Tom Salemi | Editorial Director, DeviceTalks | MedTech Storytelling, Event Collaboration, & the Power of Connection

Tom Salemi, editorial director of DeviceTalks shares his accidental yet fulfilling journey into the medtech industry. Tom reveals his passion for storytelling, building communities, and highlighting the human aspect of medical device innovation. He discusses the evolution of DeviceTalks, its focus on collaboration and education, and the importance of personal connections within the industry.

Guest links: devicetalks.com

Charity supported: Feeding America

Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at podcast@velentium.com.

PRODUCTION CREDITS Host: Lindsey Dinneen Editing: Marketing Wise Producer: Velentium

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Episode 036 - Tom Salemi

Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world.

Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them.

Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives.

Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives.

Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives.

Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference.

Hello, and welcome back to The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host Lindsey and I am so excited to be speaking with my guests today. Tom Salemi. Tom is the editorial director of DeviceTalks. He tells medtech stories with wonder, humor, and great respect. He hosts podcasts, conducts video interviews and organizes events, both virtual and in-person to ensure our innovative medtech ecosystem stays strong and saves lives.

All right. Well, thank you so much for being here, Tom. I'm so excited to talk with you this morning.

Tom Salemi: Oh, it's my pleasure. Thanks for having me. It's great to be on this other side of the podcast interview experience.

Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I would love if you wouldn't mind starting off by sharing just a little bit about yourself and your background and how you wandered into medtech.

Tom Salemi: Sure. I'm a Massachusetts native, lived here my whole life. Always was aware of the healthcare industry, but I can't say I had a long time love for it or anything like that. My parents were not doctors. I am not an engineer, nor ever could be, but I did go to journalism school. And I wasn't quite sure why, it just always appealed to me. I went to visit a newspaper once, the Boston Herald, and I fell in love with the newsroom. It just seemed like the most fun place to be in the world. So I wanted to work there for a living, but later on, I think I found out it was more, I really enjoy building communities and that's gonna, I think, develop later on.

I found my way into medtech quite accidentally. I was at a local paper in Massachusetts and wanted to get a job at the Boston Business Journal 'cause I was tired of covering city council meetings and planning board meetings about the height of fences and things like that. And the only beat that was open was healthcare. And at the time, this was '97, that included all the Boston hospitals, the biotechs, and the medical device companies. So it was a lot, but it was intriguing. And, I'll say my parents at the time were older and starting to see doctors more and more. So I was like, "Well, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to understand that industry a bit better."

So I took the job at the Business Journal and then that led to an invitation to edit a venture capital newsletter that focused again, broadly on healthcare. So, that was in '98, it's called Venture Capital and Healthcare. Very very descriptive name. And from there, I just really grew to love medtech. I mean, biotech, is of course bigger and fascinating in its own right, but I never quite understood the whole molecule thing, whereas devices, you could see what this thing did and what it looked like. And how the pump worked and why I moved the blood this way or that way. It was just I think an easier and a better story for me to tell. So that's how I wandered my way into healthcare and into medical devices.

Lindsey Dinneen: Wonderful. Thank you for sharing. Well, and now with DeviceTalks, can you tell us a little bit about DeviceTalks, and maybe a little bit about what you're excited about for it for the future? Because I know there's just so much in the works and it just keeps growing and it's so exciting to watch.

Tom Salemi: Yeah, no, it's been an interesting development. So I joined actually DeviceTalks in 2019. It existed prior to me. It's been around for 10 years or so. It was a sort of the events business related to the Mass Device news site. So, prior to that, I was writing for magazines, wrote for InVivo and Startup. And then decided in 2014, I was I was done with writing. I just wanted to do something different. And at the same time, the company that acquired our magazine decided they wanna lay off the editorial staff. So it was it was quite a good bit of timing for me 'cause I don't think I ever would've got off the branch without a little boot in the butt.

So I started doing conferences for a smaller company, medical device conferences, and podcasts. And then the opportunity to join DeviceTalks again happened in 2019 to, to run their three meetings. Of course, 2020 came around. I joined November, 2019, four months later the world shut down and we didn't have our events. So, we pivoted and launched our podcasts and our webinars and went back to events in 2022. DeviceTalks' mission has been really focused on the people who make medical devices, who design them, who manufacture them, who get them through the regulatory process. Anyone who touches a medical device from inception to handling it to a physician to have it implanted in a patient. We try to track that whole process. We do a bit of sort of the venture capital stuff, which was where my interests were lying previously. But DeviceTalks' goal is really again, to focus on the engineers and manufacturing folks, those who were really on the front lines of making medical devices.

DeviceTalks has sort of morphed over time from just an events business to our podcast business, which is not only our weekly podcast, but we're working with a lot of the major OEMs to help them tell their stories through podcasts. We're continuing to roll out new series focused on specific OEMs or specific areas. We'll have a neuro one coming out soon. We'll have a structural heart one coming out soon. And we still, the DeviceTalks Tuesdays program that we launched in May 2020, because we couldn't meet the person, we did virtual like everybody else. I thought it would be something that would go away when we went back to in person, but it's only grown. So we'll continue. We continue to do about 35 of those a year. We take a month off in August and then a few days here and there for holidays. But next year we're going to be expanding that to bring some more kind of issues and OEM oriented conversations. So people seem to have responded to the opportunities to talk about medtech all the time and to listen to medtech all the time. So, as the host of a podcast, it's a pretty great time to be producing stories like these.

Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks for sharing a little bit about DeviceTalks and its trajectory. It's so exciting to see how it continues to grow and evolve over time. And yeah, it's been interesting to watch how so many companies have changed, obviously because of the pandemic, but then sometimes it's been a really interesting change where, what you thought was going to happen doesn't actually happen the way, but it's exciting. And, you just keep moving with it. So that's great.

Tom Salemi: I was listening to the first podcast we did in March 2020,. Chris Newmark and I were talking about, "Well, what does this mean? Like, are we not going to go to meetings? Are we going to have these conversations online? Like digitally? That's crazy. That doesn't make any sense." And we just literally described the world today, but we were both just flabbergasted, "This is nuts. This is just not going to work." So you're right. Things are evolved quickly.

Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. And it's great. So, you're coming at the medtech industry from a really unique perspective, and you are telling stories and sharing stories about people's, incredible devices and innovations and the journey from concept to actually producing something. And I'm curious how does that storytelling process work for you? Like how do you go about finding the hidden gems within a founder's story, and then being able to take that and really run with it so that it's not just a matter of, "Hey, this device is incredible. Look at all the shiny, cool, amazing things it does. But here's the purpose and the reason behind that, too."

Tom Salemi: That's a good question. I mean, I, like you, start the podcast with the stories about the guests, 'cause I'm really intrigued by their path into medtech. 'Cause I don't think it's, we know the industry itself isn't extraordinarily sexy. It's not on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. We're not talking about, well, these stupid app names that are missing vowels and people seem to get excited about it. We're a very kind of, I don't know, low key industry, but we're the industry, the people who make these devices, are literally saving lives.

So I think the guests that we talk to, you know, come to it come to this industry for a purpose. You obviously can build a very successful career for yourself. But I really do enjoy trying to find out what that why is and how it came to be, how it came to lead to a career in medtech. And then I really focused down on, we've all had those moments where we've made life decisions and we could have gone this way or that way. And we chose that way. And it worked out, but what was that? What was the thought process at that fork in the road? And why was that decision made? 'Cause I think really, I think that's something that everyone can connect with.

I remember talking with Mike Mahoney, the CEO of Boston Scientific at DeviceTalks Boston last year, talking about his indecision as to whether he was going to take the job at Boston Scientific. He was obviously a senior medtech guy at J& J. Why leave J& J for Boston Scientific, which was struggling at the time? And he just told this great story of how he had hired a consultant to review the situation and to give him a recommendation. The consultant was like, "No way, man, stay at J& J, you're doing great." And he was going to interview at Boston with the intention, I think, of saying no. And then he just took a moment and walked off and just looked in a mirror and said, "Do you want to do this or not?" And he said, "Yeah, I want to do this." And he just went for it and look what happened.

So, I think finding those human moments in medtech is important because, more so than tech, in other industries, I think it is a very human industry because, again, people are here for a personal reason. Many people have personal stories as to why they entered medtech. Talk to people who have lost childhood friends, when they were teenagers and that drove them to medtech, obviously the state of our parents, in my case, draws you here. I think very often there's a compassionate thread. I mean, sometimes people just, maybe they go into sales 'cause they see the cars in the parking lot of, and I think there's that and that's fine too, but I think those people also come around to, "Oh wait, this is, I can have my cake and eat it too. I can actually do some good while doing well." So, I do like to focus on the human part of our industry. And I think it's one that needs to be told more because too often it's a conversation focused on FDA approvals or recalls, and we're just talking about the machinery and not the people who make it.

Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. Very well said. And I completely agree with you. I think there's, oftentimes a little bit of, because to your point, it's not sort of on the front pages every day. And I will venture to say that sometimes when it is, it's for the reasons we don't want it to be. So, so it's so important to tell these stories. And the thing is, I came in from also from an outside perspective and my background is marketing and business development, business strategy. And so when I came in, it was a whole new world as well. And one thing that I realized is from an outside perspective, sometimes there's this sort of unfair stigma about people are in it solely for the money. And honestly, It's a really hard industry to be in if that's your only goal. So I think, telling these stories about these founders and the why behind it is just so compelling. And I love being able to do that. I'm so glad that you do that all the time as well. Yeah.

Tom Salemi: Yeah, no it's just, those are things that need to be reported on and focused on more, so I'm glad we're both shining a light on it.

Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. So, okay. So I know that DeviceTalks, it has so many different facets to it. One of the really interesting things that you guys do is put on events. And I was wondering if you could speak a little bit to that process and even just there, there are a number of different industry events available, but DeviceTalks pretty special. So I was wondering if you could talk to a little bit about that element and what makes it unique. Yeah.

Tom Salemi: Yeah. No. So when I joined in 2019, I came aboard to help find a direction, a different direction for the meetings to focus it more on the engineering and the device making, which was going to be challenging for me. 'Cause my, again, I really focused more on who raised series A, and who raised series B, and who's a late stage investor, and who's an early stage investor. And for me, for a long time prior, medical device coverage was just, you report on the company's financings, your report on their FDA approval. And then, I don't know, all that stuff in between and who knows what happens there.

So, COVID in a way presented an opportunity because we were able to focus on the podcasts and really give me an opportunity to learn about the industry, to learn about the engineering and the manufacturing about it, but also to get to know the device companies themselves and the comms teams there. So, by the time we resumed things in 2022, it sort of afforded me the opportunity to really work with the comms teams at the big companies, and the engineers and the folks who had on podcast, and try to get those stories that we told on the podcast on stage and maybe a grander fashion. Maybe there's a PowerPoint vote. Maybe there's two or three people who can talk about pulse field ablation, who can talk about the orthopedic business, who can talk about surgical robotics. So DeviceTalks, although we include some of that in our conversations, partnership and financing, especially in Boston, we've got The Medtech Innovator there and they run a great innovation, sort of forum investment forum. I just love working with Paul Grand and I love The Medtech Innovator crowd.

And I still love startups, the folks who start companies are just absolutely insane in a good way. God bless them. I love it. And so, but I really wanted to give an opportunity for the Strykers, for the Boston Scientifics, for the Medtronics to come and sit down in sort of a collegial atmosphere and say, "Look, this is, this is the device we're working on. These were the challenges we had in developing it. This is how we're looking at the patient population." And just go over different challenges that that they had overcome. So it really, I think, is an opportunity for everyone to sit down and talk about the designing, the making, even the selling. We're actually getting more into the selling of medical devices to talk about the business of medical devices in a very, almost. I don't want-- collegiate sounds weird-- but just a very educational, sort of open setting.

So we'll do, we have our keynotes, we'll have our big CEO keynotes. We'll have a venture panel from time to time. And like I said, we'd love to have the startups present, especially in Boston with MedTech innovator. We do that a little less of that at DeviceTalks West, but our bread and butter can sit continues to be engineering and manufacturing. And we really want folks to come down and talk about the intricacies behind their very cool and important and lifesaving devices, so people walk away with a better understanding of how to make their life saving device. And hopefully if they've taken the time to get to know this person who's achieved something great, and maybe they connect on LinkedIn, and it leads to a company being started five or six or 10 years down the road or two or three years down the road. Who knows? So we're all about again, open conversations about medical device development and about fostering the opportunity for personal connection as well.

Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Well, and I love your focus on collaboration, and education and that, the knowledge is shareable and it's really important and I think it's really impressive that you've created an atmosphere where people do want to come and share and talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of their process and being able to share those stories, like you said, could very well inspire the next generation of innovators because it's important to be honest and transparent when you can be. So I think that's really incredible that you've fostered this atmosphere that, that leads to that. So.

Tom Salemi: No, thank you. No, and I'm really grateful to those companies that take advantage. Sometimes folks will come and maybe their presentation is a little scripted. But I think just having that person in the room, the Chief Technology Officer or the Director of Engineering for some valve program is important. And it just gives people, I think as much as-- if I were to create a pie chart for the importance of stuff that goes with a bar graph that happens on stage versus like the 10 minutes after someone's on stage, it's probably the bars are probably pretty close.

I'm not sure which is more important, but I think just getting everybody together and we've actually, I initially fought this, I'll admit it, but first couple of conferences, we had like five minutes in between sessions 'cause I just wanted to pack so much in. This year, our conference team was like, "Can we do 15 minutes?" And I was like, "No!" If you add it up, you've probably lost like 30 minutes of programming, but the 15 minutes was really great for just to give people some comfortable time to like, "Hey, I heard what you said about X. Here's something I'm working on, what do you think about that?"

I think that those kinds of conversations are are very important and you can lead it up. You can leave it up to serendipity that, "Oh, if I'm at the conference and the Chief Technology Officer from major medtech is going to be there, I'll bump into him in the cocktail reception," but it's not always easy to do. So we try to, we really try to foster those connections so people get the insights they need and go home with some really positive insights and feedback.

Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Yeah, I absolutely love what your company does for that. That's incredible.

Tom Salemi: Thank you.

Lindsey Dinneen: So along your journey, have there been any moments where it stood out to you that you had this realization that "Yes, I am in the right industry at the right time." And just something, like a story that you got to share or something that just made you go, "Oh yes, I'm in the right place here."

Tom Salemi: Interesting question. I mean, I have a lot of those moments. Some of those singular moments, I think, some are a just collective moment. Like I've said before, when I was covering the Newburyport City Council, there was literally a moment where they were arguing about the distance-- I was there supposed to be covering this meeting-- and they were talking about the height of fences. And I literally got up and just left. And I was like, "I can't spend, I don't want to dedicate another minute of my life to this." And I've never done anything like that before. I am this Joe Earnest, like I'm gonna stay to the end and make sure it goes. I had the whole journalism thing going on. But I was just like, "I just can't spend my life doing this."

I've never, ever had that moment in medtech. I've never come to work and said, "Why am I writing about this? Or why am I talking to this person? Or what, what is this even about? What's the point?" I've never even thought that. And I would have that conversation if I were covering insurance or even, when I was at my newsletter, got a company by Dow Jones. And I thought my only path up was really to like get into news wires and start covering earnings and things like that. And I was like, " I don't want to be covering earnings and being measured by like, did I beat AP or whomever or Bloomberg by 35 seconds?" No, that's not what I want to do. I want to write about cool tech and talk to cool people. So that's when I left Dow Jones and joined EnVivo and Startup, cause I really wanted to focus on medtech.

But, there are a lot of those moments where I'm really glad to be doing what I'm doing and there's singular moments too, where, I'm sitting in a plane and I look across the aisle and the woman next to me is just reading an EnVivo Magazine and she's got my article open. And I'm like, ah, I just want to tap her in the shoulder. " What do you think? What do you think about Right Medical, huh? Pretty interesting stuff, huh?" That was very cool.

I remember interviewing Kevin Lobo at the early medtech conference I did in Minnesota. It just went super well. He's a really great guy to talk to and very easy to talk to, very open and honest, and will answer any question. But just getting off the stage was like, "Wow, that was a lot of fun. I want to go up and do another one." Which is weird, 'cause I wasn't a big stage guy before, but I don't know, the opportunity to dig and find some cool stories and really see the humanity in these medical device folks is a great challenge and a great privilege for me. I'm really blessed to have the access that I have. So I'm very grateful.

Lindsey Dinneen: Amazing. Oh my gosh, I loved that so much. And yeah, I totally, it would be hard not to go, "Hey, what do you think?"

Tom Salemi: Exactly, right? Yeah. Then what? Then like, "Oh yeah." Then she's like, "Sure. Sure. You're Tom Salemi." And then it gets really weird. "Oh really?" I let it be, but it's one of those forks in the road moments. What would have happened if I just asked her if she liked the right medical story and maybe who knows? I don't know.

Lindsey Dinneen: That's so great.

Tom Salemi: I might've had, I might've met a future CEO and then had a great story to tell with her someday. So.

Lindsey Dinneen: It's still a possibility.

Tom Salemi: it still happen.

Lindsey Dinneen: Maybe you'll run into again.

Tom Salemi: She's hearing this, maybe. She's like, "Wait a minute, I did read an EnVivo Magazine on the plane once next to some weird guy who was..."

Lindsey Dinneen: "...weirdly watching me while I was reading it."

Tom Salemi: Exactly, while was reading a magazine.

Lindsey Dinneen: That's so funny. I love it. Well, pivoting the conversation just for fun. Imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want. It can be within your industry, but it doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach and why?

Tom Salemi: Wow. People say "that's a great question" to me all the time. And I always like, "I don't really have that many great questions. Like one or two of them are great!" But that's a good, that's a really great question. Oh, wow. I think For me, learning to speak publicly and enjoy the time on stage, I think has been a real blessing for me. So, and I know a lot of people have that ability as well. I think that would be great thing to, to share with folks.

But I think moreover, I mean, it's crazy to me that like people look to me like some sort of storytelling expert where I really just like, it's like, "You're really interesting. I'm not conjuring magic. You have a great story that you just don't know exists. I'm not some wizard who's just waving my wand and saying something in broken Latin and it all happens. It's all in you." And I wish folks could look inside and see their own stories and see the stories of others as well. And they're probably too busy designing that next great device that they don't really have that ability to look inward.

But, I think helping people identify their own stories, not necessarily to tell them in a podcast form, but just to have a better sense of, of who they are. I mean, I've talked to a few people who like you, I'll say, "Oh, I'll start the conversation learning about you." And they'll say, "Well, I'm boring. Just talk about the company." And I said, "You're not boring. I've never talked to a boring person." Believe me, like everyone has great stories and everyone has great decisions that they made and, it's just a matter of telling it, or at least knowing those stories are in there.

So, because I can't teach on anything of technical value, I guess I'll focus on that. Just helping people identify their own stories and and sharing them in the world in a way that's appropriate for them. Again, they don't have to have a YouTube channel, but they could just say, "Hey, I do important work. I'm interesting. And, I've made a difference in the world." That's pretty awesome.

Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. Well, I love that. And I actually think the wizardry component of it comes in with allowing people to feel safe enough to tell their stories, and comfortable, because it can be harder, especially when you're maybe telling a story that is challenging for you, that talks about something where maybe things didn't go the way that you hoped they would, or you failed at something. And so, so giving people, providing that safe space, basically, to allow people to share those stories and encourage it is, I think you've got that wizardry component.

Tom Salemi: Oh, I appreciate that. And that's a great point. And I think, like with the keynotes, when you're talking with someone who's willing to trust you a bit and say, "Look, when I do keynotes," I'm like, "Look, these are the things I want to talk about." Just allow me to, if I hear something interesting, I go, "Wait a minute, can I just pull that thread a moment," and just to have someone trust you that you're not going to take it in a really weird way, that you're going to see the positive, I think, is when you really have done your job and have a great keynote. Those are the moments, especially like at a conference where people walk away and say, "That was great."

Keynotes should be really great and interesting. They can be informative as well, but if you're just focusing on, why you designed this over that and why that, why it's important to help people with this dreadful disease, all of that's important, but I think the stories that really resonate with people are the ones when they, where the people in the audience can really form a connection with the person on stage. I think that's when you really hit the home run. So, just trying to do that.

Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And I think to your point, another component that you do really well and that I think is important in that sort of wizardry aspect, is the respecting and honoring of the person's choosing to tell that story. So it is, like you said, drawing out the positive and honoring the fact that they've decided to share with you. And so therefore they continue to feel safe, and respected in sharing their insights and stories and whatnot. So I think you're absolutely right that it has to have multi layer components. And, and I love your thing. You've never met a boring person. That's so great. That's so true.

Tom Salemi: It's true. I mean, just talk to people. My son is going to be an engineer and he's like already 10 times smarter than I am technically. I teach him how to jump a car battery and he's explained to me, "Oh yeah, that's why the red has to be attached to the black." And I'm like, "I don't know that. I just know red and black. Don't tell me why the battery works. I don't really need to know that. I just need to know how not to set my car on fire." That's where my technical knowledge. But there are people in the world who understand how things work. And I just-- that's witchcraft. To understand, why planes fly and why batteries work. That stuff's amazing to me.

Lindsey Dinneen: I agree. I agree. All right. And so, on a bit of a more serious note, how would you like to be remembered after you leave this world?

Tom Salemi: Oh, wow. I mean, like I said at the start, I got into journalism cause I thought it would be fun. And I was also a shy kid and I didn't want to be in a cubicle all my life, 'cause I think, I don't think I'd ever climb out of it. I wanted to really force myself into the world. But then I came to realize that what I really liked was helping people connect and I think that's becoming harder and harder for people to do, not to get too heavy about it, but I think there are a lot of lonely people in the world who aren't finding connection or the connections they are finding aren't necessarily the most productive.

So I hope, I hope I, I ease that somewhat and I'm always --just last week, actually, I got a couple of great messages and I don't get a ton of these. It's just weird timing, but someone who said that they enjoy the podcast, and they're college students, and they went into biomed because of the podcast. They joined a startup competition. It's like, "Wow. I, with my stupid stories, I had an impact on someone in a positive fashion!" And I told this person, " Great. When you invent the lifesaving technology," I said, "I will take total credit because I'm the one who stirred you into medical devices."

I'm getting a few of those nice messaging, and it's, I hope that people remember that, we have a lot more in common... I hope people will think that I've reminded people that we have a lot more in common than we do differences, and that we have a lot more positivity to rally around the negativity. And it's the only way we're going to get things done in this world is if we're working together on it. So if I could help that happen a little bit, I think I'd be happy with that as a life lived.

Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Wow. And thanks for sharing that story. That's incredible. That is so exciting.

Tom Salemi: I'm so grateful. I told him, I'm so grateful that person wrote, "thank you so much," 'cause that, yeah, that people don't do that very frequently. So it's awesome.

Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, and final question. What is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it?

Tom Salemi: Huh. My first thought was my, my kids just seeing them find their way through life, seeing them find the things that energize them. It's great when you see that. Dogs, of course would be a good one.

Lindsey Dinneen: Yes.

Tom Salemi: I love a good dog. I don't know, everything that's coming to mind, it sounds kind of corny. I mean, obviously when you see people take a kindness on somebody else, or be kind to someone else when they don't need to be, I think is extraordinarily uplifting. So my kids, my dogs, my dog, any dog, actually most dogs will do...

Lindsey Dinneen: Yes.

Tom Salemi: Yeah. But my dog in particular, but no, I think I just, those moments that, unfortunately, we're not shining enough light on where people are overly kind and helpful to each other. I think we need to see more of that at this time.

Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Agreed. Well, I think that's phenomenal. I, I also am a huge dog lover. So anytime, I mean, really, it's like an instant happiness.

Tom Salemi: Yeah.

Lindsey Dinneen: Instant. So happy. So. Yeah, they are the best. Well, I just want to say this has been an incredible conversation. It's been so great to get to know you a little bit and also get to know a little bit more about the incredible work that DeviceTalks is doing. So I just want to thank you so much for being here and being willing to share your stories. This has been great.

Tom Salemi: Oh, thank you so much. It was an honor to be asked. It doesn't happen frequently and it was-- you've got some great questions. I may steal a couple of them. So.

Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. Well, thank you again. We are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to Feeding America, which works to end hunger in the United States by partnering with food banks, food pantries, and local food programs to bring food to people facing hunger. And they also advocate for policies that create long term solutions to hunger. So thank you for choosing that organization to support and thank you for all the work you do to change lives for a better world.

Tom Salemi: Okay. Thank you so much.

Lindsey Dinneen: Thank you also to our listeners. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love it if you would share this episode with a colleague or two, and we will catch you next time.

Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.