Once-A-Year Opportunity for MedTech & Digital Health Investors & Companies

Ray Briscuso

Interview with Ray Briscuso, Executive Vice President of AdvaMedBy Dennis Ford, Founder and CEO of Life Science Nation, Creator of the RESI Conference Series

Dennis Ford

Dennis Ford (DF): I’m joined today by Ray Briscuso, Executive Vice President of AdvaMed and the person responsible for AdvaMed conferences and events, including The MedTech Conference taking place October 8-11 in Anaheim, CA.  If you are a medtech or digital health investor or company, you will want to listen to this interview and perhaps take advantage of this once-a-year opportunity.

Ray, for those that don’t know AdvaMed how you would describe your organization:

Ray Briscuso (RB): Thank you Dennis, it’s always a pleasure to spend time with you and I appreciate the chance to sit and talk with you today. To answer your question, AdvaMed is short for the Advanced Medical Technology Association.  We are the world’s largest trade organization representing medical device, diagnostic and digital health companies.  In all we represent over 475 manufacturers and developers including most of the leading global strategics including J&J, Medtronic, Abbott, BD, Stryker, B. Braun, Siemens Healthineers, Boston Scientific, Edwards Lifesciences, Philips, Zimmer Biomet, Smith + Nephew, Alcon, Roche Diagnostics, Danaher, Intuitive, Integra, Teleflex, Terumo, Olympus, Cardinal Health , Baxter, Hologic, GE Healthcare, Google, Amazon and Apple plus more than two hundred early-stage entrepreneurial companies.  AdvaMed advocates for patient access to safe, effective, and innovative medical technologies that save and improve lives.  We also convene the industry, build consensus, and promote the growth of the medtech industry.

DF: Ray, you’ve been with AdvaMed for 15+ years, and you’ve spent more than 30 in the life science space, for an aspiring CEO or medtech inventor, do you have any words of wisdom on how they can take those necessary big leaps that are required to succeed in this industry?

RB: Happy to try – for starters, be a part of the community, attend industry gatherings and get to know your peers and network and build relationships throughout the entire ecosystem. Get to know investors, payers, regulators, service providers, and of course peers.  If you live in Massachusetts, join MassMEDIC, if you live in Minnesota join Medical Alley – nearly every cluster and/or state and region has an organization that gathers your peers and enablers, and you should join your local peers and consider joining AdvaMed.  Learn from your peers, network, and share.  Go to key industry events and build relationships. You and LSN do a terrific job with your RESI series, and I am very proud of The MedTech Conference and the events produced by AdvaMed. The MedTech Conference annually gathers 3000+ attendees including some 500 medtech CEOs, over 250 investors and key decision makers from every sector and all parts of the ecosystem including regulators, payers, contract designers and manufacturers.

DF: The MedTech Conference promotes itself as “the annual meeting of the medical technology industry.” With all the health care meetings and conferences taking place throughout the year, what makes this event special?

RB: The MedTech Conference is unique in that CEOs, heads of business development, regulatory agency heads, investors are all here and all accessible and not hidden or kept behind locked doors or private rooms.  You see them in the hall, you sit and talk to them on the conference floor, everyone is here, and everyone is accessible.  The unique feature is that The MedTech Conference is organized by industry and is for industry, our board of directors attends, and we address the real and timely issues, and we get the best and most dynamic speakers. 

RB: Who should attend the MedTech conference and why?

RB: Easy – everyone that is a decision maker or will be a decision maker should attend.  This is not just CEOs, but heads of regulatory affairs, executives responsible for payment policy, compliance, legal, market access, business development, investments, etc.

DF: Why should CEOs and investors in particular attend the conference?

RB: This will be the 17^th MedTech Conference. It’s evolved and it gets better every year. Some of the newer features that excite most include two Fireside chats moderated by bank analysts.  Steve MacMillan, CEO of Hologic and Peter Arduini, CEO of GE Healthcare are each delivering one.  A keynote being moderated by Citi’s analyst feature’s Ashely McEvoy, Worldwide chairman of J&J MedTech, Kevin Lobo, Chair and CEO of Stryker and Geoff Martha, Chair and CEO of Medtronic.  I think feature that will most excite the RESI community is our Reverse Pitch series.  Companies delivering these forward-thinking pitches are among the most active in the M&A space and include:. 

• Alcon
• Blackstone Lifesciences
• Boston Scientific
• Edwards Lifesciences
• GE Healthcare
• Haemonetics
• Johnson & Johnson
• Medtronic
• Olympus
• ResMed
• Siemens
• Stryker
• Gore
• ZOLL

Business gets down all day long – from breakfast through the late night.  One event not to be missed will be a fun concert event at The House of Blues featuring Fitz and The Tantrums – this is an internationally acclaimed pop indie band.  There is something for everyone, device, digital health and diagnostic.

DF: I’ve attended nearly every year and frankly find it to be the among the best bargains and wisest uses of time. It is as you described a for-industry-by-industry event. What is the secret to the success of the conference?

RB: The secret sauce – the one time and place to see the entire ecosystem and all stakeholders… Because the AdvaMed Board of Directors, Accel, Dx, Digital Board all meet in conjunction with the conference the leaders of industry are here …

DF: As a long-time partner of LSN and RESI, is there anything special you can offer our community?

RB: Dennis, we do have a great relationship and it dates to the very first RESI conference.  If any of member your community is not already registered and wants to join us for The MedTech Conference in Anaheim this October 8-11, they may register at www.themedtechconference.com and use CODE “LSN25” to receive a discount of 25%.