Unlocking the Future of Medical Devices and Defining the Path Forward with Jochen Bauer, Ph.D., VP of R&D, Wound Care and Consumer Health at Hartmann Group [Speaker Spotlight]

Please introduce yourself and describe your role/responsibilities as the VP of R&D, Wound Care, and Consumer Health at Hartmann Group and your journey into the medical device world.

The position is VP of R&D for Wound Care and Consumer Health. I've been with Hartmann for 10 years now, and my responsibility is overseeing about six development sites across Europe.

The technologies range from traditional wound care to advanced wound care technologies, digital, and more—it's a very broad range.

As for my background, I'm a materials engineer, and I've always worked in the medical device industry. Before this, I worked for Dentsply and Abbott Vascular.

What strategies do you recommend for fostering meaningful collaborations and partnerships that drive innovation and ensure competitive advantage in the medical device industry?

I think competitive advantage is obviously a key aspect, and the key question is, what's your current core competence and where do you want to grow?

You can either build it internally or externally, but I think the more innovative you get, the more you need to partner. There are obviously different possibilities for partnerships, such as with universities, startups, or other large companies. At Hartmann, we do kind of everything. As I mentioned before, the product portfolio is very diverse in terms of technology.

You can't be the expert in everything, but with that comes the need to equip your team to drive external projects in a very strict and compliant way, as we're in the medical device industry.

How do you ensure that emerging technologies are integrated into medical devices in a way that remains accessible and affordable for healthcare providers and patients?

So the question is mainly about costs, right? Okay. I think the key is that every company, at this point, has some sort of stage gate process. In medical devices, you're required to conduct design reviews, and I think a crucial part is defining your technology and indication targets upfront at the very first review. Along with that, you also define your cost targets and how you plan to achieve them. Then, you review them consistently throughout the process.

Another important element in medical devices is not only the cost side, but also key to financial success on the reimbursement side. But it is also complicated across Europe.

But coming back to the stage gates, it's key to have the cost and reimbursement views in one package.

"In medical devices, you're required to conduct design reviews, and I think a crucial part is defining your technology and indication targets upfront at the very first review."

What steps are being taken by Hartmann Group to enhance sustainability in the design, production, and distribution of medical devices?

I think, structurally, it's the same topic—if you want to change something, you need to implement it at the beginning of a project. Obviously, from an environmental standpoint, there are topics like green energy and other elements you want to address in operations. That's one.

On the product side, you need to implement sustainability specifically, as you are regulated. For sterile products, it’s also quite complicated to qualify everything.

So, it's also a question of what you want to do. Right now, the focus of sustainability topics is more on packaging materials.

How do you prioritize areas for innovation within Hartmann Group, and what criteria are used to determine which projects receive the most investment?

There are several dimensions to a decision, and it's a question of risk-reward and also a question of R&D portfolio balance. So, there are several aspects to consider, such as time to market, your own competence versus areas where you’re uncertain, and how innovative you go. Essentially, how good is your partner network?

Then there are the elements I mentioned before, such as the markets and reimbursement. How attractive is the market, or how easy is it to get into those classes of reimbursement? And obviously, global regulatory complexity is a driver in decision-making.

Essentially, it's about understanding your risk-reward profile for each project individually, but also as a package of R&D projects, because you don’t want to have only low-risk projects or only high-risk ones.

How do you manage the balance between innovation and compliance in a highly regulated environment, especially with the evolving MDR and IVDR requirements?

Basically, what we did when MDR came into place was that we had a major focus on that topic because, at Hartmann, if I'm not mistaken, we have 29,000 products across all areas.

That meant there was a lot of work, structure, and process required for execution, so it became a priority. However, we also split out some teams to focus on innovation in order to create new product innovations. Due to this focus, we were able to move very quickly.

From a TÜV perspective, we were one of the first to close out MDR. Now, we have the luxury of being able to focus solely on creating value for customers with new products.

Which aspect of the European Medical Device Summit are you most looking forward to?

Honestly, at this summit, I have the luxury of being open-minded! Maybe it’s not the answer you expected, but that’s really the point. I try to attend these summits without a set agenda as a speaker because I want to stay open to whatever comes my way.

Usually, my schedule is packed with speaking engagements, but here, I have time for mingling and networking to exchange and collaborate on ideas, and that’s the luxury I want to enjoy.