The LATAM Medtech Leaders podcast features structured interviews with leaders in the medical technology and life science industries with meaningful experience or ambitious plans for clinical research in Latin America.
These interviews provide valuable insights for other leaders, helping them save time, avoid mistakes, and bring faster access to medical innovations for patients in Latin America.
Podcast Episodes
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About The Podcast
The LATAM Medtech Leaders podcast discusses the challenges faced by US and European medical technology (Medtech) companies trying to enter the Latin American market. Despite the region's rapidly aging population and increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, innovative medical technologies can take years to reach patients. This is due to a lack of cost-effective first-in-human clinical research centers and difficulty in gaining market share. As a result, patients in Latin America have delayed access to breakthrough medical technologies.
We created this podcast to provide quality, reliable, and actionable information that Medtech companies can leverage to penetrate the Latin American market and accelerate the availability of innovative medical technologies in the region.
Our Guests
Our guests are Medtech leaders (C-suite Executives, Vice Presidents, and Directors) with extensive experience (or ambitious plans) in Latin America. In structured interviews lasting 30-40 minutes, guests share their stories, experiences, plans, and best practices for the region. They cover important topics such as clinical trial investigation, regulatory approvals, and subject recruitment, providing actionable information for listeners.
Intended Audience
The intended audience of the podcast is decision-makers (CEOs, Presidents, Vice Presidents, and Directors) at developmental and commercial-stage US or European medical technology companies who are looking for best practices, and quality and actionable information to conduct either first-in-human (FIH) or early feasibility studies (EFS) in Latin America.
Are You a Medtech Leader?
WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOU AS A GUEST ON OUR PODCAST
Your journey and thoughts on the state of Latin America for Medtech clinical trials is invaluable to others in the industry. If you would like to share your insights, please apply below.
Our Guests
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EPISODE 98 : LUIS ALVAREZ
Luis is the CEO and Founder of Theradaptive and developed the concept for targeted therapeutic delivery during and following a combat tour in Iraq where several of his soldiers suffered severe extremity injuries. Previously, Luis was the co-founding Deputy Director of the Department of Defense Regenerative Medicine Program and led the department's largest recombinant biologics program through Phase II.
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EPISODE 97: ETIENNE NICHOLS
Etienne Nichols is a Medical Device Guru and Mechanical Engineer who loves learning and teaching how systems work together. He has manufacturing and product development experience, even aiding in developing combination drug-delivery devices, from startups to Fortune 500 companies, and holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. Etienne has managed cross-functional teams for updating legacy products as well as developing new medical devices.
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EPISODE 96: RUBEN GAITAN ORTIZ
Ruben is the CEO of Alandra Medical. He has dual qualifications in engineering and technology entrepreneurship combined with 16 years of experience in medical device development. Self-motivation, adaptability, trainability, and entrepreneurial drive are his key tools for achieving personal and business goals. Ruben started his career developing hardware and software for medical devices, spending countless hours reading scientific papers, twitching circuits, refining algorithms, and preparing technical reports to deliver products right on time.
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EPISODE 95: ERNESTO M. NOGUEIRA
Ernesto has 27 years of experience leading healthcare strategies to drive access and expansion for new products, developing value propositions for public and private stakeholders, and assessing global market opportunities for healthcare companies. He has worked for both government agencies and global healthcare companies in roles ranging from strategic marketing and new product development to health economics and reimbursement. Also, Ernesto led several Market Access projects across the US, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East; Ernesto is the CEO and Founder of ValueConnected.
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EPISODE 94: ANTONIO TRUJILLO
Dr. Antonio Trujillo is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Health with expertise in health economics, the economics of aging, and applied econometrics. Antonio is the co-director of the Master of Health Science (MHS) in Global Health Economics degree program. He teaches an advanced econometrics course on program impact evaluation using observational data and a course on behavioral economics and public health.
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EPISODE 93: CARLOS MEDINA
Carlos Medina is a Medical Doctor who works with health technology professionals to help them make the best technology for patient care available across Latin America. Carlos has witnessed the many benefits and risks that come with applying technology to solve health problems and is dedicated to helping others follow the best practices available and avoid the missteps that can derail their health technology problems. He has had the privilege to work with local and international companies across most countries in Latin America, helping them to achieve multi-million sales results and establish lasting and efficient global-local collaborations. He is a Licensed Medical Doctor in Mexico City.
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EPISODE 92: YOKU SASHIDA
Yoku Sashida is the CEO & Co-Founder at Kenko Solutions, a company dedicated to managing and developing biomedical projects based on technology. He is responsible for opening economic relationships, capturing technology-based projects, forming work teams to carry out technological development, and administrative and financial accounting. The first product of its own is ecglove, the wearable able to determine the state of the heart in less than 60 seconds.
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EPISODE 91: LUIS SANTIAGO
Luis Santiago is PEGASI's CEO and CTO. By training, he is a social communicator and marketing and public relations professor. By profession, he is a self-taught programmer, technology project manager, and Product Owner, with more than 14 years of experience in the area. He has ventured into banking, IT, and Digital Health. Luis was recognized in 2016 as one of the Young Leaders of the Americas by the American State Department, and in 2020 as one of the 35 Innovators under 35 in Latin America by the MIT Technology Review magazine. He has participated in dozens of international forums and events pointing out the importance of Healthcare digitalization in Latin America.
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EPISODE 90: DAVE DOLAN
Dave is the Co-Founder & Executive Chairman at MultiFunctional Imaging, a University of Utah startup company that provides software solutions for improving the efficiency and accessibility of multi-tracer imaging with PET, PET/CT, and PET/MRI scanners. Dolan’s career has been built on successes centering around the commercialization and customer adoption of innovative MedTech products/services. Spanning from Fortune 500 corporations through startups, businesses have benefitted from his track record of success in turning medical device innovation into record growth, high market share, and attractive market valuations.
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EPISODE 89: JOSH COHN
Josh Cohn has 15 years of experience in the medical device field, rising to National Sales Director of PENTAX Medical, a major endoscope provider. He has a strong history of leading successful sales organizations, building winning strategies, and launching disruptive programs aimed at changing marketplace conventions. As product champion and strategist for all EUS sales, he has attended hundreds of procedures and has established relationships with key opinion leaders, hospital and ASC administrators, and device distributors.
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EPISODE 88: DAVID BIGIO
Mr. Bigio is a professor in the biomedical engineering department, responsible for the Senior Capstone Design project. Currently, he is also serving as the department head. He comes to the university after having spent 30 years of professional experience working for large multinationals in different parts of the world, including the development of high technology start-ups in Silicon Valley, commercialization of technology used in large infrastructure projects, and coordinating strategic projects for a multinational consortium. Mr. Bigio clearly understands current challenges and opportunities in the biomedical engineering field. He is very focused on improving the education and skills of graduates in order to provide companies with better employees.
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EPISODE 87: WIDY MEDINA
Widy is the Co-Founder and CEO of two technology companies with vast experience ranging from robotics, product design, fabrication, and automation to the electronic assembly of consumer products, food and beverage tech, biotech, medical devices, and pharmaceutical industries. Widy spent 40+ years living in Puerto Rico, and 20+ supporting pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies with a presence in multiple Latin American locations. He led an automation firm that exposed him to FDA regulations, manufacturing, and compliance during that time. Today, he leads a medical device company with a unique RPM product to capture biomarkers and allow those to be maintained in a safe digital format for exchange with healthcare professionals or as a personal health tracking system.
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EPISODE 86: MAURICIO BERDUGO
Mauricio A. Berdugo, MD, MPH, is currently the Director of Medical Affairs at Humacyte, Inc. Mauricio has worked in different capacities within the CRO, pharma, diagnostics, and biotech industries in the USA and globally, including Latin America, Europe, and Asia over the past 9 years. His clinical and academic research stems from HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease, renal disease, and orthopedic spine surgery. Mauricio graduated from medical school at the Universidad Evangelica de El Salvador, completed his Master of Public Health degree from Kaplan University, and he is currently pursuing a Fellowship with the American College of Healthcare Executives.
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EPISODE 85: JAMES REINSTEIN
James has more than 25 years of medical device experience and is currently the CEO of Conformal Medical. Prior to joining Conformal, he led Saranas and private companies such as Drawbridge Health, and Aptus Endosystems as their President, CEO, and member of the board of directors. He held a similar role at the publicly traded medical laser company, Cutera from 2017 to 2019. He was part of the management team that led the turn-around at Cyberonics where he was the EVP & Chief Commercial Officer. James spent 17 years at Boston Scientific in various roles and functions including business development, marketing, and general management. Most of his career at Boston Scientific was spent working and living in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Additionally, Mr. Reinstein has served as a board director for several medical companies, including publicly traded Mainstay Medical in Dublin, Ireland, Pixium-Vision based in Paris, France, and Monteris Medical a privately held company located in Minnesota.
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EPISODE 84: GABRIEL GARZA
Gabriel Alejandro Garza Caro is Co-founder & Managing Director at DocTour who works with international travelers and tourists to solve their health problems during their travel. With innovation in tech & processes, a completely new hybrid model has been created to attend to all travelers’ medical needs. Gabriel believes that empowerment, teamwork, strategic planning, and communication are key fundamentals for startups to develop in order to establish early, the way to success in today’s health tech environment. Gabriel is trained in Business Process Management and in Project and Portfolio Management as a Project Management Officer. For Gabriel, the most rewarding part of his role is the ability to innovate and think out of the box to solve everyday business and market challenges.
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EPISODE 83: TOMÁS IGLESIAS
Tomás Iglesias is a medical doctor/master in hospital administration/Front-end developer. Tomás is the CEO of Zubia, LATAM's largest digital health marketplace a platform that connects digital health platforms with users that need their services. Currently in 25 countries with more than 400,000 visitors in 10 months from launch, and the co-founder and leader of HealthX, Mexico's largest health-tech community. Tomás is extremely passionate for helping others and connecting health with technology.
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EPISODE 82: ETHAN RUSSO & NISHI WHITELEY
Dr. Ethan Russo and Nishi Whiteley have worked together for almost 10 years in efforts to improve the scientific understanding of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) and how the cannabis plant modulates it, assist small and large cannabis companies in product formulation, advise companies on cannabis genetics enhancements, consult on pre-clinical and clinical research design.
“We share a vision of making cannabis better and safer believing in a future in which knowledge of the endocannabinoid system and its therapeutic modulation via the cannabis plant will result in superior highly individualized medicines, aids to wellness, enhanced lifestyles, and novel non-toxic industrial products”.
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EPISODE 81: THOMAS GIBSON
Thomas Gibson is the co-founder and chief executive officer at MedGlobal Group, a multisided marketplace for the medical industry. After spending 22 years as an executive for healthcare and hospital organizations, Thomas founded MedGlobal Group with his wife, Patricia, recognizing the need to use technology to help solve the challenges of making healthcare equipment, products, and services accessible to the world. Their international platforms combine technology and tools to help connect manufacturers and distributors with global buyers. Thomas and Patricia believe healthcare is more than a business, and we have a responsibility to ensure medical equipment and products are made available to all parts of the world.
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EPISODE 80: NICHOLAS FOCI
Nicholas Focil is the CEO at Fomat Medical Research, a network of research centers based in Oxnard, California. Nicholas graduated in California with a Biochemistry and MBA degree. During his undergrad days, he spent his extra time in a research lab working with a nominated noble laureate performing investigator-initiated studies and publishing weekly articles for a spectrum of publications. Was then recruited by Medtronic MiniMed Diabetes division to do pre-pivotal trials. Thereafter, was recruited for the purpose of managing and expanding Diverse Research Solutions. He then spearheaded the spinoff and expansion of FOMAT Medical Research through both the U.S. and Latin America with current operations in the USA (California and Florida), Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru. With well over a decade of research experience, Nicholas, as the CEO of Fomat Medical Research and proud founding partner of hyperCORE International, continues to innovate and pioneer clinical research in both regions.
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EPISODE 79: JAMES OHNECK
Jim Ohneck is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Epoch Lasers and holds a US patent for his unique Laser Therapy device for treating chronic pain. Jim holds degrees in Business Administration and Electronic Engineering and has thirty-five years of medical device development experience. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Laser Medicine & Surgery (ASLMS), a Member of the International Society of Optics and Photonics and of the International Microelectronic Packaging Association, and an Adjunct Faculty at Notre Dame College in Cleveland, OH where he teaches International Finance and Marketing.
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EPISODE 78: LUÍS MEIRELES
Luís Meireles is currently CEO and co-owner of MDI Industrial a Medical Device Industry in Brazil and a senior consultant for European companies. Luís is Portuguese, Ph.D. in Biotechnology but moved to Brazil, spending the last decade helping to introduce medical devices into Latin America he was responsible for the introduction of Mortara Instruments in Brazil with a successful plan growing from almost zero to one of the market leaders. He was a senior consultant for Hill-Rom visiting almost all countries in Latin America, being perfectly aware of the difficulties of implementing and growing the health market in LATAM, especially in Brazil.
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EPISODE 77: CHRISTIAN SUOJANEN
Christian is an entrepreneur and advisor in the bio, pharma, healthcare, and technology sectors with 20 years of strategic advisory, business creation, development, and operational experience. He works with biotech companies and VCs on business development and strategy, with industry on innovation, pipeline, and business development, with institutions on technology transfer & innovation, with governments, institutions, and systems on innovation strategy, policy, and ecosystem development, and has served on biotech, patient organization, and non-profit boards.
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EPISODE 76: MONA OLIVEIRA
Mona Oliveira is one of the creators and founders of the startup BIOLINKER, which in 2019 was awarded as one of the TOP 500 best startups in the world in the area of biotechnology for the project she coordinates. Double Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Nanotechnology from USP (Brazil) and IJS (Slovenia). During her academic career, she has accumulated awards and honors for performance and scientific excellence, publishing in annals and journals of international renown. Currently, he is Co-CEO of BIOLINKER acting in scientific operations and negotiations.
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EPISODE 75: STEVE SCALIA
Steve Scalia is the President of Tanner Pharma Group, a 20-year-old specialist pharmaceutical services provider headquartered in Charlotte, NC USA with offices in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Switzerland, and Ireland. Tanner provides a portfolio of service offerings focused on improving global access to medicines worldwide. In his role, Steve leads the company’s business activities with oversight of the commercial divisions, cross-functional departments, the Corporate Governance Team, and the Senior Management Team. Prior to joining Tanner Pharma in 2011, Steve founded three start-ups that included complex operating models and custom facilities requiring real estate development. Steve began his career in the pharmaceutical industry, holding sales and management positions at Upjohn Pharmaceuticals and Pharmacia Corp.
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EPISODE 74: JACOBO LUCHTAN
Jacobo Luchtan is the CEO and Co-Founder at HelloDoctor, a Mexican startup providing data-driven telehealth services. They operate in more than 10 Latin American countries and have successful cases with patients from each. They created a neutral bridge that connects patients and healthcare practitioners where they can provide online consultations, digital recipes, online pharmacies, track their medical records, and more. Jaco strongly believes that healthcare is a human right and anyone should have access to it, they developed a free online consultation service, where in 30 seconds you can speak to a practitioner from 5 different specialties. He is an industrial engineer, and technology fanatic and has been an entrepreneur all his life. Jaco implements innovative thoughts and technologies in order to create an incredible customer experience.
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EPISODE 72: ALVARO RINCÓN
For over 30 years Alvaro has been advising people and companies on Intellectual Property and Regulatory Affairs, developing strategies for companies to comply with the regulations and protect their assets. Alvaro has an extensive international experience with greater emphasis on the countries of America.
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EPISODE 71: JAY NADKARNI
Jay Nadkarni is a Business Consultant and Adviser to Life Science companies with Ambiance Ventures in Pennsylvania. He is also Managing Partner at Molecule Market OU in Estonia which serves Europe. Jay has 20+ years experience in multiple therapeutic areas in Product Development, Licensing and Global Marketing. He is an industry expert with unique abilities to validate and bridge market needs with pragmatic solutions and offer actionable proposals for measuring returns on investment. He and his team provide global services for licensing new molecules, biologics, drug delivery systems and diagnostics with a focus on Emerging Markets in CEE, Asia, and Latin America.
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EPISODE 70: THABATA CARUZO
Dr. Thabata Caruzo is a motivated professional with academic and industry experience, where she has worked in different roles, from scientific support/product specialist to marketing analyst, technical sales specialist, and sales and operation manager, for Brazil and LATAM. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences and a Ph.D. in Science (Virology) issued by the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and a Post-Doc concluded, as an Associated Researcher, also in Virology, at UNICAMP (Brazil).
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EPISODE 69: THOMAS GRANDELL
Thomas Grandell is the CEO and founder of Etsimo Healthcare Ltd, a Finnish company providing data-driven healthcare solutions to its customers with the help of AI and machine learning. Thomas strongly believes that the key to transforming healthcare lies in combining data, technology, and empathy. Thomas has an M.Sc Econ and has been an entrepreneur all his life. Thomas puts innovative thoughts and technologies to work to enable new ways of doing things, making the experience either faster, more cost-effective, better, or easier, or preferably all of these at the same time.
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EPISODE 68: MARCO PICCININI
Chief Executive Officer and Founder of a successful cutting-edge healthcare business spanning four countries on two continents. Additional experience includes asset management and investment banking in the UK and Switzerland and an MBA from the University of Oxford. Expertise in strategy, innovation, investment, scale-ups, and business development.
Humãnus Regenerative Medicine is a group of companies based in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. It is the first company to introduce adipose-derived stem cells therapies in Argentina & Paraguay.