Getting Your Medical Device from
Prototype to Commercialization
Wisdom from Eric Stone, CEO of Velano Vascular
Adapted from an interview by Scott Nelson
Eric Stone, co-founder (with Dr. Pitou Devgon) of Velano
Vascular, has been referred to as “the Steve Jobs of
drawing blood.” Velano’s first device, PIVO, enables
needle-free blood draws directly from peripheral IV
catheters. Velano Vascular is backed by a series of well-respected investment firms, leading u.S. health systems,
and dozens of health industry veterans.
Before starting Velano Vascular,
Stone served as VP of Sales and
Marketing for MolecularHealth.
Prior to that, he helped launch the
world’s first bioabsorable stent for
Abbott while working out of their
California and Belgium offices. He
was also a founding member of
Model N’s Life Sciences division
and began his career in software
marketing with Trilogy.
Eric has accomplished an amazing
amount in his still relatively young
life. We interviewed him to discover what drives his success and what
insights he might offer to others.
He and Dr. Devgon founded Velano
early in 2012 and have since racked
up a series of accolades, including
the Frost and Sullivan 2016 New
Product Innovation Award. He
modestly describes the experience
as “a journey of exceptional people
and this overarching commitment
to a vision that is human-centered
at its core.” Velano grew out of
questions asked by a patient to Dr.
Devgon.
It has stayed true to its goal of
human-centered design, with both
the patients’ and the practitioners’
interests in mind.
The “family” at Velano includes
hospital partners and clinical collaborators, investors, advisers, and
employees. Eric says “I see and view
every one of those individuals and
institutions as taking a bit of a risk,
personally, with respect to their role
and their organization and association with Velano by respectfully
challenging the status quo of an
extremely entrenched practice.”
MILLIONS OF PROCEDURES,
LITTLE INNOVATION
Their first technology is related
to drawing blood from hospital
inpatients, a fundamental aspect
of clinical care. Seventy percent
of medical decisions are based
on the data that comes from this
blood draw, yet Eric points out that
they’re done at four AM and five
AM when everyone is supposed to
be sleeping and healing.
Velano set out to respectfully
challenge that status quo for how
hospitals are drawing blood. With
limited human and financial resources, it has received three FDA
clearances and a European approval, or CE mark. They’ve conducted
tens of thousands of blood draws
on hospital patients with their first
marketed product, PIVO, at some
of the leading hospitals in the United States. They’ve identified a host
of opportunities for enhancement
and innovation in the hospital, all
patient-centered and practitioner-centered in nature and all related to
the vascular access domain, which
has been, in Eric’s words, “a pretty
under-appreciated space. Which is
