The Future of Careers in MedTech: Transitioning from a Linear to a Non-Linear Mindset

The first catheter was invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1752.

The first scalpel was used around 500 BC and the first disposable scalpel was introduced in 1915.

The first syringe used for injections was invented in the mid 1800’s.

The core of these technologies has not changed much. Neither has most of the industry.

Until very recently, a majority of medical devices have been mechanical in nature. The industry has made products by extruding, molding, machining, and joining a series of these components together to make a medical device.

Companies would dominate a market by being able to design and develop these products having world class processes in place that would manufacture them quicker, cheaper, more reliably. Then with a sales force and a supply chain in place to get them sold and moved along to customers through planes, trains and automobiles.

For the most part, the entire medical device industry has been built around this mechanical mindset. A company’s organizational structure, locations, supply chain, business development efforts, merger & acquisition activities and leadership practices have been cemented in place in order to squeeze the pennies out of the nickels by making “things”.

The medical device industry has lived exclusively in a linear growth mindset. We have experienced 150 years of technology growth in the past 150 years. It is not our fault. Human beings live and think intuitively in a linear view.

Enter the massive curveball of the 21st century. Medical robotics, data and predictive analytics, imaging & navigation, sensors and cloud computing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence all represent technologies whose growth is one of an exponential in nature. Long range forecasts tend to underestimate the power of future technologies because we are biased towards intuitive linear views.

Extinction is often caused by a change in environmental conditions. When conditions change, some adapt and some do not. A large part of this is based upon the rate of change of the conditions, that’s called evolution. However, if conditions change more quickly than something can evolve and the species does not have the traits that are required to survive in the new environment, you end up at extinction.

The medical device industry has lived exclusively in a linear growth mindset. We have experienced 150 years of technology growth in the past 150 years. It is not our fault. Human beings live and think intuitively in a linear view.

A perfect storm of opportunity is brewing. Individuals are more than happy to share their personal data at a super low friction point. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are being incorporated into everyday living as well as medical devices. We are living in the most connected time ever in human history and those connections are growing exponentially. Big tech / big data companies are very interested and entering into the medical device market. The good news is that Google, Apple, IBM, Microsoft and Amazon do not want to become medtech companies. They want to partner with them. It will be fascinating to watch the linear thinking innovation minded leadership of classic medtech interact with the non-linear thinking innovation minded leadership of big tech.

The greatest medtech career opportunities as well as investment opportunities of all time will be declaring themselves over the next decade. Smaller more agile companies that will provide the software, firmware, algorithms and UI/UX products will form a new category of medical device companies. No clinical trials, no FDA approvals, no manufacturing footprints as burdens on the teams. These companies will be developing software and firmware technologies with data driven exponential capabilities that will provide the bridge between big tech and medtech.

Just wait until the investment community finally has the vision to jump into this space. No longer will medtech be hog-tied by the VC’s who have been less than thoughtful in the space. A good number of those investment firms will disappear as well.

It will be fascinating to watch the linear thinking innovation minded leadership of classic medtech interact with the non-linear thinking innovation minded leadership of big tech.

I believe that this shift in the environment will appear to have things worse than better for some of the larger corporations. The slower moving and therefore less adaptable organizations will spend time defending their current position and get caught up in protecting the very thing that makes them weak.