‘Meeting Patients Where They Are’

MD+DI readers responding to the annual Medical Design Excellence Awards survey selected Medtronic's CareLink SmartSync Device Manager as this year’s Readers’ Choice winner, calling it an “excellent digital idea” and recognizing it for its “intuitive design and ease of use” and its “focus on human centered design.” (Medtronic dominated the MDEAs this year with several awards including Best in Show and MD+DI Readers' Choice awards.) 

“The ability to check a pacemaker, ICD, or IRL with an ipad with extremely reliable bluetooth connection makes clinic flow and surgical implantation very easy and very precise! Game changer,” noted one reader in our survey. “First mobile programming system for CIED implants and follow-up. Enables distance implant and follow-up during COVID,” added another.

“Being able to leverage the resilience of this kind of system allowed for adaptability in a year where everyone needed help accommodating change,” explained a respondent.

To learn more about CareLink SmartSync and why digital health and remote programming and monitoring is so important today, MD+DI spoke with Dr. Kweli P. Thompson, General Manager, Defibrillation Solutions, Medtronic. He leads the Medtronic Cardiac Rhythm Management Defibrillation Solutions Business, which focuses on implantable defibrillation, pacing, and resynchronization therapies. He also serves on the leadership team for the African Descent Network and the Advisory Council for the PRIDE Network.

Previously, Thompson led the Medtronic Cardiac Resynchronization Therapies business, and he has served as Group Vice President of Clinical Affairs for the Cardiac and Vascular Group, which is focused on Aortic and Peripheral Vascular Therapies, Coronary and Structural Heart Therapies, and Cardiac Rhythm and Heart Failure Therapies. Before leading the Cardiac and Vascular Group Clinical Research Organization, Thompson served in several leadership roles within Medtronic.

Before joining Medtronic, Thompson served as a Research Fellow in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Department of Preventive Medicine and as a Health Policy Analyst and Team Leader at the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy in Boston. He completed a Doctor of Medicine and Master’s in Public Health in a combined degree program at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. He earned a Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Harvard College.

In the podcast, Thompson explores how the CareLink SmartSync’s portable tablet-based programming enables clinicians to “meet patients where they are.” Click below to listen.