TearLab CEO Adam Szaronos on his first 180 days and the company's path forward

Adam Szaronos took over as president and CEO of TearLab in November 2021. He has been at the company since 2020, when he joined as Chief Commercial Officer and oversaw the commercial restructuring and relaunch of TearLab's global diagnostics business. Before arriving at TearLab, he accumulated 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical, medical device, and medical technology sectors, most recently as Head of Dry Eye Devices at Alcon.??

You recently passed the 6-month milestone as CEO of TearLab. Has the CEO experience been what you expected??

It has definitely been a mix. I'm fortunate to have some great mentors and coaches and had the benefit of stepping into the role from a position within the organization already, so I felt I had a good starting grasp on the day-to-day operational requirements. However, the change itself brings a completely unique and unparalleled concept in a career journey, where suddenly you have no peers or boss within the company. Preparing for that type of psychological change was the primary advice I got from a lot of current and former CEOs. As a global company, there are always the critical must-do items requiring my attention, and a lot of things occupying my attention that probably shouldn’t be, so I’ve had to learn to compartmentalize and prioritize a bit differently. Most of all, it’s about having a great team in place you can trust and empower.?

What has surprised you the most about the company??

The passion of this team! I've been in the eye care industry a long time and know it’s a space with a very profound "why.” Everyone dedicates their careers here to helping to restore and advance vision — that’s an extremely powerful and emotional driver — so it's not uncommon to find an above-average level of dedication in this industry. At TearLab, however, I came in and observed an intensity of customer focus and passion which was beyond what I had experienced before.?

What is your leadership philosophy??

I’ve always liked the gardening analogy used by Pixar's co-founder, Ed Catmull. I start by making sure I have the right people in place who desire to create, grow, and have impact. If I’ve done this part well, my focus then shifts to managing and protecting the environment around them to nurture success – this means being fiercely committed to nourishing the culture of the company and having effective feedback systems in place, but also knowing my job is just as often about “removing the weeds” in the environment . . .? getting obstacles out of people’s way that are inhibiting their ability to create, grow, and have impact.

What is your philosophy on leading innovation??

The analogy of “rocket launches” is so prevalent when discussing new technology. I think this is misleading for medical devices, however. Before a rocket heads to the launch pad, there’s been a decade of investment and development, the trajectory has been perfectly calculated and pre-determined, and it’s about lighting the fuse and hoping the planning and preparations have been correct. In my opinion, that’s more appropriate for the development and commercialization path with pharmaceutical molecules.??

?In medical devices, much of that model flips. Innovation starts with a core insight and hypothesis around an unmet need, and everything then becomes a real-time process of rapid testing, learning, and iterating from that initial insight. Leading innovation in medical devices is much more like mountain climbing. There is no vertical trajectory to the top. If you look closely, the path to the top is actually a series of slight ascensions followed by pauses and even periods of momentary and intentional descensions. It’s a model designed to incrementally introduce pressure to a system and expose the cracks, it’s how the team acclimates and ultimately adapts. This view affects everything around how we evaluate ideas, structure teams, scale, and think about our product life cycles.?

What is your outlook for osmolarity testing??

Today, we’re seeing a significant change taking place as the once distinct worlds of refractive cataract surgery and ocular surface disease management have begun to merge. A healthy and stable tear film is critical for refractive outcomes, and this is why osmolarity matters. Toxic hyperosmolarity damages corneal cells and drive refractive instability. It’s a variable that needs to be identified and managed to normal levels to ensure stability of outcomes. For these reasons, it’s no surprise our fastest growing customer segment today are busy cataract/refractive practices. We expect this trend to continue, and our team is working hard to make sure we’re equipped to continue supporting this growing need for our customers.??

What are you most excited about going forward???

TearLab has had a long journey getting to where we are right now. It’s taken a lot of sweat equity from many individuals to bring the company to this point, which is a huge success story on its own. Today we have one of the most prevalent ocular surface devices in the world, with over 22 million lab tests done to date and growing.?

So, when I think about the future, it's exciting for me because it comes down to how we now leverage these hard-earned strengths: the credibility, trust, and high customer and patient interactions we’re fortunate to have around the world. These are invaluable steps toward building the world’s leading ocular surface disease company. Laboratory medicine is woefully underpenetrated in eye care relative to other medical specialties, and the unmet needs for providers and patients in ocular surface disease management are plentiful. We’re excited to play a part in addressing both of these aspects moving forward.??