Health Tech: Brett Wall Of Neuroscience Portfolio, Medtronic On How Their Technology Can Make An Important Impact On Our Overall Wellness

An Interview With David Leichner

What problem or issue are you trying to solve? In the case of spine surgery, we were working hard to figure out how to make spine surgery more predictable, repeatable with better outcomes for patients. This simple assessment of spine surgery helped us define what we needed to do. It drove us to develop and acquire technology to create a simple and effective workflow that would allow all physicians regardless of experience to have better outcomes. This ultimately benefits the patients we serve and helps us fulfill our Mission.

In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making an Important Positive Social Impact.” We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Brett Wall.

Brett Wall is Executive Vice President and President of Medtronic’s Neuroscience Portfolio, comprising five unique Operating Units — Neuromodulation, Cranial & Spinal Technologies, Neurovascular, Pelvic Health, and Ear, Nose and Throat. Brett also serves as the Executive Sponsor of the Medtronic African Descent Network — an internal employee resource group that focuses on recruitment, engagement, retention, and development for employees of African descent. Brett earned his bachelor’s degree in Comprehensive Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing from the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?

I grew up in a small town in Nebraska. It was there that I first saw the tremendous health disparities between people living only a few miles apart. Seeing this when I was young is what first sparked my interest in pursuing a career in healthcare. What I liked about MedTech is that it helped people. To this day, I still love the idea that, through the work we’re doing, we can be part of the effort to move the world to a better place than where it was before.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

I recently spent the day with a neurosurgeon operating on people with movement disorders they couldn’t control. The patients were awake while the surgeons placed electrodes within their brains and I got to see them go from shaking to stable. It was quite profound and reaffirmed why I do what I do.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

When I consider the many people who have influenced my career, few figures shine as brightly as J. Irwin Miller, the visionary mind behind Cummins, a global powerhouse in power solutions. Miller’s impact on Cummins and the business world at large was a testament to his unique approach to leadership, marked by innovation, inclusivity, and a commitment to social responsibility. Taking such a bold position involves risk, but if we don’t take risks, we’re not honoring our predecessors or our roles as leaders. It’s a worthy endeavor for all of us who have the privilege of guiding others to make a difference in the world. Miller valued the contributions of individuals from all levels of society, fostering a culture at Cummins where everyone felt heard and seen. Like Miller, we at Medtronic have a steadfast belief in zero barriers to opportunity, promoting and sustaining positive societal change from within the organization and beyond.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I am not certain it is a life lesson, but in business it is important to manage your business a little more than one manages their career. One of the biggest challenges we face in our industry is the fear that sometimes drives people towards incremental decision-making versus bold decision-making. People are afraid of the risk, even if it is the right thing, because they are concerned about their career if they would fail. We must be better at supporting those in medtech with vision, to let them be bold, and if they fail, we must let them fail quickly and learn from it. What if the bold idea succeeds? Let’s support our teammates to take those bold decisions. We will be better for it.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

• First, I am empath. At the end of the day, I want to do something that’s meaningful and put a little dent in the universe.
• Secondly, I’m a collaborator. I believe that no one person can improve health, create novel treatments, or improve lives alone. We must partner with the people who are treating patients and learn from them.
• Thirdly, I am “all in” on being bold. Advancements are only ever made by moving forward courageously. If we don’t boldly act to do the right thing when addressing a disease state and its social impacts, we reward incrementalism. Incremental plans don’t have the capacity to excite people’s souls.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the technology or medical devices that you are helping to create that can make a positive impact on our wellness. To begin, which particular problems are you aiming to solve?

In the field of neuroscience, there are so many things that still aren’t understood about the human nervous system; it’s endlessly fascinating to work on, and our people are committed to fully understanding diseases and using that knowledge to unlock breakthroughs that address the challenges people face. We use technology to develop innovative devices — to provide solutions for everything from stroke to Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson’s to Spinal Cord Stimulation for chronic pain. The fact that we can do something by leveraging the resources and tremendous assets that companies like Medtronic have — and that we can work with others who share our goals and reasons for working toward them — makes me realize we can make a difference for people in need.

How do you think your technology can address this?

In a company like Medtronic, we have matchless opportunities through our work in the neuroscience portfolio to affect positive change, not only to treat patients but to do good for people. An example of this is sensing — a breakthrough feature that senses each person’s biological signals and enables the system to respond to patient movements in real-time. Using this information, clinicians can now deliver precise, patient-specific Deep Brain Stimulation therapy for Parkinson’s and other movement disorders using objective data from the patient’s own brain. This technology can also facilitate the delivery of contemporary therapies like Spinal Cord Stimulation to treat intractable, chronic pain and has the ability in the future to impact many conditions from obesity and depression to Alzheimer’s and sleep disorders.

Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?

Today, the technology in our neuroscience portfolio enables measurement and recording of electrical signals from the brain, allowing physicians to titrate and personalize the impulses and level of therapy an individual receives. That’s what makes me excited about this: you make decisions that help move the pendulum just a little bit further in the right direction, and that, to me, is worthy, it’s valuable, it’s important, it’s fulfilling.

How do you think this might change the world?

Through data gathered by our technology and boldly applied by physicians, a wheelchair-bound Parkinson’s patient who suffered from rigidity and severe motor fluctuations is now able to walk unassisted; reducing tremors improved his quality of life.

The ability to understand how we’re stimulating the brain and to be able to strip out that information and allow the physician to ultimately adapt the stimulation pattern is truly important.

Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?

There’s skepticism in society today, a distrust of large institutions, both public and private, and a fear of the impacts that AI and machine learning technologies may have. But I think if most people could see the overwhelmingly positive impact that this industry and the medical establishment have directly on the lives of patients, much of that negativity would be dispelled. We are working in a highly regulated industry, and while the landscape of technological advancements is constantly shifting and evolving, the advancements and advantages that AI have brought are allowing us to provide treatments and create devices that give patients better health outcomes and greatly improve the quality of their lives.

Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”?

• First, what problem or issue are you trying to solve? In the case of spine surgery, we were working hard to figure out how to make spine surgery more predictable, repeatable with better outcomes for patients. This simple assessment of spine surgery helped us define what we needed to do. It drove us to develop and acquire technology to create a simple and effective workflow that would allow all physicians regardless of experience to have better outcomes. This ultimately benefits the patients we serve and helps us fulfill our Mission.
• Second, we spend a great deal of time deciding what not to do. Taking away things that would distract us or where we would not be able to make a meaningful impact is tremendously clarifying. This may be the most important thing that teams decide. One challenging choice we made was to not pursue sleep apnea at this time. We have technology and we have knowledge here, but we also have significant focus in other areas that we must complete with technologies that we have to launch. We need to focus there at this time. That was a tough decision, but these types of decisions are always hard. If they are not difficult, we are likely not making meaningful enough choices.
• Third, what are we good at? Where can we make a significant contribution? Why are we better at this than others, and would our customers and stakeholders agree? We have a history of working closely with physicians and developing technology and procedural enhancements. We do this on many new technologies, including our ENT Operating Unit where we have expanded into drug / device combinations that physicians require to more effectively treat their patients. If we didn’t ask those questions, we likely wouldn’t think about markets like we have with Propel and other technologies.
• Fourth, can we learn and expand our thinking with what we are choosing to do? Often, the initial technology changes dramatically as we learn more about the procedure and the needs of the market. Within Neurovascular we have had to make significant changes on a technology that we acquired for Intrasacular aneurysm therapy. This was difficult, but this therapy is important for certain segments of Endovascular aneurysm therapy. The team had to listen to feedback, learn, make changes, and try again. The exciting thing is that this product is starting to be released in Europe and we are getting wonderful feedback.
• And finally, does it expand access, can we create technology and procedural enhancements that expand those who are treated? This is a challenge for certain, but we have so many opportunities to make improvements to access. As we think about this when we develop products and technologies, we are also thinking about other places around the world that may have challenges with cost or support of the technology. Making the technology simpler so that there is access without the larger support structure is important. We have a new simple tibial implant technology for overactive bladder. The ability to simply implant this device in an office greatly impacts the access to this technology for a very difficult and challenging disease that severely affects an individual’s quality of life.

If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?

The chance to do the right thing is meaningful, rare, and shouldn’t be squandered. It involves risk, but if you don’t take it, you’re not honoring your predecessors. You’re not honoring the role that you are in.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

I’ve already mentioned him, but I’d love to sit down with J. Irwin Miller, the founder of Cummins, a global player in power solutions. His impact on the business world at large was a testament to his visionary approach to leadership, marked by innovation, inclusivity, and an early commitment to social responsibility. All organizations are stronger when they draw on diversity of thought and background, and Miller championed the concept of inclusion decades before other leaders.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-wall-191571a

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.

About The Interviewer: David Leichner is a veteran of the Israeli high-tech industry with significant experience in the areas of cyber and security, enterprise software and communications. At Cybellum, a leading provider of Product Security Lifecycle Management, David is responsible for creating and executing the marketing strategy and managing the global marketing team that forms the foundation for Cybellum’s product and market penetration. Prior to Cybellum, David was CMO at SQream and VP Sales and Marketing at endpoint protection vendor, Cynet. David is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jerusalem Technology College. He holds a BA in Information Systems Management and an MBA in International Business from the City University of New York.