Key Learnings From Bill’s Experience
- To find an unmet need in the market, you don’t always have to look at niche problems with a magnifying glass. Examining overall trends and assessing structural gaps can also uncover opportunities. For example, Bill realized the growing tension between increasing patient demands for personalized care – and the strain it puts on healthcare providers – and decided to develop digital solutions that aim to solve this issue.
- Innovation in medtech takes a superior, not just an alternative, product approach framework. Moreover, you must consider its real-world impact on the healthcare system and the workflow of providers. Think about streamlining processes, reducing hospital stays, and empowering both patients and physicians.
- If you’re a physician contemplating a full-time move to a startup, embrace your entrepreneurial spirit by leveraging the stability of your medical career. Start small, experiment, and be honest with yourself about your priorities.
Dr. Bill Hunter was a dedicated medical doctor. However, when his first company, Angiotech, became a leader in drug-coated medical devices, achieving a market capitalization of over $2 billion, he decided to leave his practice behind and became a full-time entrepreneur. After Angiotech, he took on the role of CEO at Correvio, where he increased the company's valuation fivefold through strategic acquisitions and international expansion. Today, he holds a portfolio of over 200 patents and patent applications, and his inventions are touching millions of lives.
At Canary Medical, Bill and his team are giving medical devices a voice through their smart implants that can tell patients how well they’re recovering and can also alert physicians if there are signs of trouble. Their flagship product, Persona IQ, collects and monitors detailed data on a patient's gait and knee mobility after they undergo knee replacement surgery. This data can be invaluable in assessing the overall health and recovery progress of the patient.
The vision behind Persona IQ and their other smart implants is to allow patients to see if their recovery is on track by comparing their progress – in terms of parameters like their activity levels and range of motion – with extensive datasets containing the recovery journey of others.
Thanks to Persona IQ, Canary is now sitting on over 2 billion data points on human gait that can illuminate the feedback loop between gait patterns and various health conditions, helping clinicians make better, more proactive care decisions. Bill shares, “We're starting to match different pathophysiologies to different gait patterns. And I think this technology is going to be able to do far more than we initially anticipated. It's going to be really exciting.”
"Billions of dollars of medical hardware go into human beings every day, and most of them don't report back," Bill emphasizes. Canary’s mission is to work with different medical device companies to turn their non-communicative devices into smart devices. Today, Persona IQ is available in the U.S. for knees, with shoulders and hip versions planned to follow. In addition, the spine application recently received FDA Breakthrough Device designation. After twelve years of development to miniaturize the technology, Canary is also venturing into the cardiovascular space with physiologic cardiac monitors that have recently completed first-in-human trials.
Dr. Bill Hunter is a former practicing physician with 30+ years of healthcare entrepreneurial experience and over 200 patents and patent applications to his name. He’s been intimately involved in the development of renowned devices like the TAXUS DES and paclitaxel-eluting balloons and spearheaded the success of companies like Angiotech and Correvio. As the CEO of Canary Medical, he’s leading the development of a smart, digital approach to patient monitoring and post-surgical care.
Distributing the Workload Through Digital Healthcare
As a former medical practitioner, Bill observed a significant shift in patient expectations over the years. He looks back, "When I was in medical school, it was very paternalistic. It was, ‘Yes, doctor, thank you, doctor.’” However, perhaps with the rise of informed patients and the convenience of instant access to medical information, consumer and patient patterns have changed. Today, people demand answers right away, and want to take a more active role in their healthcare decisions.
"When you get a hip replacement, for example, you'll have some questions. Is this normal? When can I stop walking with a cane? How long do I have to take my narcotics?" Bill explains. Most patients don't know what to expect after major procedures, and traditional follow-up appointments don't provide real-time insights. On the other hand, there aren’t enough healthcare providers – physicians, nurses, and physical therapists – to address all these concerns. This is where Bill saw an opportunity. “Who wants to do more work?” he asked. And the answer was, actually, the patient.
The gap between patient needs and limited resources demands a new approach to patient care, and Bill believes it’s going to be through digital technology. He says, “It's not necessarily doing less per se, but having different people doing the right things, and not having the most overworked or overburdened members of the care team having even more things to do. It's about spreading that across and making it more of a collaborative effort, because that's what patients want as well.”
That’s the idea behind Canary’s devices: empower patients to monitor their own progress, compare it to established benchmarks, receive personalized guidance, and make informed decisions about their recovery by providing real-time feedback and insights and invaluable data to physicians when required. Bill explains, “That's what we need in all kinds of rehab. We need an organized and coherent way to go through the recovery process to give you the best possibility of a high-quality outcome.”
Build for the Real World
This may seem obvious, but the first thing about innovation is that you should always improve upon existing treatments. In other words, don’t just offer an alternative, aim to deliver superior outcomes. That’s a given.
Then, there come more nuanced aspects that are often overlooked: the impact your product makes in the healthcare system and how it eases the workflow of practitioners. Bill says, “You need to think more about how your device is going to be used and how it's going to be incorporated into the practice of medicine.”
Making a positive impact in the healthcare system means streamlining a difficult procedure. That is to say, if you can convert an in-hospital procedure to an outpatient one or allow for earlier discharge, it holds great value. On the other hand, adding a step to the workflow, even if you improve the outcomes, is a tough sell. Bill’s words of wisdom are, “We need to think about less invasive options and getting the patient out of the hospital as quickly as possible."
Then, you need to think about how your device is going to be integrated into the physicians’ day-to-day practices. Focus on streamlining processes, reducing the number of in-person visits, the amount of time spent on examinations, and the resources spent on procedures.
“You have to reduce the workflow. Period,” says Bill.
The recent AI trend, for example, revealed the importance of data management in healthcare. It’s easy to believe collecting data can improve results. However, it’s also important to manage data efficiently. Simply overwhelming healthcare professionals with data worsens their workload.
Adding too many features is another common pitfall in the world of startups. Don’t focus on adding more. Let the “less is more” principle guide you, especially during product development.
Bill's advice boils down to this: when designing a medical device, think beyond the technology itself. Consider how it will be used in the real world, how it will impact the healthcare system, and how it can empower both patients and providers. By taking this holistic approach, you'll be well on your way to developing impactful innovations.
Making the Leap to a Full-time Entrepreneur
If you're a physician with a burning entrepreneurial spirit, Bill's advice is simple: “Just get started. Don't think about the end game.” If the idea doesn't work out, you'll realize it soon enough; and if it does, you'll progress naturally. Your medical career is a great safety net; it’s a stable profession that you can always go back to.
When deciding to transition full-time to entrepreneurial work, Bill suggests taking a long hard look at your priorities. If you cherish clinical practice, consider keeping it separate and partnering up with others to bring your idea to life. However, if you're driven to see your vision through to the end, embrace the journey, and be aware that it may fully consume your medical career. “Doing both is just not possible,” says Bill.
According to Bill, there are two entrepreneurial paths in medtech. You can improve upon an existing technology or venture into a green field, where there aren't any real foundational parameters. The first requires understanding your market and differentiating your product, and the latter requires solving a technical problem first – which Bill, a natural inventor, likes to do. On that matter, his recipe is unconventional. While the well-trodden path is to find a gap in the market and develop a solution that fills it, Bill believes that the biggest risk in healthcare is technological viability. In his words, “Does the technology work: yes or no.” This is the primary question he likes to tackle before anything else.
He continues, “I take the field of dreams philosophy. If you build it, they will come. George Merck always said that if you practice good medicine, the profits will follow. And so, I think if you can solve a specific clinical problem, you can figure out the business model.”
Key Learnings From Bill’s Experience
- To find an unmet need in the market, you don’t always have to look at niche problems with a magnifying glass. Examining overall trends and assessing structural gaps can also uncover opportunities. For example, Bill realized the growing tension between increasing patient demands for personalized care – and the strain it puts on healthcare providers – and decided to develop digital solutions that aim to solve this issue.
- Innovation in medtech takes a superior, not just an alternative, product approach framework. Moreover, you must consider its real-world impact on the healthcare system and the workflow of providers. Think about streamlining processes, reducing hospital stays, and empowering both patients and physicians.
- If you’re a physician contemplating a full-time move to a startup, embrace your entrepreneurial spirit by leveraging the stability of your medical career. Start small, experiment, and be honest with yourself about your priorities.
Dr. Bill Hunter was a dedicated medical doctor. However, when his first company, Angiotech, became a leader in drug-coated medical devices, achieving a market capitalization of over $2 billion, he decided to leave his practice behind and became a full-time entrepreneur. After Angiotech, he took on the role of CEO at Correvio, where he increased the company's valuation fivefold through strategic acquisitions and international expansion. Today, he holds a portfolio of over 200 patents and patent applications, and his inventions are touching millions of lives.
At Canary Medical, Bill and his team are giving medical devices a voice through their smart implants that can tell patients how well they’re recovering and can also alert physicians if there are signs of trouble. Their flagship product, Persona IQ, collects and monitors detailed data on a patient's gait and knee mobility after they undergo knee replacement surgery. This data can be invaluable in assessing the overall health and recovery progress of the patient.
The vision behind Persona IQ and their other smart implants is to allow patients to see if their recovery is on track by comparing their progress – in terms of parameters like their activity levels and range of motion – with extensive datasets containing the recovery journey of others.
Thanks to Persona IQ, Canary is now sitting on over 2 billion data points on human gait that can illuminate the feedback loop between gait patterns and various health conditions, helping clinicians make better, more proactive care decisions. Bill shares, “We're starting to match different pathophysiologies to different gait patterns. And I think this technology is going to be able to do far more than we initially anticipated. It's going to be really exciting.”
"Billions of dollars of medical hardware go into human beings every day, and most of them don't report back," Bill emphasizes. Canary’s mission is to work with different medical device companies to turn their non-communicative devices into smart devices. Today, Persona IQ is available in the U.S. for knees, with shoulders and hip versions planned to follow. In addition, the spine application recently received FDA Breakthrough Device designation. After twelve years of development to miniaturize the technology, Canary is also venturing into the cardiovascular space with physiologic cardiac monitors that have recently completed first-in-human trials.
Dr. Bill Hunter is a former practicing physician with 30+ years of healthcare entrepreneurial experience and over 200 patents and patent applications to his name. He’s been intimately involved in the development of renowned devices like the TAXUS DES and paclitaxel-eluting balloons and spearheaded the success of companies like Angiotech and Correvio. As the CEO of Canary Medical, he’s leading the development of a smart, digital approach to patient monitoring and post-surgical care.
Distributing the Workload Through Digital Healthcare
As a former medical practitioner, Bill observed a significant shift in patient expectations over the years. He looks back, "When I was in medical school, it was very paternalistic. It was, ‘Yes, doctor, thank you, doctor.’” However, perhaps with the rise of informed patients and the convenience of instant access to medical information, consumer and patient patterns have changed. Today, people demand answers right away, and want to take a more active role in their healthcare decisions.
"When you get a hip replacement, for example, you'll have some questions. Is this normal? When can I stop walking with a cane? How long do I have to take my narcotics?" Bill explains. Most patients don't know what to expect after major procedures, and traditional follow-up appointments don't provide real-time insights. On the other hand, there aren’t enough healthcare providers – physicians, nurses, and physical therapists – to address all these concerns. This is where Bill saw an opportunity. “Who wants to do more work?” he asked. And the answer was, actually, the patient.
The gap between patient needs and limited resources demands a new approach to patient care, and Bill believes it’s going to be through digital technology. He says, “It's not necessarily doing less per se, but having different people doing the right things, and not having the most overworked or overburdened members of the care team having even more things to do. It's about spreading that across and making it more of a collaborative effort, because that's what patients want as well.”
That’s the idea behind Canary’s devices: empower patients to monitor their own progress, compare it to established benchmarks, receive personalized guidance, and make informed decisions about their recovery by providing real-time feedback and insights and invaluable data to physicians when required. Bill explains, “That's what we need in all kinds of rehab. We need an organized and coherent way to go through the recovery process to give you the best possibility of a high-quality outcome.”
Build for the Real World
This may seem obvious, but the first thing about innovation is that you should always improve upon existing treatments. In other words, don’t just offer an alternative, aim to deliver superior outcomes. That’s a given.
Then, there come more nuanced aspects that are often overlooked: the impact your product makes in the healthcare system and how it eases the workflow of practitioners. Bill says, “You need to think more about how your device is going to be used and how it's going to be incorporated into the practice of medicine.”
Making a positive impact in the healthcare system means streamlining a difficult procedure. That is to say, if you can convert an in-hospital procedure to an outpatient one or allow for earlier discharge, it holds great value. On the other hand, adding a step to the workflow, even if you improve the outcomes, is a tough sell. Bill’s words of wisdom are, “We need to think about less invasive options and getting the patient out of the hospital as quickly as possible."
Then, you need to think about how your device is going to be integrated into the physicians’ day-to-day practices. Focus on streamlining processes, reducing the number of in-person visits, the amount of time spent on examinations, and the resources spent on procedures.
“You have to reduce the workflow. Period,” says Bill.
The recent AI trend, for example, revealed the importance of data management in healthcare. It’s easy to believe collecting data can improve results. However, it’s also important to manage data efficiently. Simply overwhelming healthcare professionals with data worsens their workload.
Adding too many features is another common pitfall in the world of startups. Don’t focus on adding more. Let the “less is more” principle guide you, especially during product development.
Bill's advice boils down to this: when designing a medical device, think beyond the technology itself. Consider how it will be used in the real world, how it will impact the healthcare system, and how it can empower both patients and providers. By taking this holistic approach, you'll be well on your way to developing impactful innovations.
Making the Leap to a Full-time Entrepreneur
If you're a physician with a burning entrepreneurial spirit, Bill's advice is simple: “Just get started. Don't think about the end game.” If the idea doesn't work out, you'll realize it soon enough; and if it does, you'll progress naturally. Your medical career is a great safety net; it’s a stable profession that you can always go back to.
When deciding to transition full-time to entrepreneurial work, Bill suggests taking a long hard look at your priorities. If you cherish clinical practice, consider keeping it separate and partnering up with others to bring your idea to life. However, if you're driven to see your vision through to the end, embrace the journey, and be aware that it may fully consume your medical career. “Doing both is just not possible,” says Bill.
According to Bill, there are two entrepreneurial paths in medtech. You can improve upon an existing technology or venture into a green field, where there aren't any real foundational parameters. The first requires understanding your market and differentiating your product, and the latter requires solving a technical problem first – which Bill, a natural inventor, likes to do. On that matter, his recipe is unconventional. While the well-trodden path is to find a gap in the market and develop a solution that fills it, Bill believes that the biggest risk in healthcare is technological viability. In his words, “Does the technology work: yes or no.” This is the primary question he likes to tackle before anything else.
He continues, “I take the field of dreams philosophy. If you build it, they will come. George Merck always said that if you practice good medicine, the profits will follow. And so, I think if you can solve a specific clinical problem, you can figure out the business model.”
