The Care Capacity Tipping Point

Todd J. Brinton, M.D., has been corporate vice president, advanced technology, and chief scientific officer at Edwards Lifesciences since 2019. Dr. Brinton has significant experience as a champion of cardiovascular innovation and has a strong patient focus as a tenured practicing clinical cardiologist. He has deep ties to the medical technology community as a founder, board member and advisor to several start-up companies, including his role as physician founder, board member, and chief medical officer of ShockWave Medical, Inc. Dr. Brinton began his career as an engineer in the medical technology industry, ultimately becoming a director of clinical research and development, prior to entering medical school. Before joining Edwards, he was a clinical professor of medicine (cardiology) and adjunct professor of bioengineering at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He was an attending interventional cardiologist at both the Stanford University Medical Center and the Palo Alto VA Medical Center. Dr. Brinton also served as the fellowship director at the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign from 2006 to 2019, where he mentored and directed numerous teams on the development of new technologies. In addition, he served as the co-director for both the graduate and executive education programs at the center during a similar time period. He is extremely active in the American Heart Association serving as the Chair of the 2022 Bay Area Research Roundtable and the 2022 Orange County Heart & Stroke Ball. In addition, he currently serves on the AHA national research committee and strategic outcomes subcommittee. He has served on the advisory board for the Edwards Lifesciences Foundation Cardiovascular Innovation and Research Center at UC Irvine since 2020. Dr. Brinton received his bachelor's degree from the University of California, San Diego in biomedical engineering, and his medical degree from the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University. He completed his internship, residency, and fellowships in cardiology and interventional cardiology at Stanford.

Kate is a managing partner at Sonder Capital and associate director of the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellowship. Prior to Sonder Capital she was CEO of Ciel Medical, which she co-founded out of the Biodesign Innovation Fellowship. Ciel was acquired by Vyaire Medical in 2017, and Kate transitioned to vice president of Airway Technologies at Vyaire. Previously, she was a strategic marketing consultant at Acclarent and an R&D engineer at Pathway Medical. Kate has co-authored over a dozen patents and has received multiple honorary fellowships, including being one of the first recipients of the Ferolyn Fellowship. She is board director at BRIUS Technologies, Spirair, Ziteo Medical, Neptune Medical and a member of the Caltech Seed Fund Investment Advisory Committee. She holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Olin College of Engineering and is a graduate of the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellowship.

Deborah Kilpatrick is a partner at Sonder Capital investing in the medtech and healthtech landscapes. She is the former CEO and chair of Evidation Health, a technology company that pioneered the use of person-generated health data in real world evidence for global biopharma companies. Prior to Evidation, Deborah's operating experience focused on medical devices and molecular diagnostics in roles spanning R&D through commercialization, including multiple leadership roles at Guidant Corporation such as research fellow, director of R&D, and director of new ventures in its Vascular Intervention Division prior to its acquisition by Boston Scientific. Currently, she is a board director at Cordance Medical, Jupiter Endovascular, NextGen Jane, Sleep Number, and Sutter Health. She is a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and has been named to both the Digital Health Hall of Fame at UCSF and the College of Engineering Hall of Fame at Georgia Tech. Deborah is the co-founder of MedtechWomen and the MedtechVision Conference, now held annually in Silicon Valley. She is a proud "Triple Jacket", having earned her bachelor's degree in science, master's degree in science, and doctoral degrees in engineering all from Georgia Tech.

Dr. Josh Makower is The Yock Family Professor of Medicine and of Bioengineering at the Stanford University Schools of Medicine and Engineering and the Director of the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign, the program he co-founded with Dr. Paul Yock twenty years ago. Josh helped create the fundamental structure of the Center's core curriculum and is the chief architect of what is now called "The Biodesign Process." Over the past 20 years since Josh and Paul founded Biodesign, this curriculum and the associated textbook has been used at Stanford and across the world to train hundreds of thousands of students, faculty and industry leaders on the Biodesign process towards the advancement of medical innovation for the improvement of patient care. Josh has practiced these same techniques directly as the Founder & Executive Chairman of ExploraMed, a medical device incubator, creating 10 companies since 1995. Transactions from the ExploraMed portfolio include NeoTract, acquired by Teleflex, Acclarent, acquired by J&J, EndoMatrix, acquired by C.R. Bard & TransVascular, acquired by Medtronic. Other ExploraMed/NEA ventures include Moximed, Revelle Aesthetics, X9 and Willow. Josh is also a Senior Advisors to Patient Square Capital, and an Advisory Venture Partner with Sofinnova Partners. Josh serves on the boards of Elevage, VentureWell, Revelle Aesthetics, ExploraMed, Moximed, Willow, X9 and Coravin. Josh holds over 300 patents and patent applications. He received an MBA from Columbia University, an MD from the NYU School of Medicine, and a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. Josh is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of The National Academy of Inventors and The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and was awarded the Coulter Award for Healthcare Innovation by the Biomedical Engineering Society in 2018.

Dan Azagury is a surgeon and health technology innovator with an international background. He is the Director for Education for the fellowship program at Stanford's Byers Center for Biodesign. He teaches multidisciplinary teams a process to identify important healthcare needs and develop novel health technologies to address them. He is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine and serves as section chief of bariatric and minimally invasive surgery and medical director of the Weight Management Program. Dr. Azagury graduated from medical school in Switzerland, completed surgical residency at the Geneva University Hospital, and undertook research and clinical fellowships at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He then completed the Biodesign Innovation Fellowship at Stanford and co-founded Ciel Medical along with his Biodesign teammate Kate Garrett. Together they developed novel solutions for intubated patients in the ICU. Ciel Medical was acquired by Vyaire Medical in 2017. Dr. Azagury's research focuses on multidisciplinary approaches to improving bariatric surgery outcomes as well as medical device innovation. He holds three patents and has published over 75 scientific articles and book chapters.

Dr. Fred Moll, with over 40 years of experience, is an icon in the medtech industry and has been called "the father of robotic surgery." He co-founded Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) in 1995, where he first developed the da Vinci surgical system, which has grown to include over 5,000 systems used in more than 1 million surgeries annually. Intuitive Surgical currently has a market cap exceeding $195 billion, making it the 71st largest company by market capitalization in the world. Moll left Intuitive Surgical in 2002 to found Hansen Medical, developing robotic systems for vascular and interventional electrophysiology procedures. He later co-founded Auris Surgical Robots (now Auris Health) in 2007, which he led to its $3.4 billion acquisition by Johnson & Johnson in 2019, the largest private medical device acquisition in history. Dr. Moll has invested approximately $100 million of his own funds into roughly 15 next-generation surgical robotics startups. He holds several board and advisory positions including Director of PROCEPT BioRobotics (NASDAQ: PRCT), Chairman of Neptune Medical and Moon Surgical, and Advisor at JP Morgan Life Sciences Private Capital. He earned his B.A. in Economics from UC Berkeley, M.S. in Management from Stanford University, and M.D. from the University of Washington.

Jay Watkins is a veteran of the medtech industry with over 45 years of experience and is considered one of the most elite dealmakers in the healthcare field, having bought or sold dozens of companies. He co-founded Origin Medsystems in the late 1980s, a venture-funded medical technology startup acquired by Eli Lilly & Company in 1992. At Guidant, he served on the Management Committee and as President of several divisions, including the Minimally Invasive Surgery Group and Heart Rhythm Technologies. At Guidant, Watkins initiated the development of minimally invasive vein harvesting technology that has been used to treat more than three million patients worldwide, and co-founded Gynecare, a women's health company that was spun out, taken public, and subsequently acquired by Johnson & Johnson. As a General Partner at De Novo Ventures, he represented the firm's investments in several healthcare companies including Lumend (sold to Johnson and Johnson), Precision Light (sold to Allergan), and Loma Vista (sold to C.R. Bard). He also served as founding president of Compass, Guidant's corporate business development and new ventures group, where he led venture investments in 14 companies including Impella (acquired by Abiomed; NASDAQ: ABMD) and Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG). Watkins received his B.A. from Stanford University and MBA from Harvard Business School. He teaches at the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign and is a Lecturer in Management at Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Dr. Ori Belson is a Principal at Sonder Capital focused on investments in medical technology and AI-enabled healthcare. With a unique background spanning both engineering and medicine, he works across venture investing and company building to develop and scale solutions addressing unmet clinical needs. Dr. Belson is a co-founder of Capelli Bio and founder and CEO of Speak2 Systems, bringing hands-on operational experience to his investment thesis. He currently serves as a Board Observer at Cordance Medical and as a consultant to Santé Ventures, while also advising several private and public healthcare companies on product development and clinical validation strategies. Dr. Belson holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University and an M.D. from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. He is a Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellow and holds utility and provisional patents across multiple therapeutic areas. His research has been published in leading journals covering cardiology, orthopedics, and ophthalmology, reflecting his broad expertise in bringing novel medical technologies from concept to clinical implementation.

Lisa Carmel is a chair in the Department of Business Development, leading strategic partnerships across Mayo Clinic’s global enterprise to include medtech, biopharma, diagnostics, healthcare IT and AI, as well as health services, automation and robotics. In her role, she is focused on developing and expanding transformative partnerships and business deals, with a keen interest in mission-critical initiatives, such as Mayo Clinic’s ‘Bold. Forward. Unbound. Hospital of the Future.’ Lisa brings more than 30 years of experience in healthcare product commercialization and innovation, working with companies across the U.S., Europe and China. She has advised numerous startups and accelerators, including California Life Sciences’ FAST program and MedTech Innovator. She co-chairs the MedTech Women’s Advisory Board, serves on the Governing Board for BioLabs – Rochester MN in collaboration with Mayo Clinic, and is an advisor to the Cleveland Clinic MedTech Advisory Board and UCLA Biodesign. Passionate about emerging healthcare innovation trends, Lisa frequently speaks at industry events, authored a blog and podcast, and chairs key healthcare conferences.