Fogarty Innovation

04/20/2026

Most breakthrough ideas don’t fail because the science is wrong—they stall because the early questions go unanswered.

☑️ Is the unmet need significant and well-defined?
☑️ Where does this solution fit in the clinical workflow?
☑️ What are the regulatory and reimbursement pathways?
☑️ What evidence will be required to move forward?
☑️ And critically: is this idea worth pursuing?

For the past five years, John Morriss, Director of Fogarty Innovation's Invention Acceleration Program (IAP), and engineer-in-residence Bernie Andreas, have worked side-by-side with researchers and clinicians to pressure-test and de-risk promising ideas by answering these questions at the earliest stage. Through structured validation, market analysis, and expert mentorship, the partnership program helps innovators determine not just how to move forward—but whether they should.

The result: stronger foundations, smarter decisions, and a clearer path from concept to company.

Learn how IAP, together with partners like Stanford Biodesign, is transforming early ideas into real ventures:

Many breakthrough medical technologies begin with a moment of insight. A clinician encounters a persistent problem in patient care and develops an idea for a better solution. Or a researcher develops a new technology and realizes it could transform how disease is diagnosed or treated. But promising....

04/20/2026

And it's a wrap! The Dartmouth 3D Scholars closed out their visit to Fogarty Innovation with a candid Q&A with startup leaders, followed by a visit to EBR Systems, Inc. where they explored the realities of bringing a medical device to U.S. commercialization and saw a live demo of the WiSE system: a tiny, leadless pacemaker designed to work with existing devices to enable bi-ventricular pacing.

The experience continued at Stanford Biodesign, where scholars dug into the discipline of innovation and how to evaluate which ideas are worth pursuing.

Key lessons:
🩺 There are many ways to contribute to the innovation ecosystem
💡 Not every great idea makes a great company
🌎 The startup journey is long, nonlinear, and deeply meaningful

Led by Aaron Kaplan MD and Emily Zeitler MD MHS, 3D Scholars is a program from Dartmouth Health and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth that prepares physicians to become innovation leaders. Learn more: https://www.3d-scholars.org/

04/14/2026

Welcome! The inaugural class of 3D Scholars, a program from Dartmouth Health and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth that prepares physicians to become innovation leaders, arrived at Fogarty Innovation for their second retreat; this time a deep dive into the practical realities of the medtech startup world.

We opened with an interactive session on Fogarty’s model—integrating education, incubation, and strategic alliances to move ideas from concept to adoption. The Scholars then presented their Capstone projects to the Fogarty team, who offered insights, encouragement, and real-world watch-outs.

Over the course of the retreat, Scholars will engage with Fogarty experts across the full startup lifecycle—from product development and early-stage fundraising to commercialization. The experience also extends beyond the classroom, with visits to EBR Systems, Inc. and Stanford Biodesign.

Stay tuned for more updates! And in the meantime, you can learn more about the 3D Scholars Program here: https://www.3d-scholars.org/

04/14/2026

04/09/2026

If your words and your body language don’t match, your body language wins. That’s why we coach our innovators on presence—it directly shapes how confident and credible you appear.

At a recent Lunch & Learn, Matt Abrahams, Lecturer in Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business, shared valuable tips on this topic:

In person:
• Stand “big” by pulling your shoulder blades down
• Place your hands either at your sides or at your midline (around your belly button)
• Stand with feet parallel under your shoulders, with one foot slightly forward to prevent swaying

On Zoom:
• Fill about half the screen with your body
• Raise your camera to eye level to create natural eye contact
• Use a real background, rather than something fake or blurred, to increase credibility and reduce distraction.

Bottom line - make sure how you say things adds to your message, rather than taking away from it.

👉Learn more - read Matt's Book "Think Faster, Talk Smarter," or tune into his podcast by the same name.

👉Sign up to get notified of all our free educational events:

04/06/2026

“A lot of people can identify a problem, but Tom got to the essence of what the problem was, which not many people can see.” - Andrew Cleeland

A lovely tribute to Dr. Fogarty in The Lancet that beautifully captures his ethos, accomplishments, and legacy. Thank you to writer Andrew Green who interviewed Cleeland, Tom Krummel, and Liz McDermott, among others.

Cardiovascular surgeon who invented the Fogarty catheter and was a pioneer in minimally invasive surgery. Born on Feb 25, 1934, in Cincinnati, OH, USA, he died on Dec 28, 2025, in Los Altos, CA, USA, aged 91 years.

04/02/2026

We are thrilled to announce that NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN for the 2026 Thomas J. Fogarty Innovation Prize, honoring an innovator or team that has developed and brought to market a life-changing medical technology.

Established through a founding grant from the Linda and Mike Mussallem Foundation, the award includes an unrestricted $100,000 cash prize, a custom-cast bronze medal, and a black-tie celebratory dinner and award ceremony that brings together leaders from across the medtech industry. More: bit.ly/Fogarty_Prize_2026

04/01/2026

"You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore." – André Gide

"As healthcare innovators, we are constantly searching for new solutions that improve care for patients and support the physicians who treat them. Doing that well means being willing to challenge the status quo—a bold move in healthcare where following established guidelines is the norm and the cost of getting it wrong is high.

Progress in healthcare has always required courage. Tom Fogarty’s revolutionary approach to vascular surgery—the balloon embolectomy catheter—and the era of minimally invasive procedures it initiated, is a prime example. But while transformative change that benefits human health requires a willingness to 'lose sight of the shore,' it also requires never losing sight of why we do what we do. As Tom often reminded us: if patients win, the rest usually follows.

Today, we are confronting an even more sweeping paradigm shift -- the rise of AI. Its potential is profound. AI can help us address some of healthcare’s most pressing challenges: an aging population, the growing burden of chronic disease, and persistent inequities in access and outcomes. It may also help us move from treating illness to predicting and preventing it.

While I admit that worries about how AI will be used or misused sometimes keep me up at night, I am committed to the journey. By leading with the same bold spirit that has always driven progress in healthcare, we can help shape how these tools are developed and applied—safely, thoughtfully, and always with patients at the center.

There is another quote I like, this one from Eric Topol, MD: 'Artificial intelligence has the potential to restore the humanity in medicine.' That is our goal. On its own, AI cannot fix healthcare. But used thoughtfully, it can help us build a system that works better for the people it serves."

- Andrew

The above is an excerpt from Andrew Cleeland CEO's column in our monthly newsletter. To receive it in your inbox directly, you can sign up here: https://www.fogartyinnovation.org/get-involved/

03/30/2026

On Doctors' Day, we'd like to thank our chief medical officer Zachary Edmonds, MD, MBA, and vice chairman of the board Fred St. Goar, MD, for all they do to help train the next generation of entrepreneurs and support our mission to advance human health. We couldn't do it without you!

03/23/2026

Did you ever wish you could think faster and talk smarter? Especially when you need to speak up spontaneously? Tomorrow is your chance to learn from the master - Matt Abrahams, lecturer at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, author and podcast host! Join us from 12:30 - 2pm at Fogarty Innovation (includes lunch), or on Zoom (lunch is on you).

Email fogarty-education@fogartyinnovation.org by 4:00pm today to join us in person, or by 10am tomorrow to join us online! We can't wait to learn with you!

03/19/2026

"Tom dedicated his life to improving patient care. As a cardiovascular surgeon, a gifted engineer, and a relentless innovator, he transformed medicine. He reshaped surgical practice. He saved and improved the lives of millions around the world. And perhaps most powerfully, he inspired generations of innovators to keep asking the question he never stopped asking: Is there a better way?"
- Andrew Cleeland

Thank you, team LSI, for honoring Dr. Fogarty at the LSI USA '26 Emerging Medtech Summit this week. Your kind, t

03/18/2026

Mayo Clinic’s "Hospital of the Future" was the topic of a provocative Lunch & Learn last week. Leaders Peter Noseworthy, MD and Sanjay Bagaria, MD joined us to discuss Mayo's $6B investment to transform its physical infrastructure across campuses, and the accompanying opportunities for medtech companies to partner with them in new ways. Some takeaways:

➡️ Care will increasingly start at home.
Mayo is moving toward a model where patient care begins remotely, long before a patient arrives on campus. The goal is to blur the boundaries between digital and physical care, inpatient and outpatient care, and hospital and home, so that care is longitudinal and visits are coordinated and highly efficient once patients arrive.

➡️ Hospital rooms are becoming “smart” care environments.
At Mayo’s Jacksonville campus, hospital rooms include sensors, computer vision, and displays connected to the EMR that improve patient safety and help patients understand their medications, tests, and daily care plans. The physical design deliberately fades all of this technology into the background, so the focus is on the interaction between patient and clinician.

➡️ Healthcare delivery is becoming distributed.
Through its Mayo Clinic Beyond Walls program, Mayo is delivering hospital-level services in patients’ homes, enabled by a network of local care delivery partners. This approach will be increasingly used for consultative work (as opposed to surgical and procedural care), enabled by technology and made more actionable by leveraging data in new ways, like applying AI algorithms to ECG data for new insights.

After the presentation, our CEO Andrew Cleeland led an even wider-ranging discussion that explored structural forces reshaping healthcare and the challenge of integrating rapidly advancing technologies without losing the human elements of care.

Thanks to all for a meaningful conversation!