EPISODE 024
Abbott’s move to acquire St. Jude demonstrates how Medtronic’s moves toward “Total Solutions” may change the game in Medtech. We’re going to tackle that topic at the June 1 Medtech Conference. Our conference co-chairs – Justin Klein, MD, of NEA and Kevin Hykes of Versant Ventures – discuss that piece of our upcoming agenda as well as our focus on robotics.
Podcast Guest
Justin Klein, MD, JD
Partner
NEA
Justin joined NEA in 2006 and is a Partner on the healthcare team. He focuses on medical device, healthcare technology and biopharmaceutical company investments. He serves as a director of Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics, Cartiva, ChromaCode, FIRE1, Intact Vascular, Personal Genome Diagnostics, PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, Relievant Medsystems, Senseonics (NYSE: SENS), VertiFlex, Vesper Medical and VytronUS. Justin’s past board memberships and investments include CV Ingenuity (acquired by Covidien), Nevro (NYSE: NVRO), Topera (acquired by Abbott), TriVascular (NASDAQ: TRIV)i and Ulthera (acquired by Merz). He is also a member of the advisory boards for the National Venture Capital Association’s Medical Industry Group and its Medical Innovation and Competitiveness Coalition (MedIC), as well as a member of AdvaMed’s Business Development Committee.
Prior to NEA, Justin worked for the Duke University Health System—reporting directly to the hospital CEO on health system strategy, finance and clinical service unit operations—as Duke built one of the nation’s first and largest healthcare integrated delivery systems. Justin concurrently earned his MD from the Duke University School of Medicine and his JD from Harvard Law School. He has also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Duke University, where he earned his AB in Economics and his BS in Biological Anthropology and Anatomy.
Kevin Hykes
President & CEO
Relievant Medsystems
Kevin Hykes is the CEO and President of Relievant Medsystems, a privately held medical device company that has developed the Intracept® procedure, a breakthrough treatment for chronic lower back pain. Prior to Relievant, Kevin was an Operating Partner at Versant Ventures and Chairman and CEO of Metavention, Inc., a privately held medical device company focused on the development of interventional therapies for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Kevin remains Chairman of the Board of Directors at Metavention. Prior to Metavention, Kevin was President and CEO of Cameron Health, developer of the subcutaneous implantable defibrillator, until its acquisition by Boston Scientific in 2012. Prior to Cameron Health, he was the Chief Commercial Officer of Visiogen, Inc., a privately held ophthalmology company which was acquired by Abbott Medical Optics in 2009. Previously, Kevin spent over sixteen years at Medtronic, where he held leadership positions in the CRM, Neurostimulation and Cardiac Surgery businesses in the US and Europe.
Kevin received his MBA from Northwestern University and a BBA from the University of Wisconsin. In addition to his role as Chairman of Metavention, Kevin serves as an independent board member at Veran Medical Technologies and the Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute Foundation.
Meet Our Host
Geoff Pardo
Geoff has been in medtech for over two decades in both operational and investment roles. He is passionate about the industry potential and sharing stories from the front lines of innovation.