Innovation in Cardiology--and Beyond.

01 Dec 2006

For years, cardiovascular devices were the main focus of venture investors and the start-ups they backed. But in recent years, innovation in cardiovascular has grown more challenging, perhaps in part because of the way drug-eluting stents have reshaped the market, while other clinical spaces have opened up as promising technological and commercials opportunities. In this discussion, a distinguished group of physicians, product developers, and entrepreneurs look at where innovation is going and the challenges small companies face.

Few would contest that the past quarter-century has seen an explosion of medical device technology that has brought incalculable benefit to patients and, despite some down times, abundant riches to inventors and the investors who’ve backed them. By its very nature, device innovation is incremental: most often serving as tools in the hands of skilled physicians and surgeons, innovative devices build on the clinical success of existing technology in enhancements large and small, though usually small. It is an innovation model that has served the device industry well.

And yet, despite the clinical advances and financial successes that have flowed from new technology, fostering meaningful innovation seems only...