Adam Torres and Dr. Arshad Quadri discuss the Cardiovascular Tech Forum
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Show Notes:
Listen to the Cardiovascular Tech Forum coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Dr. Arshad Quadri, Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Inventor and Entrepreneur, explore the Cardiovascular Tech Forum.
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About Dr. Arshad Quadri
Arshad Quadri, MD is a Cardiothoracic Surgeon in West Hartford, CT. He attended medical school at Darbhanga Medical College in 1980. He completed their residency at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. He are affiliated with Drs Quadri and Ramanan. Arshad Quadri was board certified by American Board of Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery Certification in Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres. And if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today I am in Newport beach and I am at the I’m with Dr. Arshad Quadri and one of the co founders of this event.
And I guess first off, just to say welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. All right, so correct me if I’m wrong, I think we’re in the third year of the cardiovascular tech forum. Am I off on that? I think that’s what I heard this morning. No, that’s, that’s accurate. They started it three years ago.
Yeah. And actually the little story behind it, we had, this conference was not non existent in, in this place. So we were having lunch at the, one of the medical meetings, LSI, and I was introduced to Octane and Cheryl and the IP persons were there. And we got chatting and it said, why don’t we have a conference in a place that cardiovascular innovation happens?
Mm. And so we decided we’d give it to go and it’s the third year. Yeah. So what was the original vision? I like having a founder of a conference because a lot of different conferences, a lot of different visions, like what was the vision originally? So my vision for this was to get people together of certain interests.
So. For me, cardiovascular innovation is very important and I’m very involved in that. And I know the intricacies, so it is a place that we could get the physicians with ideas. Cardiac surgeons, cardiologists, general physicians, all are welcome. And then we get the engineers that wants to team up with a physician to come up with an idea and the investing community, the VC’s.
So to get these three people in the room and kind of start up a conversation so that the new ideas can come out and new companies can be created. So that was the goal. And because I know innovation when you start, it’s such a vast space and your ideas. Is so small in that space. How do you, how do you get ahead and how do you make contacts and who you go to?
And so that’s how that’s, that was the goal. And so today, you know, we have. That goal somewhat achieved? Yeah, I mean, I was listening to it earlier, and I know that Octane was talking, so the CEO from Octane was here, and he was talking in the morning, and he was talking about like year over year, like the conference growth, and third year in, and this is packed, man.
What, what do you attribute some of the success of the conf, of the conference overall to, and why are people so attracted to it? I, I think the, the whole mission is attractive. I don’t think there is a conference. That focuses on the three elements of innovation that I just mentioned. And so I have people come from cardiac surgeons, come over from Europe.
I met a couple of people. You know what? I met a couple of people from Europe today. Yeah. When I was talking, I was shocked and they’re like, they’re like, Oh yeah. And I’m like, well, welcome. I guess I was complaining. Cause I came all the, not complaining, but I was, I came all the way from downtown LA. No, that would be me.
So they’re here. My industry partners are here. The big, big players, all of them. And I think it’s just word to mouth, good PR from the Octane team. We have a very strong advisory board and, and so we chose the right topics and we worked through it years, all year to get the conference going. So, I think it’s taken off.
Yeah. I think it’s going to be a good conference and it’s, it’s local physicians and they bring some great ideas, some great knowledge. Yeah. Engineers that want to. create devices, but they need a physician partner, VC, so it’s, it’s all working out. Yeah, and all of that intersection of everybody that you just named, whether it was VCs, physicians, the engineers, the med tech community, just, just in general, the device community in general.
Yeah. Like, talk about the word maybe collaboration or what that means, because I’m seeing meetings happening, like I keep on hearing everything, they’re like, they’re meeting and everybody, what, what is it, how is this collaboration? Talk to me about that. It’s networking. Yeah. So I have to put it into perspective.
When I started my innovation for my mitral valve way back when I started as a cardiac surgeon, I had the time, did not have the time, but has interest in developing it. So I started the garage thing, you know, you make things, you go to Home Depot, you bring parts and you And the collaboration was not there.
Yeah. I really had to go to the local, local machine shops. Hold on, really? Like, this is really happening? Like, I thought you were joking for a second, like, as an example. But no, you were really, like You have to get into it. And the guy that was doing this, I used to buy, I used to buy nitinol wires. Yeah.
Which you could get on the internet. And then I used to twist it around, turn it around, it’s kind of like liquid nitrogen, all of that. Yeah. And I used to take it to this, this furnace shop. Mm hmm. Because I could not reach that temperature. Mm. At, at my home oven. So he used to do it, and she went, and I met her.
See, like, what did, at some point were they like, what exactly are you doing? Right. So he’s asking, what exactly are you trying to do? And so he That’s what I was thinking. She First lesson to collaboration. Please. He doxxed me. Takes me aside and it says, I’ve been doing this for you many times now. Yes. My advice is find yourself an engineer.
They’re twisting wires, making stuff, you know, you, you have the concept. So collaborate, right? Wow. And then that’s one of the stories of that. Yeah. You know, went on and it’s been quite a ride. I mean, extreme collaboration. Yeah. I am a productive player. When I was a surgery resident in Massachusetts, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a little town, and I had an idea.
And so I’m thinking, okay, well, like I’ve made these little blades that I can do some kind of surgery with, leg vascular surgery. I had no idea how to make it, so I said, what do I do? So then I’m walking down the main street in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, I see a jeweler shop. And I went into the jeweler shop and I said, listen.
You guys play with little metals, make this, this very intricate things. Yeah. You think you can make me some, some blades made in white gold because easy to handle? And we’re going to make some surgical tools. And the guy looks at me.
He went into a jeweler. Jeweler, this is jeweler shop. Wow. And he says to me, What? Yes, Doc. I’m in it. Wow. Really? Yes. And we made a surgical tool in a jeweler’s shop. In a little town called Pittsfield. Wow. And, and that was that was great. And so we, we actually got permission and we did cases. And it was a successful case.
So collaboration, right? That’s amazing. You find people you want to work with. How did you, where did you get that from? To be an inventor or to kind of like, Did you always have it in you? Like, where’d that come from? Because I, by the way, just so you know, I know we’re just meeting, but I’ve done over 6,000 interviews.
I’ve interviewed lots of doctors, lots of different people. I’ve never heard a story like this where you’re like, I went into the jeweler and I’m like, it can you help? I believe you. But I’m like, it’s ama. Where’d you get that? Like that, that, I don’t know, curiosity. That inventor that. Yeah. I, I, it’s different.
You have to admit, that’s different. You don’t have any colleagues that have a story like that. I don’t believe , no. I, I, I think. It comes from, you know, tinkering around, you’re inquisitive when you’re young and you want to make things and that’s how it started. There was no special school to go for it.
Yeah. It’s just you’re bored with it, I guess, or you learn it or you just, I think persistence of I think the thing is how do you persist on an idea and make it work? You know, everybody has ideas. Yeah. You know. What differentiates people is you have an idea. Are you ready to go that mile to make it work?
Y’all have ideas. So yeah, I think that’s it. And I can say. I’m a frustrated engineer and my, I always wanted to be an engineer, but my family said, Oh, you got it. You got to do medicine at back home in India. So at my engineer, sorry, Dr. Q, that’s the way it goes. Dr. Q, you know, you can do that. But my engineers, you know, I have great, great friends, partnerships with them, and we have a good time.
Fast forwarding just a little bit from the early days, creating, you know, let’s just say the beginnings, to the company now and what you’re working on. What can you share with us there? So, right now, my company is an incubator. It’s an incubate, like, as spelt, that’s spoken. Medtech. com. So, this is a incubator.
I have ideas. I get partners. I have engineers, believer engineers that come and work with me. So, at this point, so we did, we did a tricuspid valve, heart valve, that It was acquired by by Page Americal. So that’s in human use now. We’ve done an we’ve done early feasibility study. We’re trying to start that, but we didn’t compassionate patients with it all over the world in, in Denmark.
We did some cases in Bern, Switzerland, and we’ve done four cases in the U. S. So that’s a success story. Then I have. Two several other ideas, but the ones that are going forward right now, I was thinking, was one was presented today in the innovations of the Qantas ventriculoplasty program, and then I have a relief program, which is the renal vein decompression.
That’s what these two companies are situated here in Irvine. And, and there’s another, that’s my passion project, I would say. In the aortic dissection fixes for that. And, and so kind of a veritas, we call it to the endobentile procedure. So these three are in the running right now, you know, they’re doing great.
So let’s see where we get them. So, I mean, it’s fun. Yeah. A lot of entrepreneurs that watch this program and I’m always curious when I’m talking to somebody, whether they’re investing or they’re running incubator or otherwise, like what kind of things are you looking for? What type of companies are you looking for to, to incubate and to bring into your program?
It’s just cardiovascular mainly, cardiac related, because I understand that I understand that disease. So, mainly that, heart valves, heart failure is a big push for me right now, which is a difficult scenario to, to kind of fix. Patients are suffering, patient needs there. Yeah. Make, make things like, I mean, I’m, I’m fully a invasive heart surgeon, right?
You got it. Open chest, all of this, but I, I think we can do better without all that trauma to the patient. You know same science, but maybe we can take that, that element of of complication and all these complexities out of it. So that’s the focus. And we chat, we, and there are certain experiences that I’ve had in my practice with my patients and it, it’s kind of like.
Bothers me. Yeah. Sometimes that I couldn’t help a certain groove of patients. Yeah, I understand. How can we get that? And another lightmare of mine, oh, , is that when when I die and I’m up. Then mm hmm all these patients I couldn’t help. Oh my god. Come after me. What what? So we got to do the work while we can while we’re here, right?
I could say listen. I kept trying Yeah, no that that have my record. That’s heavy. Dr. Q. Oh So funny So final question for you. I know you got a lot to do and I know this is your conference. You’re running around founders or technologies or just in general, like what excites you right now? Just overall and in your niche, like what excites you?
I think technology, if it’s a solving a problem elegantly and it, that excites me, that it has to be elegant. It has the solution, you know, the solution has to be elegant and focused. So I know like broad swath of things, you know. I can do that. No, it’s like, let’s focus and find, find like a solution. Like, you know, I can relate to heart valves, right?
Because I’ve done two heart valves that, that are in humans now. So I like that because it’s like physical problem. Yeah. Your valve ain’t working and we give you a new one, you know, it’s as simple as that. Yes. It’s elegant. It’s exactly what you just said. Yeah. It’s just elegant. It’s a good solution. It’s an elegant solution.
And, and that’s the focus. That’s what excites me the most. The problems can be complicated, but you’ve got to simplify it. And you’ve got to have a simple solution. Awesome. You did leave a website the first time. Can you leave that one more time? How can people follow up? How can they follow the words? I want to make sure that we get that in there.
Well, definitely for everybody watching, we’ll put that in the show notes. Yeah, so IncubateMedTech. com. Yep, IncubateMedTech. com. That would be the website. And then there’s Relief, Qantas. These are all available on the web right now, so you can go Wonderful. And for everybody watching, just so you know, we’ll put, we’ll put the links to that in the show notes.
And and speaking to the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or that follow button. This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content. new ideas and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well.
So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And, and Dr. Q again, thank you so much for coming on the show. Appreciate all you do. Appreciate it.