction rather than innovative solutions that truly improve patient outcomesThe Brutal Truth About MedTech Funding Today→ The early-stage funding model is broken - companies need realistic ballpark figures like pharma's 4% success rate metrics to understand their actual chances of reaching market→ If you're developing a Class III neurology device requiring a 50-patient safety and efficacy trial, you're looking at approximately $30 million in capital needs that most founders drastically underestimate→ The funding environment has hollowed out: angels aren't stepping in like before, VCs are moving later stage, and 80% of the market is fighting for 40% of available capitalWhy Fractional Expertise Beats Full-Time Hires Early→ Hiring one or two full-time people with four to five airtight fractional consultants in regulatory and commercial is a better model than three full-time employees with narrow experience→ Companies waste equity on multi-year relationships with full-time COOs who may not work out, when fractional experts with proven playbooks can deliver quick wins→ The marketplace for fractional talent exists because companies are in analysis paralysis and aren't willing to commit full-time, but need specific expertise immediatelyThe Insurance Company Reality No One Wants to Face→ Hospital margins are squeezed, device reimbursement is flat or declining, but insurance companies keep growing revenues - something has to give at this tipping point→ The average person stays on an insurance plan for just 2.5 years, creating perverse incentives where payers optimize for short-term metrics rather than long-term patient outcomes→ The explosion in hospital administrative staff directly correlates with healthcare spending as a percent of GDP, with most growth stemming from prior authorization requirements that should be eliminated for 50-60% of care itemsChicago's Secret Weapon for Hard Tech Innovation→ mHUB has created over 7,000 jobs and their 700+ companies have generated over $2 billion in revenue while raising nearly $2 billion in capital - these are not small numbers→ The Illinois state government will match any venture dollars raised, and the ecosystem from universities to medical systems to high net worth individuals actually plays nice together→ Unlike coastal hubs, Chicago offers a "get shit done" environment where the right connections are just a phone call away, with 80,000 square feet of prototyping facilities and labs at mHUBWhat Accelerators Get Wrong (And Right)→ Too many accelerators are self-serving pitch practice sessions rather than investing actual capital and meeting entrepreneurs where they are with specific expert introductions→ mHUB's model: invest in companies, then reduce time to find the exact regulatory, reimbursement, and commercialization experts needed rather than overwhelming founders with generic networking→ The hyper-focus on demo days and events without high-commitment, high-performance environments fails to develop entrepreneurs who need targeted help, not generic playbooksThe Prior Authorization Solution That Will Never Happen→ A bilateral disarmament where 50-60% of care items are exempted from prior authorization requirements would simultaneously reduce hospital administrative costs and insurance company processing burdens→ United Healthcare is currently 180 days out on processing claims - eliminating unnecessary prior auth would speed payments and ease the cash crunch on hospitals→ Instead of rational policy reform, we're heading toward an AI hellscape where agentic systems appeal to each other endlessly while both sides maintain bloated administrative layersBest Quotes:"There's so many companies out there developing net new solutions. At some point, we're not going to be walking around with 70 devices on our bodies.""Being an entrepreneur does not mean you have to take a company, raise funding, and do all that. Only a few people know how to do that, and even those people need luck.""The biggest mistake in MedTech is thinking you can throw out a bunch of activity, but if you're not really driving towards outcomes, you ...
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    42 mins
  • Why Orthopedic Giants are Resisting Patient Specific Implants

    Why Orthopedic Giants are Resisting Patient Specific Implants
    Oct 14 2025
    I'm joined by Jonathan Swill, Principal Consultant at Surgical Excellence Partners, as we explore the future of patient-specific implants in orthopedics, why 20% of knee replacement patients remain unsatisfied, and how personalized medicine combined with robotics and AI will transform musculoskeletal surgery.In this episode, we dive deep into:The Patient-Specific Implant Revolution in Orthopedics → Why orthopedics is the "last bastion" to adopt patient-specific approaches while cranial maxillofacial surgery has made it the gold standard → How automated surgical planning software is reducing design time from weeks to days by cutting engineer-surgeon iteration cycles → The critical integration gap: precise robotic placement means nothing without the perfect implant design to matchFrom Research to Commercialization: The HSS Experience → How exposure to both implant failures and custom department successes at Hospital for Special Surgery sparked the patient-specific vision → Point of care labs enable hospitals to commercialize solutions internally and democratize patient-specific technologies → Physical proximity to clinical problems allows research hospitals to move from issue identification to solution faster than anyoneThe 20% Problem: Why Off-the-Shelf Implants Fall Short → One in five total knee replacement patients worldwide report dissatisfaction with outcomes—that's over 500,000 people annually → Mechanical alignment taught surgeons to align everyone to 7 degrees regardless of patient size, anatomy, or natural joint position → Kinematic alignment restores patient's natural body position but still uses off-the-shelf parts with non-native geometriesAdoption Barriers: Why Perfect Technology Doesn't Guarantee Market Success → Large orthopedic companies have hundreds of billions in off-the-shelf inventory that would become obsolete with widespread patient-specific adoption → Entrenched sales forces with long-standing contracts and massive influence create structural resistance to innovation → Surgeon education is harder than regulatory approval—you must prove improved outcomes, OR time savings, and cost reduction simultaneouslyKinematic vs Mechanical Alignment: The Paradigm Shift → Mechanical alignment was the legacy standard because off-the-shelf implants were the only option available → Kinematic alignment restores patient's natural anatomy and ligament positions but still lacks truly patient-specific geometries → Even leaders like Restore3D still focus on mechanical alignment with patient-specific implants—massive opportunity remains for kinematic integrationAI-Powered Surgical Planning: From Support Tool to Decision Partner → Current AI automates repetitive tasks like landmark identification and implant templating but remains basic and task-based → Next five years will see AI become predictive—forecasting post-op outcomes from intraoperative imaging at 6, 12, 18, 24 month intervals → AI will enable true kinematic alignment at scale by analyzing patient-specific anatomy and predicting optimal restoration positionsLead Qualification Over Volume: The Startup Survival Strategy → 90% of surgeons use one specific product and will die using it regardless of 3x cost savings from alternatives → Cutting 10 poor-fit prospects to focus on 10 qualified leads yields more customers faster than broadly targeting 30-40 big names → First sale cracks the ice—learn what worked, replicate the pattern, and qualify future leads against that success profileAdvice for Medtech Innovators: Become a Multi-Tool Athlete → Choose startups over big companies early in career—wear multiple hats, learn faster, become more valuable to future employers → Don't silo yourself into one specialty—COVID hiring freezes taught the value of broader medtech product development skills → Being really good at 4-5 different disciplines makes you "glue guy" who translates across teams—more valuable than being best at one thingBest Quotes:"Why wouldn't you want to be Shohei Otani? Why wouldn't you want to be him?""If 20%, if only 80% of our patients worldwide are satisfied and in no more pain with their knee replacement, that's still 20% of people. At two to three million knee replacements a year, that is over 500,000 people that are unsatisfied.""We need to not accept what's good enough. We need to accept perfection. We need to expect perfection because we see surgeons as these amazing geniuses that they are. But I think the tools that we're giving them are not allowing them to be perfect.""Orthopedics is the last bastion to really take it on in terms of patient-specific work because cranial maxillofacial—that's what they do. That is the gold standard and that's how it's taken.""You can make the best product in the world, but if they don't understand the value of your product and how it improves patient outcomes or how it improves surgeries, then it's not going...
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    1 hr and 15 mins
  • 3 AI cheat codes to launch and scale your medical device

    3 AI cheat codes to launch and scale your medical device
    Oct 7 2025
    I'm joined by Jelani Abdus-Salaam, Founder at Best of AI, as we explore how AI can transform medtech operations, the critical distinction between AI automation and AI agents, and practical strategies for adopting AI without massive organizational overhauls.In this episode, we dive deep into:AI Literacy Gap Creates Massive Medtech Opportunity → Medtech is perfectly suited for AI with rules-based QMS, defined regulatory standards, and structured clinical data—yet AI literacy remains surprisingly low → Companies that bought specialized AI solutions from domain experts succeeded 67% of the time, while internal enterprise initiatives failed at 95% → The paradox: medtech professionals excel at clinical work but lack exposure to AI, creating adoption barriers despite clear benefitsAI Agents vs AI Automation: The Game-Changing Distinction → Automations follow sequential steps while AI agents use reasoning and context to decide their own path to accomplish goals → AI agents can pull from multiple knowledge sources and adapt their approach based on the situation → Critical factor: AI is "really dumb" until you codify your processes—you must understand your business systems before deploying agentsThe Chief of AI Role Is Now Essential → Every medtech company will soon need a dedicated AI officer who touches sales, marketing, and operations as the central nexus → Don't need full developers—someone who can use cursor, Claude, and orchestration tools to build and test solutions internally → Junior AI people trained by experienced practitioners can be incredibly effective when paired with enterprise-level leadershipSpecialized Small Models Outperform Everything Apps → Specialized small language models working as agentic teams outperform single large models for complex tasks → Building your own small LLM specialized in one niche delivers better performance than ingesting documentation into ChatGPT → Open source models will prevail long-term for medtech—create custom models for specific processesThe Human-in-the-Loop Mandate for Healthcare → Humans must remain in the loop for quality assurance, especially in healthcare where hallucinations can be catastrophic → AGI isn't coming for 10-20 years—companies that fired hundreds expecting AI replacement had to rehire when systems failed → Build approval checkpoints where humans review and either approve or send AI agents back for refinementStart With Custom GPTs, Not Enterprise Overhauls → Pick ChatGPT or Claude, list manual tasks you do repeatedly, and create custom GPTs that codify how you do those things → One founder automated SOP creation that took 20-30 minutes—now saves hours weekly compounding over dozens of tasks → Turn off data tracking settings if concerned about HIPAA complianceBest Quotes:"AI is really dumb. It's up to you, the person, the operator, the orchestrator, to understand what you want to happen for AI to follow what you want to happen.""You will have individual departments. You will have the ability for AI agents to take information, pass that information into other teams or departments. That's already happening now.""Even if you don't use AI in your business, you do need to know its capabilities because it can be used against you. Voice duplication is so easy. Deepfakes are getting so good. You need awareness.""There's more and more people who understand the value of having a specialized AI person. Some people are calling this AI Chief Officer. All they do is learn AI, deploy AI, learn AI, deploy AI."Want more insights on medtech innovation?Subscribe to the channel so you don't miss hot takes and insider tactics from the trenches of medtech startups.🤝 Join the #1 network for medtech innovators on the internet. Become a member to accelerate your journey, collaborate and build valuable ventures. Join for free using this link.Find the perfect vendors for your medtech project for free at MedtechVendors - https://www.medtechvendors.com/📈 My FREE 5-day course for Medtech Innovators to create successful ventures: https://xomedtech.com/free-courseFIND SPENCER JONES ON SOCIAL Spencer's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/medtech-innovation/ XO Medtech LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/xo-medtech/FIND JELANI ABDUS-SALAAM ON SOCIAL Jelani on X/Twitter - https://twitter.com/JelaniFuel Jelani on Instagram - @JelaniFuel Scale With Agents - https://www.scalewithagents.com/ Episode Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction to Jelani and his journey to medtech AI 5:00 - The medtech AI adoption paradox 10:00 - AI agents vs automation distinction 20:00 - Why medtech needs Chief of AI officers 27:00 - Specialized models vs everything apps 35:00 - Prompt engineering strategies 47:00 - Agent-to-agent healthcare ethics 57:00 - Simulation departments becoming mandatory 1:07:00 - Starting with custom GPTs 1:11:00 - Building data-first company culture
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    1 hr and 3 mins
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