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In the finale of From Idea to Market, the surgeons, engineers, founders, attorneys, and investors who lived every stage of medical device innovation look back and answer one question: what do they wish they had known from the start?

Across this series, one pattern kept surfacing: innovation doesn't begin with a business plan. It begins with a clinical problem someone can't let go — a resident watching a procedure that felt inadequate and carrying that feeling for twenty-five years, or a physician-turned-founder who couldn't stop thinking about a patient who lacked what she needed.

In this closing episode, Robert Cohen reflects on four decades in med tech and the permission to say "I don't know." Alexander Sah describes the emotional rollercoaster of introducing new technology — and knowing when to abandon an idea. Charlie DeCook and Simon Mifsud explain why the idea itself is never the advantage. Charles Lawrie distills the whole journey into a playbook: start with a problem you live, build with people who know what you don't, think big but execute small. Leo Whiteside talks about protecting intellectual property, standing alone on panels, and why the work is "a very joyful thing to do." Emily Ast and Marie-Isabelle Batthyány close with the tests that matter: the right team, the family at the dinner table, and a real need — not an imagined one.

If there's a problem in your practice that keeps coming back to you, this episode is the series' parting argument for taking it seriously. From here, it's yours.

⏱️ Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: what the series taught us about innovators
02:54 The problem you can't let go: where innovation begins
07:13 What innovation demands: vulnerability and listening
09:42 The emotional rollercoaster of device development
11:29 Why the idea is not the advantage: iteration and teams
13:55 Charles Lawrie's playbook: start with a problem you live
16:52 Leo Whiteside on opposition, IP, and the joy of the work
19:04 Legal, financial, and family support for innovators
20:33 Real needs, not imagined ones: the test of every device
22:03 From here, it's yours: a challenge to the next innovator

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This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only.

The content discussed does not constitute medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional judgment. Clinicians should rely on their own training, experience, and clinical decision-making when applying information from this discussion.

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