Episode Transcript
Hello and welcome. I’m Kayleen Brown and welcome to DeviceTalks Women in MedTech Podcast. This is the podcast where I try to reverse engineer the making of a MedTech leader. If you’ve missed season two episode one with Medtronic’s Nina Goodhart, please find Women in MedTech with Kayleen Brown on your favorite podcast player to make sure not to miss a fantastic conversation about how empathy is smart business.
Now, today’s episode is particularly exciting for me. I get to bring two worlds together. My keynote guest today is Sarah Huoh, Corporate Vice President of Public affairs at Edwards Lifesciences and she is one of the most trusted voices shaping how MedTech communicates, collaborates and shows up for patients. Sarah leads the teams responsible for government affairs, global health, economics, reimbursement, corporate giving, patient engagement and communications.
It is a sweeping portfolio, but the through line is unmistakable. Every part of her work is about earning trust with patients, with policymakers, with colleagues, and of course, with communities. So that said, it’s only natural that this episode centers on how trust becomes the foundation of for effective industry relationships, credible communication and leadership style that earns influence rather than assumes it.
So to talk more on that, I’m going to bring in an in-studio guest that I’m particularly excited about. A leader for Confluent Medical Technologies. Now, I’ve had the greatest pleasure of learning more about Confluent Medical Technologies throughout this year. But for those who are not in the know, Confluent specializes in the expert design, development, and large-scale manufacturing of interventional catheter-based devices and implants with a focus on nitinol balloons and complex catheters, polymer tubing, and biomedical textiles.
My guest today is the person behind all of these terrific Confluent interviews that you’ve been hearing throughout this year. She is a new mom and she’s my personal friend, somebody who I have really appreciated sharing my own journey as a mom and my own journey of being a MedTech influencer and a leader in MedTech. So with that, Brittany Mai, Head of Corporate Marketing for Confluent. Welcome to the podcast.
Thank you for having me.
So Brittany, we have a lot to talk about, but the first thing that I have to ask of course is how excited is your little one and you for Christmas this year?
Gosh, I’m so excited. Christmas has always been a really big deal in the my household, but now that we have a little one involved, we’re very excited.
It really changes things. I’ve always really loved the holidays, but ever since having my own little one, it just. It feels like there’s more purpose maybe around it.
Absolutely. The moms make the magic, so that’s the fun that we now have that role. We get to make the magic for our families. It can be exhausting, but extremely rewarding.
So well said. We are the magic makers. So with that, I mean, I’ve had the opportunity of getting to know you and again, I just really appreciate how open you’ve been during or about your journey, how open you’ve been sharing your experiences and help me also feel not alone in this motherhood in MedTech. But I’d love our audience to get to know you just a bit more. So maybe we unpack your journey to MedTech a bit. How did you find your way into the medical technology industry and your current leadership position today?
Absolutely funny how that happened. My background was traditionally in public relations and communications, and it wasn’t until my internship, senior year of college where I found a passion for B2B corporate marketing. But it was my husband who was in the MedTech space well before I was. And he was the one who encouraged me to put myself out there and get into this space. And I’m so glad he did because I have found a true passion and purpose working in the MedTech space.
You are part of a community who wholeheartedly agrees. Once you’re in MedTech, I feel like there is no other option after that. You’re a lifer. MedTech. MedTech. Well, you are clearly in a leadership position. So one of the goals of this podcast is to really reverse engineer that. So before going into your leadership role, as it is right now, can you identify for our audience like any steps you took or decisions that you made that those looking to be in a similar position may follow to as a success that you have found?
Yeah, absolutely. There was a lot I did that kind of led me to where I am today. But I would say there was two key things that really stood out in my career journey. I would say, one, put yourself out there. You are your own biggest critic. So a lot of times you’ll see a project or a role that you think, I don’t have the experience, I don’t have, have the expertise for that. But put yourself out there like you can do so much more than you think you can, and you’d be surprised where it can take you when you do that.
The other thing is what I would call taking up white space, especially within corporate America and kind of the business world we’re in today. A lot of times people like to be siloed in their department, do what’s in your job description and that’s it. But if you identify things, maybe not necessarily in your own department, but in other areas of the business where you think, hey, that might not be my job description, but I have the capacity and the ability to fix that for the, for the business, and I can take that on because not only does your individual leadership team see that, but cross functionally, other teams see that as well, and you’re seen as someone who cares about the growth and success of the business, and it can really help lead you into leadership roles.
I have to wonder, is that something that you learned from experience or you learned from your education? Like, what inspired you to look for those white spaces?
Honestly, I can be sometimes a little controlling in my personal life. Here, Here! That overflows into your professional world. And I would see an issue and think, dang, I know there’s no one who has the capacity to take that on right now, but I think I can. So I would do it. I would do it and then ask for permission after the fact and be like, hey, by the way, I’m doing this. I’m still managing my roles in my day to day, but I saw this as a need and I think I can do it.
And it was my, my boss who said, you’re taking on white space. And I was like, I’ve never heard that before. And he’s like, that’s what shows someone who truly wants to grow into a leadership role because you care about the success of the overall corporation, not just your individual self. Right. So it was something that I saw in just my controlling nature was like, I can fix that. And so I took it on and I, I enjoyed doing it.
And now it’s become a part of what I do. And what Confluent relies on me to do unintentionally.
Well, let’s talk about that. So what is your current role? I know that you’re head of corporate marketing, but what does that entail at Confluent?
Yeah, absolutely. So I manage all of the marketing and communications for Confluent. That means any of the ads that you see running from us, any of podcasts or webinars, we do. I manage our strategy. If you see a press release, go on, usually it’s written and orchestrated by myself. All of our trade shows, which are so much fun, that customer events, educational customer events, I not only manage and execute and support the team with, but I also manage the Strategy for confluence. So I wear lots of hats and it’s fun. Every day is something different, but it truly makes the job more enjoyable.
So if I recall correctly, Brittany, in April this year, there was an announcement about a new material that your team introduced. Would you mind sharing what was behind that initiative, what made it the right time to invest in something new, and how things have developed since that launch?
Yeah, absolutely. So earlier this year, we launched our Ultra Polyimide, or what we call Ultra PI. And that was really exciting because we saw a need in the market and our customers kept coming to us with a problem. And our subject matter experts were able to really focus on the material science and provide a solution. So we’ve noticed just in the world around us the growth in minimally invasive procedures.
Right, they’re safer, sometimes cheaper, and more convenient for patients and doctors. But what that means for us here in MedTech is devices are getting smaller, they’re getting more advanced, and they’re growing in demand. So for the catheter side of those devices, things needed to adapt. So polyimide is known traditionally for its strength, but to make polyimide stronger, a lot of times you lose, especially in the film cast way of producing polyimide, you lose that really critical real estate inside the tube.
So Ultra PI was the solution. It’s nearly twice the strength as traditional polyimide, but without compromising that critical inner lumen real estate. That way it can be utilized more effectively for delivery device technology.
Well, definitely. Congratulations. I can see how impactful that can be. What have you seen from your customers, from your team members since that launch?
Yeah, absolutely. We’ve seen a lot of positive feedback from our customers. They’re definitely excited that as a contract manufacturer, we’re listening to our OEM customers and provided them more customization for their devices. And it’s definitely leading the team towards thinking about new innovations in the material itself. Not just in polyimide, but goodness, in our nitinol division, in our balloons and complex catheters and our biomedical textiles. It’s really focusing on how can we innovate in the material science level to meet the needs for our customers.
Well, you did mention new innovations, so that makes me think, is there something that we can look forward to in 2026?
There is. I technically can’t say anything about it quite yet, but I can give you a little tease. Oh, please, Please. Yes. And you think going to be around January, we’re going to announce a new innovation in material science for polymer tubing. And what we’re noticing is one-size-fits all just doesn’t work in catheter manufacturing anymore. Customers need a tailored approach to manufacturing their components in their catheters.
So the team in our Chattanooga, Tennessee facility, which is our Polymer Tubing Center of Excellence, have invested again in some really innovative material science that is going to offer a tailored approach to catheter manufacturing. So keep your ears open around January for an exciting new announcement.
That’s really cool. Will you make sure to let me know as soon as you can and give me the full skinny?
You’ll know first.
Yes, I’m gonna hold you to that. All right, Brittany, I am just way too excited and I want to start talking about the interview that I conducted with Sarah Huoh, Corporate Vice President of Public Affairs at Edwards Lifesciences. So before our time together in the studio today, you and I met to talk about what the potential themes came out of that conversation and how they relate to your personal life, to Confluent, to my life, to MedTech.
And it was very, I think, clear that a through from Sarah was how important trust is to this ecosystem. So Brittany, when you think about trust, what comes up for you and how does that relate to the MedTech industry?
Yeah, absolutely. Trust is important in every industry. But I believe it’s exceptionally critical within MedTech because you’re not just manufacturing a component, a widget, you’re manufacturing a device that’s going to have such a large impact, if not a life saving impact on someone’s life. So I really, really liked how Sarah said trust has to be built. I believe she said you have to live it first before you can talk about it.
And you take so much of yourself when you come to work. Right. We’re at work sometimes more than we’re at home. And trust is something that’s always been important in my life, especially now, becoming a mom, having a little one that relies on you and trusts in you to provide the best for them. It’s what I take and to come into work every day. And in reality, it’s something that is extremely important for confluent as a whole because as that contract manufacturer, we’re a partner to our OEM customers. So our OEMs need to be able to trust us that we’re going to provide them reliability, stability and quality for the components that are going to ultimately hugely impact someone’s life.
So not only is trust critical in my own life, especially as I’m growing into motherhood, but it is something that myself and my colleagues Take to heart at Confluent as well.
Another thing that Sarah said that you and I both were, whoa, like that’s a, that’s a kind of an aha moment for us is that it’s not about the messages you put on paper. You have to operate in a way that earns trust. And that I think more than anything made me think about you and made me think about Confluent. How does Confluent earn trust with its customers?
Absolutely. Confluent’s been around for under a different name, right. We were originally NDC9, all device and components. But we’ve been here for over 30 years investing in not just working with our OEM customers, but being true partners to them. Whether that means investing in strong material science, investing in a strong, reliable supply chain. For example, we’ve talked before night and all is huge right now on MedTech and the supply chain is really struggling and there was a real vulnerability within that supply chain and Confluent was able to invest quite heavily in stabilizing that supply chain not just for our customers but for the industry as a whole.
So I, I see how that applies to Confluent. But what about you personally as a leader? How has trust shaped the way that you lead your team at Confluent?
Yeah, I kind of mentioned it before. Marketing is cross functional. You’re not working within your individual silo. You’re working with your sales team, your subject matter experts, business development, your engineers. So there has to be a level of trust with them and vice versa. I have to trust them that they’re providing me reliable material, updated information whether I’m writing a sponsored feature or an editorial.
They’re the ones that are doing the hard work to create these innovations. And then they have to trust me when I throw in front of a camera on a podcast or a webinar that I’m setting them up for success as well. And leadership has to trust you. When you’re managing all the communications in the marketing for an organization, you have to have a level of trust with your leadership team that you’re going to stay consistent and be able to relay the information that’s critical for the business.
I find it interesting that you’re sharing that trust isn’t one way. Is there anything else that came to mind or came up for you when you listened back to Sarah’s interview?
Absolutely. One of the words that came to mind when I was listening to you guys conversation is partnership. And I know I mentioned it previously, but partnership is at the core of who confluent is and at the core of what I do in my role as well. And if you don’t have partnership, true partnership, not just transactional relationship, but you care about their success, that’s how you’re going to thrive. That’s how this industry is going to produce the latest innovations that are going to change the way people live their lives.
So without partnership you don’t have trust. And so they go hand in hand. And it is something that Confluent not only values to its core, it’s something that I value as well.
I love that so much about you. I love that so much about this industry and about Confluent. Thank you so much for sharing all of your insights and for going on this Sarah Huoh journey with me. So let’s give our audience what they want to hear. Brittany, would you do me the honor of introducing our keynote guest?
Absolutely. It is my honor to introduce Sarah Huoh, Corporate Vice President of Public Affairs at Edwards Lifesciences.
Sarah Huoh, Corporate Vice President, Public Affairs at Edwards Lifesciences. Welcome to the podcast.
Thank you, Kayleen. It’s such a privilege to be here. I’m looking forward to our conversation today.
Oh, no one more than me, Sarah, and I’ll tell you why really short, fun fact. I went to university in Irvine right in your backyard. And I visited the Edwards Lifesciences campus when I was in early in my university career and it was being on that campus that turned my head to MedTech. So I have always and always will have such a soft spot in my heart for Edwards Lifesciences.
That’s fantastic. Well, I’m assuming probably if you were here 19 years ago and I know we’re going to get into this with my story that’s close to the time I started here is campus looks a little different these days. So you’ll have to make sure you come back at some point because probably looks completely different than what you might have seen a few years back.
You know, I chatted a little bit about my early life. I want to know about yours. And I think it’s really interesting when I talk to female leaders or any sort of leader, what they did before MedTech and how that might inform choices and leadership tactics. So I always like to start with what was your first job? And I’m not talking about in MedTech and it doesn’t even have to be paid. So what comes to mind when I say what was your first job, Sarah?
So if I talk about my first job and especially where you qualified it as unpaid, although I suppose maybe There was some allowance or other types of things attached to it. So I’m a native Californian, but where I find myself today in Southern California probably is about as different as you could get from where I’m from in California. So I’m from the Central Valley of California, the San Joaquin Valley, very much focused in that area. A lot on agriculture. So a lot of what we eat in California and elsewhere around the United States and even probably beyond that comes from where I’m from. But my parents were not involved in agriculture. They were actually both involved in education.
And so we lived in Visalia, where I grew up, which is between Fresno and Bakersfield, because my dad was a dean at a community college and my mother was an elementary school teacher. So back to your question. On earliest job, it would be helping my mom out in the classroom. And so whether it was, you know, when she was teaching lower grades, so kind of second, third, fourth grade, or later on, she actually became my sixth grade teacher. So that’s maybe another story for another point. But I would help her out either before school, after school, during the summertime. She’s very dedicated to her students, would always have very creative projects that she was doing with them.
And so oftentimes that meant whether it was actually in the classroom, you know, climbing up on tables and stapling things to the wall, or doing things at home to help her get prepared. That would probably be my earliest job. Later on, got a chance to help out in other areas that then end up directly more connecting to my career path and healthcare, whether that was one of my friends, her dad was a doctor, and this was a time where you would still have paper charts. And so I don’t know, he paid us, I don’t know, 50 cents a chart or probably a pizza or something like that for us to put those together during the summertime to help his staff out or help, you know, run some of that stuff around their office.
And then later on, I ended up working for our city newspaper, got a chance to do that during certain summertime. So got a chance to really embrace my interest in love and writing. And then eventually during high school, had a chance to actually work in a communications department for the hospital and health system in our city, and followed one of my friends who was going to do that type of thing during the summertime. And I said, oh, that sounds like fun. Let’s see where I end up getting placed. And I got placed in the communications department, which actually helped to teach me about the career that I would eventually pursue, that I could Embrace this love of writing and the creative thought and the stakeholder engagement that went with that in the type of environment, particularly working in healthcare, that more appealed to what I might like to do when I grew up, essentially after I graduated college.
I am blown away, Sarah. So apparently we’re living the same life. I was raised in an agricultural environment, even so much that our schools would shut down during certain seasons. So I really understand that. And then my mother was a teacher’s aide. That was her job. So I was always helping her in the classroom as well. What comes to mind, Sarah, when you reflect on that time working in the classroom and how the students engaged with the content, the information, what comes to mind?
Yeah, that’s a great question. And that’s something to think about. For the type of work I do today, which is focused on a lot of different types of stakeholders that are either inside of Edwards or outside of Edwards, that I think it’s really important to understand who you’re speaking with, what matters to them, what’s motivating to them. I think any of us that have been through elementary education or that have people in our lives that are educators, it is a challenging job. It’s a very rewarding job.
Later on in my life, I got a chance to be an adjunct professor at USC. And I will say that it was the most challenging job that I’ve ever had and probably one of the scariest. But also too, I got a lot out of it. I learned a lot from it. And I think that that’s something that’s really important to think about. And I think it’s lessons that’s for all of us that people learn in different ways, people take in information in different ways, and showing the respect to them, of meeting them where they are and being able to listen and understand and not just apply a one-size-fits-all approach to everything that you’re doing is really important.
It takes a lot of energy, it takes a lot of creativity, it takes a lot of intentional thought. And I think if you can do that in a certain way, and I saw my mom do this with students that she had, as you can imagine, I mean, she had challenging students, she had easy students, she had engaged students. I mean, again, it’s not a one size fits all approach. And I think being able to meet people where they are and understand what’s important to them, what’s of interest to them, and be able to use that as a way to engage them and motivate them is really important.
And I think it’s something that is a good lesson for us to think about and learn in any of the types of roles that we’re doing.
I love how you unpacked that, but I want to touch on two key words here. Energy and creativity. So you said it takes a lot of energy and a lot of creativity. And I think that that is so very spot on. I always think that everything has a cost. So expending that energy and finding creative solutions so that the information is being communicated to the right person, meeting them where they are, I think that’s well worth it. So yes, it takes more energy and it takes more creativity, but the end result, I think is what we need to focus on.
Do you have any examples of your time either working in the classrooms or leading PR at the Waste Management company or even being an adjunct professor? But do you have any examples that came to mind where you had to show both that energy or put in that energy, show creativity, but the end result of who you were communicating to was worth it?
It’s a great question. And actually since you mentioned my time at Waste Management, that’s the one that actually comes to mind. So obviously not in healthcare and a piece of my career that, you know, I think the casual observer could look at and see it as a bit of a detour from other areas of my focus during my time working in communications and working in public relations. But it was a company that I’d worked with while I was working in Los Angeles for a PR agency and got a chance to experience a lot of different opportunities with them, help them address certain challenges that they had.
And so when I actually relocated outside of Los Angeles more for my husband’s career training as a physician, I ended up going to work inside Waste Management and worked with them on behalf of Orange County and San Diego County. And I can still remember driving in those employees. They start very, very early in the morning, as you can imagine. And so driving in at, you know, 4, 4:30 in the morning to come in for driver meetings, to start the day.
And it means early hours. It meant for me, you know, one day where I was needing to go get up early, my. My day more extended. But being able to demonstrate that their interests, their careers and their engagement was very important. And helping our leadership team locally to help to demonstrate that was really important. And I saw it come back in the benefit of the engagement that they had with our local leadership team, the trust that was built there, the feeling of that two way communication and partnership.
And part of my role was not just preparing our leaders to be able to engage, but also in highlighting a lot of the amazing work that was happening. So whether that was through, like an internal newsletter or external media engagement to highlight the roles that were played at the company, the fact that our employees were building lives for themselves and their families, they were homeowners, they had children going to college, and it was all because of the careers that they had built working in those types of roles at Waste Management.
That was the benefit that we started to see back of higher engagement, a better line of communication, more trust, so that we could actually build those types of relationships through showing the engagement and effort and interest that we had.
It feels so similar to when I describe MedTech in general, like our industry and this, this culture of service and highlighting those that are just living their life, but by doing so, they’re improving the lives of so many other people. There must be some commonality to Edwards Lifesciences here, so it might be a good time to transition. So what turned your head into MedTech and what convinced you that Edwards Lifesciences was the place to build your career?
Sure. So I wish, Kayleen, that I had a beautiful story of this intentionality around. Oh, I was seeking out this particular role and this was the pathway that I had created for myself. But. But, you know, I think like most people, things happen, life happens, and circumstances just sort of put you in a certain place, which is essentially what happened for me. And I’m obviously on, on reflection, very pleased that that’s the way that things went.
But I mentioned my husband, so my husband’s a physician, and we were living in Los Angeles. And then for his additional training after medical school, we moved down first to Riverside county and then eventually to Orange County. And so that’s why I ended up going to work for a company that I was familiar with and I had had a role with before. But prior to that, I’d been working at the University of Southern California. So I’m an alum of usc. I had the privilege of being able to be on staff there and working at the health sciences campus with all of their researchers and physicians and patient care professionals.
And for me, it was an incredible job and an incredible role. It was a privilege to be able to communicate on behalf of the work that was being done there. I learned a lot. I had a great team and a great boss that I worked with. And so at a certain period of time, I was looking to try to return to that and try to recapture some of that, of what I loved so much being there. And so as I was developing in my role at Waste Management, I saw that there was additional work coming, but maybe not the career pathway that I was hoping for at that time.
And a recruiter that I knew in Los Angeles called me and said, hey, are you interested in getting back into health care? There’s this company, Edwards Lifesciences. They’re in Irvine, California, close to where you are right now. They’re looking for a role that seems to be a fit with your experience. What do you think about that? And I kind of laughed and I said, well, I’ve actually already been looking at the company.
I said, I saw they. They had some rolls out. I’m interested in getting back into health care. So, yes, I’d love for you to, you know, put my name in. And I said, but I saw they had a rollout and I’d applied. And she said, oh, you know what? They actually pulled the role back, retooled it a bit, put it back out. And I think it actually is more of a match with your experience and where you’re at right now.
So, yeah, if you’re okay, I’ll go ahead and put your name in for it and we’ll go from there. So that was in 2007, and interviewed for the role and ended up getting it. And for me, I wasn’t entirely sure what the company was, what I was signing up for. And what I always find amusing when I think about it is I told my husband, you know, hey, I’m going to go after this role. It’s with this company, Edwards Lifesciences.
They’re medical technology company. I know they do a lot of work in heart valves. And his area of focus, his specialty is physical medicine and rehabilitation and interventional pain management. So outside of cardiovascular, not in our area of focus for Edwards, but what he knew the company for was for a number of our legacy products that are more generally applicable in medicine. So he knew about the Fogarty catheter. He knew about Swan-Ganz, because in his medical training, these are devices that he had utilized that were not specific to his area of medicine that he ended up specializing in.
And so when I mentioned those, he’s like, oh, okay, okay, I know who you’re talking about. I know who, who they are. I know what you are all about. But the valve piece, obviously, is a huge piece of who Edwards is through our history. It is even more our focus today now that we are a focused structural heart disease company. But what I loved when I interviewed at the company, my initial days at the company, was that I could really see the intense focus on the patient, on improving patient lives, that dedication to it, and to me, that felt like it really captured what I loved about working at USC at the health sciences campus.
And to me, it felt like this was going to be an opportunity for me to get some of that back and really be able to contribute in a way in healthcare that aligned with what my career path had been and what I felt like I could contribute. But then just being a part of something much bigger with a ton of passionate and incredibly intelligent and dedicated individuals, that that’s what it’s been able to be for the last almost 19 years now at this point in time.
Well, the one thing I will argue against here, Sarah, is that that’s actually an incredibly interesting story because it speaks to when an interest and good timing come together. I mean, that’s almost magic. So everything aligned and brought you to a beautiful 18 year career at Edwards Lifesciences. So let’s talk about that a little bit. So as I understand it, you hold responsibility for government affairs, corporate giving, communications, brand patient engagement, and global health and economics and reimbursement.
That’s a lot. And if I say that you’re wearing many hats, that’s quite the understatement. So can you help us understand what those areas look like in practice and then how do they connect together under your leadership?
So you’ve mentioned that these are the disciplines that are represented within public affairs at Edwards. So my career at Edwards has largely been focused on global communications and in particular external communications. But a couple years ago, I had the opportunity to step into a different type of role that was more focused on public affairs strategy and working more closely with a couple of the disciplines represented within public affairs. And then in about September of 2024, I took on the lead of public affairs for Edwards. And so you’ve touched on the functions or the disciplines that are represented there. And oftentimes it’s described as a team of teams.
But where we see the connection and where we see the focus that comes together within these various disciplines represented in public affairs is in all of us serving as ambassadors for Edwards, for our credo. So we have a very rooted, strong credo for Edwards Lifesciences that concludes with helping patients as work and life is now. And with that, it is about the urgency that our patients need for us to act with the dedication, the passion that they need from us because we are impacting their lives and we’re impacting it right now. And it’s not just for them individually, but it’s also for their families. For their communities, for those around them that draw the benefits when their health is restored. And we can do that with our cardiovascular therapies and structural heart therapies that we’re focused on.
And so for all of us in public affairs, we’re really focused around that and how our engagement with different types of stakeholders, both inside and outside of Edwards, can ultimately advance that access and advance those solutions for patients globally so that they can improve their lives and ultimately fulfill the lives in the way that they want to. And so with each of those functions that you mentioned, clearly there are common threads that come through as we think about that focus and vision for public affairs.
And what I see is that the benefit that I had in coming up through the communications organization at Edwards is I’ve had the privilege to work all across the company from the standpoint of our functions, our business units and therapies, but also with our regional footprint, so our global footprint around the world, and get a chance to be engaged with my colleagues who are now a part of my team within public affairs, to understand the work that they do and the impact that they have.
So communications allows us to engage internally with our employees, help to really foster and preserve, preserve this incredible and special culture that we’ve built at Edwards that is focused on patients and how we impact them, and externally, how we translate the data and the information and the advancements we’re doing with our therapies to external audiences, whether that’s the physicians that are actually performing the hands on care for patients, for patients themselves and their loved ones that need more education and information as they’re going through their health journeys, other stakeholders that have that impact on being able to grant that access for therapies to patients.
You mentioned global health economics and reimbursement and market access. This is actually the biggest piece of our team within public affairs at Edwards, and they are focused on globally, how do we ensure that we’re providing the right type of evidence and information to understand the economic benefits and impact of our therapies and ultimately share that information with those that are helping with the reimbursement or payment or access piece for patients at that point. So we have the ability through our regulatory affairs and clinical organizations to make sure that these therapies get regulatory approval in the various geographies around the world.
But if there isn’t going to be a Medicare payment strategy or the hospitals don’t have a way to actually cover this, patients still won’t get the access. So having that ability to be able to navigate in that way. We have our home of our Edwards Lifesciences foundation through global corporate giving. And so being able to impact the care of underserved patients around the world through the signature philanthropic initiative that we have as well as inside of Edwards. How do we channel the energy and passion and dedication of our 16,000 employees to improve their communities where they live and work? Through volunteerism and through other engagement that they do.
We have patient engagement that you touched on as well. And so this not only is, is developing those direct relationships with patients and being able to understand their journeys and how can we improve that for others that are going to go on similar journeys at other points in time, but also how we put data and information against patient preferences, have science around that and understand the voice of the patient and translate that when we’re looking at clinical data or other information that could be important to a patient or their caregiver and their decisions.
But as we all know, working in this industry, it can be really technical and really difficult and really challenging to understand clinical data or other regulatory decisions. And so making that in terms that patients and caregivers can better understand as they’re making healthcare choices for themselves and then also government affairs and healthcare policy. So whether that’s our team that we have in Washington D.C. or others that are working with our global supply chain around the world, how do we ensure we’re getting the right type of education and information to policymakers, legislators, other decision makers that again are going to either grant access to therapies or pathways to access for therapies, or if they’re having to make some choices between difficult challenges, how do we ensure that they’ve got the right type of information and education to understand what’s important for their constituents and ultimately patients overall, and also recognizing they’ve got a lot coming their way and so being able to provide the right type of information and guidance so that they have that as they’re making decisions?
Sarah, I feel like I need to remind you that there’s only 24 hours in a day.
This is why I have an incredible team. So not, no, in no way doing any of this, you know, single handedly in any way. I’ve got an amazing team and I know we’re going to touch on, you know, elements of leadership during our time here together today talking. But it’s important for anybody who’s in any type of leadership role within the medical technology industry to have an incredible team. It’s a great asset. It is a privilege to work with so many passionate individuals that are experts in their areas of MedTech. They’re passionate about what they’re doing.
And none of this ever gets done in any area of MedTech except for if we’re working as part of a team.
So how do you craft messaging and how do you reach all of the stakeholders who work within Edwards Lifesciences who all hold such various roles?
So at Edwards today, we have about 16,000 employees around the world and together we have built this incredible and very special culture and company that’s focused on patients every single day. And it’s a good orienting place. It’s a very important piece for us to always remember because to your point, we’re each performing very different types of jobs and roles for the company. But the one thing that we have in common is at the end of the day, everything that we’re doing is going to help a patient get back to health, live the life that they want to live.
And so that’s really the anchor point for any of our internal engagement and our internal communications is to help our employees remember what their focus is every day, know that they are aligned in that together, and really use that as a guiding opportunity for sharing information about what’s happening at the company. So we have events, you know, like most other organizations and companies do, where there’s natural touch points to share updates about the company. So we have quarterly, globally global employee meetings.
We have other opportunities where our leaders are engaging more informally. Actually, as an, as a nice warm up for our conversation today, I was down the hall and meeting with some of our university relations graduates of people who are in some of our programs coming out of university, whether it’s in technical engineering areas or if they’ve just received an MBA and now they’re continuing some of their additional career development in that area and being able to talk about what’s happening at the company, our strategy, our direction, where we’re focused at.
And so it’s a continual education and engagement with our employees, both to share that with them, but then more importantly to hear back so be able to have a two way dialogue and we give those opportunities in some of these more formal events, but it’s also ensuring that people are coming along on the journey together. We understand where we’re headed, we’re all united around the same mission and we understand how we need to prioritize to ultimately achieve our goals together.
And so part of its motivation, part of its inspiration, part of its education, but that’s really an opportunity as an organization for us to be embracing our employees, celebrating what they’re doing and helping them understand where we’re headed together so that as there’s challenges that come up or as new opportunities come up, they understand where we’re headed, what we’re doing and how we’re going to accomplish that together.
What about externally? So either kind of two facets here, communicating to the patients themselves and their caregivers and their advocates, and then communicating to industry. How do you. It’s kind of a two part question, I suppose, but how do you communicate those messages while still establishing that leadership quality, that leadership mentality, be it from Edwards Lifesciences or from the individual?
That’s a great question. Thinking about, you know, a couple of the different segments of external populations. I’ll start with the patient piece. And this is really a partnership between external communications as well as some of our partners that are much more focused on ensuring that there’s adequate education for patients. I think intuitively, as individuals, we know whether we’re patients ourselves, whether we’re helping somebody else along on a journey, that we’re always looking for information, we want to be educated, we under want to understand choices that we’re making. And so we see that more and more and more.
And it’s also an interesting aspect when you have patients that are on a journey dealing with, I’ll just say heart valve disease, which is a piece of structural heart disease that Edwards addresses, that unfortunately, it’s oftentimes something that kind of comes on without a lot of warning or information and it can be very scary. And they’re looking to try to better understand where do I go from here and what do I do?
And so we’ve really been able to provide education and information in consultation with patients. So this is where you start to see some collaboration between, for instance, our external communications team and our patient engagement team to understand from people who’ve been on this journey before, what would you have liked to have known? What would you have as a resource? What do you think your family or your loved ones that were going along this journey with you could have utilized to help them feel better during the process or feel more educated during the process.
And so being able to provide information and content that is really helpful for those that are going through those journeys. And also just back to kind of an earlier point of our conversation of meeting people where they are and finding ways to communicate to them at a place that’s going to be more natural and helpful for them, is utilizing opportunities for engagement with media, whether that’s through paid opportunities or working with journalists that are producing content that’s much more focused on a patient audience or a caregiver audience to be able to have information that finds them where they are when they’re at the right time of needing to receive some of that information so that it’s helpful and it’s educational and it’s going to be additive to their journey.
So I think that’s what we think about a lot with patients, of course, with social media and other ways that you have a lot of information, but a lot of information that’s accessible. We try to find opportunities where we can provide that. And some of that’s through strategic partnerships or working with other healthcare entities or partners that are communicating with the patient audience and being able to provide them the right type of information that’s going to be helpful for them on their journey.
To your question around industry, you know, I think it’s probably a more informal and, and it’s really. I always think about the fact that the medical technology industry, while we have such a huge impact in the United States and globally, we represent thousands of professionals, you know, all different types of really incredible, impactful roles. At the end of the day, we’re a fairly small community.
And so people, you know, have a chance to navigate between roles at different types of companies. They may have started in a startup that ends up getting acquired by a larger company, and then they start to navigate through different companies. And so I think from our standpoint, we look at it as, it’s probably a little more organic, it’s a little bit more just natural in the movement of people in different places.
There’s an importance to the relationships that get built and those connections that you continue to maintain. And of course, as Edwards, we participate in AdvaMed, I sit on the board for the California Life Sciences Organization, where there’s natural opportunities for connection points with others in industry. And ultimately we’re all working together to impact and improve patient care all over the world.
And so I think that that one is a much more, you know, individual, organic, natural pathway that ends up happening with a lot of folks that work in the industry. And we probably don’t look at that as much as a place that we need to communicate other than, you know, I will say, of course, our folks that are recruiting, that are wanting to make sure people understand that Edwards is an amazing place to work.
That’s where you see probably a lot more effort in that area to be able to highlight some of the special aspects of who we are as an employer so that, you know, perhaps people will consider coming and joining us at some point.
I mean, talent is everything, and we need more talent in MedTech. So I think that makes a lot of sense. There’s so many similarities from how you’re breaking down the different audience and communication strategy to what we were just chatting about a little bit earlier in the classroom and seeing that there’s different types of students, they have different needs, and the same thing that we’re talking about, these three different pillars have different needs, and different communication styles would be the most appropriate for them. And it’s also really interesting to tie it back into leadership, is we spend a lot of time, or I spend a lot of time rather talking about individual leadership, and you’re making me think there’s a brand leadership as well.
So when you’re creating these messages, do you think about how establishing Edwards Lifesciences as a brand leader and having that, that create a feeling of trust and a feeling of support, like, does that all come together? Do you intentionally think of it as leadership, or is that just one of the side effects of what you do do?
I think it’s important that as a leader within medical technology, and I think all of us that are working in this space, we need to obviously demonstrate that trust is warranted, that you can place value in that partnership. And so actually, I would back it up and say that it starts with how we operate as a company, the culture that we create and build, and how we conduct ourselves as employees on behalf of Edwards Lifesciences, but also on behalf of the industry overall.
And with that, then comes that ability to establish leadership, demonstrate leadership, because then you’ve got the fundamentals in place where people that you’re engaging with and working with can understand that they do what they say, they mean what they say, they’re going to show up in the way that I expect, because I’ve seen that, and that is proof of how I should conduct my relationship with them, because they’ve earned it. And so it’s not about messages that you put on a paper or how you direct somebody to talk about something.
I think we have to live it first and really demonstrate that, and then it gives us the opportunity to actually be able to talk about it. And more importantly, hopefully, it’s other people that are speaking about it on your behalf rather than you having to say it yourself. So in our case, patients that have received an Edwards heart valve and have actually experienced that and experienced the impact that it’s had on their lives, so that they can speak more specifically about what that’s meant to them or physicians that have been able to be a part of clinical trials evaluating Edwards technologies and have seen that impact on their patients and what that’s meant for them to be able to, to treat these patients in a different way and on and on and on through other stakeholders throughout the healthcare ecosystem, it’s important for them to see it themselves.
And so for us, our responsibility is to demonstrate to them that this is legitimate and it is a way that they should have their opinion on the company, and then they can experience that for themselves and testify to the fact that it is leadership that they are seeing.
So what I’m hearing is that trust is critical when it comes to leadership, and that trust has to be earned.
Yes. And I think any of us that have, you know, been an employee, been in, you know, a manager, employee relationship on either side, that is fundamental, because if you don’t have the trust there, then that’s a really huge challenge that you’re going to have to overcome. And so I think it’s important for us, you know, whether it’s as individuals, whether it’s as organizations or companies, that we have to understand that the trust has to be built, and it’s our responsibility to demonstrate that. And that can be done through shared experiences, through going through challenges together, through listening and understanding what’s important to the partner that you’re working with and looking for opportunities of how you can problem solve together and how you can move through these challenges together.
And, you know, I think that’s a piece when I reflect on my career at Edwards, when I think about my team that I have a chance to work with today, and what we’re building together is really being in the thick of it together and going through some of the challenging times together and being able to listen to each other and, and give feedback where needed and be able to go through that journey together is so important because it does build that trust.
And then it means that gives you that strong foundation for where you’re going to be going ahead in the future as well.
What about globally? So I know that your role is a global role, not just regional. So how do you adapt strategies for these different markets while also still being, still honoring Edwards credo, as you mentioned? Like, how do you do that?
So in my role, I have global responsibility for the public affairs strategy for Edwards. But it is very important, and I do focus a lot on how I best collaborate with our regions as well, to ensure that our global public affairs strategy reflects the work that they’re doing, but gives them the right level of flexibility to adapt to what they need in their regions. And so we do have regional public affairs organizations that report up through either our Asian region or our broadly European region.
And I’ve had a chance to work with the leaders of these regions for many, many years. And it’s a very collaborative approach. So ensuring that I understand the challenges that they’re facing, spending time with their teams, so being in region, sitting and listening and understanding their priorities and their particular challenges, and then on the other direction, making sure that they understand where we’re looking to head from a broad Edwards global perspective.
And I appreciate, thank you, of what you mentioned that, you know, focusing on our credo, using that as a unifying factor that is universal for us. We’re all ultimately looking to make sure that patients get access to the important therapies that they need. But of course, there’s going to be individual challenges, there’s going to be individual opportunities that present themselves by country or by region.
And so ensuring that they’ve got the right level of support and tools necessary to be able to do that. And some of that comes from our team, my team, that is the global public affairs team, and some of that needs to be living with them locally. We learn a lot from each other. We collaborate very closely. My team members attend forums that they’re involved in to be able to much more deeply understand what it is that they’re focusing on and their priorities. And likewise, we have them incorporated into the work that we’re doing and reflected in the work that we’re doing.
And so it’s an important part of what we’ve been doing as a global organization over the last several years of how do we make sure that as a global company, we truly are global, that it’s not just taking an approach or a strategy that we feel like fits everywhere, because that’s not going to be the case, and making sure that we are truly incorporating that into our thought process and our strategy. And I look at it from the standpoint of relationship building as well.
That brings to mind leadership and different leadership styles. So, you know, you’re communicating that there’s not this one size fits all approach. Would you say the same when it comes to leadership? Do we have to evolve or have to differentiate our strategy depending on the regions we’re speaking to when it comes to leadership, or is it a one size fits all when it comes to strong leadership?
Yeah, I mean, I think definitely, as we think about leadership from the standpoint of whether it’s global or whether it’s just by individual. It definitely is an individual approach. And I think that can apply whether it’s at work, whether it’s in personal relationships that we have. Everybody wants to be heard and seen, and they want to be recognized for what’s important to them, what are their motivations.
And so it is very important to take a very personal approach. The beauty of what we’ve built at Edwards is we have very much focused on the strength that comes from diversity of thought and diversity of experiences. And so by nature, of embracing that and really welcoming that, and we look at it as an advantage of how we’re going to solve problems for patients, how we’re going to go after challenges.
Because, of course, if we all think the same and we’re all nodding our heads in the same way when certain challenges or topics come up, then you’re going to approach everything in the same way versus if you bring different perspectives into the conversation. By nature, you’re gonna have a little bit of debate, and sometimes it might be a little bit uncomfortable. But our belief is, at the end of the day, you’re going to come out with a stronger solution because you’ve considered things from a lot of different perspectives and aspects, and you’ve worked through what could be some of the blind spots or the pitfalls that you’re not seeing if you didn’t approach it from that approach.
And so because of that, of course, it requires leaders to really get to know the individual, really understand what is important to them, what are they looking for, what motivates them, what’s going to be something that’s going to be important to them. And, you know, each of us brings different personalities and ways of working. And so, you know, it requires a lot more attention and effort. But I would argue that the best leaders, whether it’s at Edwards or anywhere, are really focused on that individual and understanding how are you going to get the best performance out of them, how are they going to be most excited about coming in to solve some of these big problems and challenges that we’re focused on and, you know, be there and have that trusting relationship with you when it’s needed, and likewise on the other end. So being able to show that support, show that interest and show that engagement and being able to create a safe space where people feel that they can be honest and they can be transparent and have those types of conversations so that ultimately, at the end of the day, we can all achieve our goals of how we’re going to be able to help impact patients around the world.
I can definitely see how important that is. And it also brings to mind, when you mentioned diversity of perspective, do you think it’s the leader’s responsibility to have diversity in perspective, to move forward successfully?
So I would say at Edwards, it is something that we’ve considered a part of what we call our secret sauce. And so it’s one of the special ingredients that makes us such a special company is in intentionally seeking diverse perspectives. And it’s something that we celebrate, we recognize people when they do demonstrate that that is something that they’re looking to do. And I think it’s really important because what I’ve found, whether it’s in my current role or previous roles, is when I engage team members that are going to bring a different perspective, either because they come from a different part of the world or because they have a different focus to their role or their education or their training. I mean, all different types of experiences are going to play into it, it that there’s more often times where they highlight something that I may have missed. So it’s a different perspective, it is a different risk that I didn’t recognize. It’s a different opportunity that I wasn’t seeking or going after.
And so I think it, yes, is the responsibility of the leader to intentionally seek it out, but I also think it’s something that we miss a lot of benefits if we somehow ignore it. And so I think it is really important. And, you know, I remind myself, too, that again, it’s not just in the work world. It’s not just in your team that you’ve built or your colleagues that are around you. There’s been times where I’ve had opportunities like this inside of Edwards to be able to have these types of conversations.
And just in the spirit of sharing a little bit more with my daughters, of what I was working on at work, I was sharing with my youngest daughter, who’s now 13, but this was, in the last couple of years, something that I was doing here, here. And I was telling her about some of the challenges that I was, you know, being asked about, of having a growth mindset and how do you, you know, think about this?
And she said, oh, yeah, Mom, she said, we, we talk about that at school, too. And so she said, you know, I really think that you should share the fact that for you to be able to do something, you’re going to have to do something that you’ve never done before. So to, like, achieve something, it’s going to require you to try something and do something that you’ve never done before. And I was like, you, you talk about growth mindset at school.
And she’s like, yeah, of course, Mom. This is something that we, you know, talk about. And I said that that’s incredible. And I’ve never really heard it said that way. And so, I mean, coming from at that time, an 11 or 12 year old was really insightful to me and humbling and a good reminder that we can learn from everybody around us. And it’s really important for us to pay attention to that because you’re going to miss something if you are surrounding yourself with people who all think exactly like you. At certain points, it’s going to feel easy, it’s going to feel comfortable, it’s going to feel like you’re clicking along, but you’re very soon going to miss something that you otherwise wouldn’t have if you made the intentional effort to bring others around you that are bringing different viewpoints.
I couldn’t agree more with everything that you’ve just said. And it’s the perfect segue into what it means to be a woman in MedTech leadership. Being a woman in MedTech can be difficult, yes, but it’s also really powerful. And I feel like you had mentioned kind of a secret sauce of Edwards, the secret sauce of being a woman. We think differently. So there are a lot of positives that come from that. How do you think your perspective and lived experiences as a woman helps make MedTech better?
Yeah, it’s a great question. And you know, I will just say, being a female leader within MedTech, it is something that you get asked about a lot. It is something that you are prompted to think about a lot. Because what I recognize is that there’s a lot of others within the industry, within the profession, men and women that are looking for the partnership and inspiration and advice of, you know, how did you approach this type of a challenge or how did you approach this type of an opportunity?
And so, you know, I think it’s really important to think about that. And what I always try to emphasize with my team or with others that I get a chance to interact with at Edwards is, you know, this has been my experience, this is a way that I’ve approached things, but also being very open about, you know, here’s where I did something in a really poor way and I learned from it. And here, benefit from my learning from that so that you can learn and that you can hopefully apply that to what you’re doing.
But also to emphasize, I’m in it just like you are. So I’m a mother. I have teenage daughters that are in formative years. I have an incredible husband who’s an amazing partner. And we work through the same daily schedule that a lot of others are going through as well. And what people say is, you know, it’s helpful to hear that from you. It’s helpful to understand that you’re also navigating through some of the same things that I am. And I think that’s what’s important for us to always remember men or women that are working in, whether it’s MedTech or working in other careers, that we’re all encountering the same types of challenges. And some of it you’re going to see, and some of it you’re going to know and understand or people are going to share, and some of it you’re not. And so we have to remember that too, that there are people that are going through individual challenges that, you know, either they’re not ready to share or they don’t want to share.
And so I think we just need to be demonstrating common respect to each other, support to each other, being able to learn from that. And I think that’s what I’ve seen from leaders that I’ve had the privilege of working with at Edwards, others I’ve looked at around me is that that human connection and the care that they’ve demonstrated to others, the interest and engagement that they’ve had, means a lot and goes a long way.
And I think that’s something that I’ve tried to embrace and understand. And I think as women working in MedTech or other types of industries too, I think we can bring that type of characteristic of high emotional intelligence, that interest to connect with others, the ability to really listen and understand is maybe something that becomes a little bit more natural for many of us. But I think it’s something that we’ve seen demonstrated in leaders that are men and women to be able to understand and emulate and hopefully make it a place that’s a welcoming industry for all of us.
I love that so much. And let’s bring it all together. Sarah, so when you think about strong leadership, male or female, what comes to mind?
So when I think about strong leadership, and again, I’ve had the privilege of working with some incredible leaders at Edwards Lifesciences as well as, you know, being able to observe others around the industry, I think that passion for what we do and using that as the motivation and the focus every single day of knowing that there’s a patient at the end, that is going to benefit from these life changing technologies really fuels them.
It motivates them to put in the extra effort to, you know, really make sure that when they commit to somebody, whether it’s a colleague, whether it’s another stakeholder that they’re working with, they’re going to stay true to their word and they’re going to follow through on that. And, you know, you can put some trust and a foundation of partnership in that is really important and ultimately just demonstrating that care to those around them that they, they understand that we’re in this together, but there’s a human there too. And so that they need to understand that you’re going to have good days and you’re going to have bad days and you’re going to be excited about certain, you’re going to be frustrated by other things that you encounter.
And really looking at the individuals, knowing them, understanding them, you know, being able to form those relationships of trust so that you can come to work and be in it together and be motivated with what you’re doing, but also understand what’s happening, you know, when you’re stepping away from the computer, when you’re not traveling together and understand what’s really behind that person and help to bring that into the work relationship that you have.
Because I’ve been at Edwards for so long, I’ve been here more than 18 years. I formed some incredible partnerships and friendships, incredible people that I respect and I value. We spend a lot of time together and it’s important that I know them and they know me. And that I think really translates well into our work. And I think that’s a key piece of leadership, of being able to know the people around you so that you can have those productive relationships and care about each other and work together toward a productive goal.
I love that so much. Sarah Huoh, Corporate Vice President, Public Affairs for Edwards Lifesciences, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. I loved every second.
Thank you, Kayleen. I really appreciate it.
And with that, we bring the episode to a close. My conversation with Sarah reminds me that trust is not a tagline, it’s a practice. And it’s earned through quiet, consistent behaviors. In our conversation, she says that trust has to be built. We have to live it first before we could talk about it. And isn’t that true? Sarah shows us that trust becomes leadership’s real currency with patients, with policymakers, with our teams, and even with ourselves.
So a huge thank you to Sarah for bringing her level of honesty and thoughtfulness to our conversation and for framing trust in a way that feels actionable for MedTech. Speaking of, I have to say it was such a gift bringing Confluent Medical Technologies into the studio. Spending time with Brittany Mai is always grounding. She lives the very theme that we explored today and her reflections on partnerships, showing up for your colleagues, and how trust informs her leadership. As both an established marketer and as a new mom — that brings the theme home. Confluent has been an incredible supporter of DeviceTalks and the Women in MedTech Community. If you want to learn more about the work they’re doing, from Nitinol to the material science breakthroughs their teams are investing in, please visit their website at www.confluentmedical.com. that’s C-O-N-F-L-U-E-N-T medical.com.
But before you go, I’d love to know what surfaced for you when you think about trust. How you build it, where it’s been tested, how it shows up in our own leadership. What comes to mind?
Find me on LinkedIn, send me a message and let me know. I’m always interested in how these conversations land for you. And while you’re on LinkedIn, please connect with our incredible editorial director, Tom Salemi. And don’t forget to click Follow on DeviceTalks. Speaking of clicking Follow, find us on YouTube as well, and follow the DeviceTalks Podcast Network on your favorite podcast player so that you don’t miss any episode from any of our MedTech podcasts. I’ll be back in a few weeks with the next episode of the Women in MedTech podcast. Until then, thank you for listening.
