About this episode
Innovation in the healthcare sector takes time—with companies devoting long hours to research and clinical trials while adapting to regulatory changes along the way. Leo Rapallini at Medtronic in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA discusses how his team upgraded the world’s smallest pacemaker for a bigger share of the market. He talks about how company culture and a passionate, multidisciplinary team helped the organization deliver disruptive innovation. Andy Molnar at UVD Robots in Boston, Massachusetts, USA shares how the company scaled up to meet a global increase in demand for its autonomous disinfection robot. He also discusses how he sees bots helping humans do more strategic work in healthcare. Key themes [02:16] Staging development: Starting pacemaker innovation with the Micra VR [06:08] Micra AV: Giving a tiny pacemaker an upgrade [08:25] Company culture, passionate team key to disruptive innovation [12:07] COVID-19 shines spotlight on sanitation across industries [14:13] How UVD Robots scaled up to meet spike in demand [19:06] Robots not taking over—helping humans do value-added work in healthcare