Working in the Medical Device Industry

When working in Guidant and Boston Scientific, a special event for many was the Quality Day. This was an annual event that we listened to the stories from patients with a pacemaker, an ICD or a CRT.

The stories from pacemaker or CRT patients were usually pretty moving. Many patients with a pacemaker today, were because they had a syncope event, fainted suddenly; these are especially debilitating for seniors. It was warming to hear when they claimed the little engine in their hearts will always keep them going. The CRT patients could not stop talking about golfing again. CRT often had the biggest impact on quality of life in patients with heart failure. It is one thing being sick, felling life is getting better as getting older is a powerful message to share with anyone.

The stories from ICD patients are quite different. Not many can survive a sudden cardiac death, get a device, and tell you a story. The best one I heard was from my table tennis club. Teri is a 65 year old young lady, plays an aggressive style ping pong. She takes the first opportunity to attack, and will keep hit the ball so hard, after twenty minutes, she would go “Quan, you need to take a break”. During these breaks, I found out Teri had an ICD, and she competed in the World Senior Championship. Teri also had a sister in Germany and they used to compete together. They lived for a few months together here to prepare for an upcoming Championship. The sister then went home, and they would meet at the game in Europe. The sister never arrived. She passed away suddenly at home. Teri later found out the family carried a congenital condition (long-QT syndrome) that is a high risk for sudden cardiac death. She was happy to learn what I do, and I will remember what she said “Quan, this device could have saved my sister’s life”

Left Boston Scientific, I joined a small medical device company in developing an implantable device for treating obstructive sleep apnea. This is a condition affects 15 million Americans. The upper airway obstruction can occur hundreds of times each night, interrupting sleep and causing responses that lead to high blood pressure, heart problems and cancers. My favorite part of the job is to attend sleep studies that we find out in real time if the therapy is working. I also enjoyed the little chat before saying good night and asking patients how the device worked. Many patients have apneas for years and tried many different treatments. Some of them would also ask what I do. I told them how I worked with the surgeons in the operating room during implants, lived half a year in Belgium to work with a hospital that was doing our first clinical trial, and now travel around the country to help find a good setting for their device. One of them said, “Quan, you have the best job.”