Fogarty Innovation

03/09/2026

Welcome! Maguro Surgical Inc., a startup founded by urologists and scientists at Stanford University, has joined Fogarty Innovation’s Company Accelerator Program (CAP). The company is developing a first-of-its-kind magnetic retrieval device for endoscopic kidney stone fragment removal. Its groundbreaking technology—the MagStone System—deploys a magnetic coating to magnetize the individual stone fragments and then retrieves the fragments with a specialized wire with a magnetic tip.

Maguro Surgical is a graduate of Fogarty’s Invention Accelerator Program (IAP). During the program, IAP director John Morriss supported the team in developing a regulatory strategy, identifying suppliers, and testing their value proposition within the medical community. Reflecting on the experience, founder and CEO, Dr. Kunj Sheth, observed, “Our time in IAP helped shift our mindset from an academic endeavor to a commercially viable opportunity that can meaningfully improve patient care.”

At Fogarty, the Maguro team will focus on accelerating their preclinical work to reach first-in-human studies while also completing the close of their $4 million seed round. CAP is a six-month program for early-stage companies designed to help them achieve specific objectives within their broader business plan.

The Maguro Surgical team includes Daniel Massana Roquero, PhD, founder and director of R&D; Eric Johnson, principal engineer; Jon-Michael Knapp, PhD, chief of staff; Jessie Ge, MD, founder and consulting director of regulatory strategy; and Joseph Liao, MD, founder and consulting director of clinical affairs. Thomas Cutro, a masters student at Stanford School of Engineering, is also working with the team.

03/04/2026

What does it take for innovative health technologies to succeed globally? This week in Tokyo, Fogarty Chief Commercial Strategy Officer Marga Ortigas-Wedekind and CMO Zachary Edmonds, MD, MBA joined leaders from across academia, startups, and industry at Japan Biodesign Tokyo　東京大学ジャパン・バイオデザイン Healthtech Innovation Day 2026, to discuss scaling to global markets and share Fogarty’s track record of high-touch programs that nurture global innovators. Zach and Marga also enjoyed a tour of the impressive hospital at The University of Tokyo / UTokyo!

03/03/2026

Welcome! AVaTAR MedTech, led by co-founder and CEO Tomás Armendariz Armendariz and co-founder and CSO Ignacio Lugones, MD, has joined Fogarty Innovation’s Company Accelerator Program (CAP). The company is taking aim at valvular heart disease, combining a novel surgical method and set of innovative medical devices to enable aortic or pulmonary valve reconstruction using autologous tissue.

The approach was pioneered by Lugones, a pediatric and congenital cardiac surgeon, who sought to address limitations in valve reconstruction options for children. Currently, procedures for pediatric patients are complicated by a lack of appropriately sized valves and children’s natural, rapid growth. AVaTAR’s approach also has applications for adults.

CAP is a six-month program designed to help early-stage companies achieve specific objectives within their broader business plan. AVaTAR MedTech is participating as part of Fogarty Innovation’s partnership with the UCSF-Stanford Pediatric Device Consortium, in which Fogarty supports pediatric device startups by providing four in-depth physicals annually and selecting one company for a longer collaboration.

The UCSF-Stanford Pediatric Device Consortium aims to improve pediatric health by accelerating the development of high-value pediatric device technologies across the product lifecycle. The program is funded by the FDA Office of Orphan Products Development.

03/03/2026

Why do managers from companies like Fogarty Innovation, Imperative Care, Longitude Capital, Pulmonx, Shifamed, Shockwave Medical, and Triple Ring Technologies send their interns to the DxD HealthTech Exploration Workshop?

Find out how this immersive, two-day experience hosted at Fogarty Innovation adds value to your summer internship program and sets your interns up for long-term success in the industry.

Company Info Session:
🗓️ Tuesday, March 17, 2026
🕛 Noon PT
💻 Online

Register: https://fogartyinnovation-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/3qTkEDmIQM2u7d632BJw1g?_x_zm_rtaid=pQca2x54QMuj1RRvLlzGhg.1770675643423.fa16ce161c8a54d0a46601fa9979d52a&_x_zm_rhtaid=230 #/registration

02/27/2026

“It takes just a huge amount of effort to take a relatively straightforward device to the patient’s bedside.”
— James Dunn, MD, PhD

Translating innovation into real-world care is never simple — especially in pediatric medicine, where the need is urgent and regulatory and clinical pathways are especially complex.

Congratulations to Fogarty company-in-residence Eclipse Regenesis, led by CEO Andre Bessette, on being featured in Stanford Medicine Magazine for advancing innovation in short bowel syndrome treatment. The company’s investigative Eclipse XL1 System is a first-of-its kind, device-based therapy for SBS designed to stimulate the body to regenerate lost small intestine.

Moving a pediatric device from concept to reality requires grit, tenacity, resilience, and an unwavering commitment to patients and families. As the article underscores, it also helps to have an ecosystem of support.

To date, Eclipse has treated ten pediatric patients through both the FDA compassionate use pathway and as participants in its FDA-approved investigational study.

You can read the story from writer Erin Digitale here: https://stanmed.stanford.edu/accelerating-approval-pediatric-medical-devices-short-gut/

Stanford Medicine Children's Health
Stanford Biodesign
Stanford Medicine

A spring that lengthens intestine to treat short gut moves from lab to life at Stanford Medicine as innovators tackle the pediatric medical device gap.

02/27/2026

02/25/2026

Dr. Tom Fogarty would have turned 92 today. In honor of, we collected some of his legendary quotes and observations. You can read them here:

Most people know Dr. Fogarty as a visionary and a trailblazer. Someone whose impact on medtech and healthcare is unsurpassed. And someone who has been described as “about as touchy-feely as a steel screw.” But not everyone was privy to his other sides. As Casey McGlynn said, “He had a big ba...

02/25/2026

We are deeply grateful to the entire community who joined us on Monday afternoon to remember and celebrate Dr. Tom Fogarty. Together with friends, colleagues, mentees, and family, we shared stories of his accomplishments, generosity, and mischief. An iconoclast with singular perspective, legendary grit, and a compassionate heart, Tom forged a new era of endovascular care and physician innovation, strengthening collaboration and mentorship across the ecosystem. Let's keep telling the stories and carrying his lessons forward. ❤️

02/25/2026

“When I asked him what was the hardest thing about innovating, he said:

'The problem is you’re always pushing back against the establishment. You’re telling the experts that what they’re doing isn’t good enough. The challenge is changing the status quo.'” —a conversation with Tom Fogarty, MD, as recalled by Tom Krummel, MD.

Tom wasn’t afraid to challenge orthodoxy. He questioned accepted surgical standards, pushed against regulatory inertia, and encouraged physicians to see themselves not just as practitioners, but as inventors capable of expanding their impact.

In our latest article, "The Visionary Physician Who Changed Medicine and Silicon Valley," six of Tom's colleagues share stories of boldness, conviction, humor, and humility, offering firsthand insight into a man who asked tough questions, trusted his instincts, and wasn’t afraid to ruffle feathers.

You can read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/gwwuwJFK

02/20/2026

What was it like being mentored by Dr. Tom Fogarty?
For founders like Brian Fahey, Fletcher Wilson, Jonathan Coe, Gabriel Sanchez, and Véronique Peiffer, it looked something like this:

He would walk into meetings uninvited, critique your prototype on the fly, and then pose a single question that made you realize how much you didn’t know. He might write a $50K check to help you reach your next milestone—and then charge you 25 cents for a chocolate malt ball from the gumball machine in the office.

He was relentless in his focus on the patient and unwavering in his belief that there must be a better way. He loved mentoring, a bit of mischief, and bringing people together at the end of the day.

Because medtech innovation is “damn hard,” he built a community grounded in mentorship and camaraderie, where entrepreneurs help each other win. In doing so, he multiplied his impact far beyond any single product.

Read the story:

There is a  cohort of medtech entrepreneurs who, as Gen Xers, weren’t around during Tom Fogarty’s heyday as an innovator. They launched their careers in an ecosystem he had already helped shape with transformational technologies: the balloon catheter that ushered in a new era of endovascular an...

02/18/2026

We were thrilled to host a delegation of officials, researchers, fellows, and first-time CEOs from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED); Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Japan Biodesign Tokyo　東京大学ジャパン・バイオデザイン last week.

The half-day gathering introduced participants to the early-stage U.S. medtech ecosystem, encouraged them to take on the challenging—but rewarding—innovation journey, and helped spark meaningful connections. The visit featured opening remarks from Marga Ortigas-Wedekind, presentations from Fogarty companies-in-residence G-Tech Medical and Auricle, and small-group sessions where visiting entrepreneurs shared ideas and received feedback from Fogarty staff.