Surgical robotics · Digital surgery · Connected OR
I'm the person a company brings in to see what a product needs before hospitals will buy it, make that change, and build a business around it that lasts.
Twenty years commercializing medical devices, perioperative software, and AI enabled surgical platforms at Berchtold, Olympus, and Intuitive. If you are launching a robotic system, a digital layer, or both, I would like to hear how it is going.
About
I like languages.
Some are foreign: Spanish, and enough German and Italian to keep going. Some are functional: engineering, product, commercial, service, education. Some belong to a domain: enterprise healthcare IT, OR infrastructure, the connected OR, robotic and digital surgery, clinician workflow and software. The work I enjoy most is translating between them, so a complicated product makes sense to whoever is in front of me, in the language they already use.
I started in enterprise healthcare IT, in the operating room for every activation, learning the language hospitals speak. Everything I have built since has had to fit into that world. At Berchtold I owned a surgical lighting business and gave a commodity product a story a sales force could tell. At Olympus I took the company into the connected OR, where three companies' products became one offering and a capital sales force learned to sell it. At Intuitive, each thing I built earned the next: the function that made da Vinci work with the operating room around it, then the company's first digital platform, then the evidence that helped earn its first digital subscription.
Most of that work ran through people who did not report to me: regional sales leaders, service and implementation, surgeons, strategic partners. They showed up because the relationship came first.
A boss once gave me a mug that said "Chaos coordinator." A colleague who has watched me work put it this way: "Jake won't shrink from a challenge, and will be sure that what is asked of him gets done."
A working concept
CathIQ™
To show the value I believe clinician facing applications bring to a robotic system, I built a working concept: CathIQ, the digital application suite that sits on top of the robot. Four applications on web and mobile where the clinician plans, gets help, trains, and reviews. I built the brand, the clinician workflow, and the demo myself, in a few weeks, from public information.
Powering programs where the best case is always the next one.
Work
Four brands I created at three companies. All still in market.
Precision Beam Technology
A trademarked technology name for a surgical light.
Simply See More
A campaign that turned clinical evidence into a reason to call.
Big Screen Surgery
A category brand for the connected OR.
Intuitive Hub
The name of the company's first surgical video and data platform.
Where I fit
Three kinds of company.
A robotic system launching with its digital layer
Pre commercial through first launch. The layer has to ship with the robot, and the first sites have to start the evidence.
How I would help →Surgical AI with no hardware
Product in market, growth stage, go to market still early. Software sold to hospitals on top of somebody else's installed base, and the job is getting past pilots.
How I would help →An established company adding a digital line to an installed base
A strategic's platform unit, or an OR infrastructure, imaging, or integration company entering the connected OR. The job is category entry and making the new line sell through a capital sales force.
How I would help →What people say
In other people's words.
“What I would tell any hiring manager considering Jake is this: the work product is consistent, the judgment is sound, and the range is wider than the resume can convey on its own. Spend an hour with him and you’ll see it.”
Joseph Fridlin, Director Product Management, Digital Channels. Managed Jake for five years.
“I’m proud of the work we did together, grateful for our partnership, and confident that any organization investing in a digital health platform would benefit from Jake’s instinct for evidence-driven go-to-market.”
Gretchen Purcell Jackson, Vice President, Scientific Medical Officer, Digital, Intuitive Surgical
“Jake delivered on every commitment he made to us. Hub is now spreading across the region and opening opportunities for others in LATAM to follow.”
John Rausch, Commercial Director, Latin America, Intuitive
“He treated the implementation team as equals, learned what we needed, and did whatever it took to make sure we succeeded together.”
Jürgen Schiller, Head of Digital Solutions Engineering Europe
“He is someone who keeps progress moving even in the most demanding situations.”
Céline Barçon, Director Customer Care, Europe and Global Distribution, Intuitive Surgical
Excerpts. All nine recommendations are on LinkedIn.
The fastest way to find out is a conversation.
Tell me what you are launching and where it is stuck. I will come with a point of view, and I will tell you plainly if I am not the right person for it.