ARTICLE SUMMARY:
Developing effective devices to treat atrial fibrillation has been an elusive goal for many medical device companies over the past two decades. Acutus Medical, which completed a highly successful IPO this fall, believes its open-system approach may be just what doctors—and investors—are looking for. Part 1 of a 2-part article.
A personal anecdote: two decades or so ago, I was moderating a panel of medtech venture capitalists, and instead of asking which segments they saw as most promising, I flipped the question and asked them to name a technology space they’d never invest in again. I expected them to say an overcrowded space like spine or one that never really took off, like vulnerable plaque. To a person, every investor said the same thing: atrial fibrillation (AF).
The sweet spot of the medtech industry is the search for compelling technology solutions to unsolved problems and unmet clinical needs. When the dynamic works well—as in total joint repair or transcatheter valves—high device and procedure success rates join to create robust markets and opportunities for medtech companies. But there are those areas where clinical problems remain unsolved despite years of innovation by the best minds in medicine and industry. AF is one of those areas.
