The Longest Journey: An Interview with Hira Thapliyal
Executive Summary
Born in a remote village in India, Hira Thapliyal played a critical role in the creation of many early technologies used in interventional cardiology, including DVI's atherectomy device and CVIS' intravascular ultrasound. However, he's perhaps best known as one of the founders of ArthroCare. In this interview adapted from the Stanford BioDesign Program's Innovators Workbench series, Thapliyal looks back on his early career.
You may also be interested in...
ArthroCare's Next Act
Ten years ago, ArthroCare was just one of dozens of small medical device start-ups to have gone public in the IPO boom of 1995 and 1996. But while most of ArthroCare's classmates in what has come to be known as the Class of '96 have disappeared, ArthroCare is a fast-growing, self-sustaining public company. Its core technology-a radio-frequency-based ablation tool called Coblation--results in faster healing times, with a fraction of the pain of other modalities that remove tissue. It has thus been picked up by a number of physican specialities including ENT surgeons and orthopedic surgeons, and for a large number of applications. ArthroCare now faces a host of new challenges, most notably, how to continue to capitalize and build on its proprietary plasma-mediated technology and, in the process, how to sustain that growth and the share price rewards that come with it.
ArthroCare's Magic Wand
ArthroCare believes its new approach to tissue removal represents a quantum leap forward in arthroscopy and can be used in other clinical markets. But dogged by a perception that it didn't know what it wanted to do--it talked about new opportunities before it could act on them--ArthroCare now has to convince investors that it can deliver on its promises.
News We’re Watching: AI Safety Partnership; Boston Scientific Recalls; New Cancer, STI Tests; VR
This week, the US and UK announced a partnership to promote AI safety. Boston Scientific recalls embolic agent. LumiCell received FDA approval for its imaging agent to detect residual cancer. Scout receives an award to develop an STI test; and Osso VR leverages the Apple Vision Pro for VR medical training.