Welcome to Our Medtech Talk Podcast Channel
Too often we define the Medtech sector by the number of dollars raised, IPOs helped or companies sold. But the focus neglects the very foundation of the sector - the People. Join the Medtech Talk Podcast each week to hear from entrepreneurs, investors and executives who spend their days developing the tools that make sick people well and health care more efficient.
Derek Herrera, founder and CEO of Bright Uro, grew up in a military family with a curious mind and a skill for building things. After graduating, he entered the Naval Academy, studied systems engineering and robotics, and became a Special Operations Marine Raider. When an injury left him paralyzed from the waist down, he launched a new career to improve the lives of spinal cord injury patients through medical innovation.
Herrera speaks with podcast host Geoff Pardo about his extensive military career and the leadership skills fostered during that time. He also talks about his first entrepreneurial pursuit creating a fully internal and remotely controlled device for chronic urinary retention, a common issue for spinal cord injury patients. Herrera discusses his new business, Bright Uro, which leverages advanced technology to create urological diagnostic devices. He says, “Not only will we offer a superior patient and customer user experience, a more comfortable technology, and improve clinical efficiency, we’re unlocking data that’s never been obtained before because there’s never been the capability to do so.”
Derek Herrera is the founder and CEO of Bright Uro, a venture-backed medical device company developing diagnostic urological devices and leveraging advanced hardware, software, and data science (AI/ML). Before this, Herrera was the founder and CTO of UroDev Medical, formerly Spinal Singularity. This venture-backed medical device company designed the first fully internal, wirelessly controlled bladder management system for men with chronic urinary retention. Herrera founded UroDev Medical in 2015 after graduating from the UCLA Anderson EMBA program.
Before entering the medical device industry, Derek served as a Marine Raider in the Special Operations community. He led Marines and Sailors across the globe until he was shot and paralyzed from the chest down in 2012 while leading his team in Afghanistan. Derek has served on the boards of multiple non-profit organizations, including the Marine Raider Foundation, American Technion Society, and MedTechVets.
Derek lives in San Clemente, CA, with his wife, Maura, his twin boys, Hudson and Hunter, and his dogs, Shaggy and Donut.
