Thomas Fogarty, MD on Overcoming Barriers to Innovation in Medtech

“In general, what we are dealing with now is a very difficult time, at least in the medical device industry, to innovate,” says legendary device inventor Thomas Fogarty, MD. Among those hurdles are funding difficulties and regulatory challenges that stretch from the FDA down to the hospital level. This is a topic Fogarty feels strongly about and, to offer medical device innovators a helping hand, he set up the Fogarty Institute for Innovation (Mountain View, CA), to help expedite the process of medtech innovation “quickly but safely.”

In this interview with MD+DI, MDEA Lifetime Achievement Award–winner Fogarty also shares his thoughts on the lack of basic clinical research, which limits physicians’ understanding. He also tackles the idea that medical devices aren’t tested, which he explains is not true. “That rarely happens. I would venture to say that happens maybe 0.5% of the time.”

Brian Buntz is the editor-at-large at UBM Canon's medical group. Follow him on Twitter at @brian_buntz.