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Surgical teams that roll the patented SurgASSIST computerized cutting and stapling system into their operating rooms know that their patients will likely recover more quickly and less painfully than they would have only a few years ago.
What the teams and their patients probably don’t know is that a different kind of team, including Michael Whitman ’82 and at least half a dozen other Lafayette alumni, worked to bring that system — and the company that sells it — into being.
Whitman, president and chief executive officer of Power Medical Interventions Corp., based in New Hope, Pa., began laying the groundwork for the firm in early 2000. Today, 268 medical institutions worldwide are using the system, which includes a power console, a flexible shaft that enters a patient’s body and can reach remote anatomical sites, and digital loading units — the cutters and staplers.
“I was always very interested in minimally invasive surgical techniques,” says Whitman, an economics and business graduate who began his career in sales at the former Airco in Bethlehem, Pa. He soon moved on to sales and marketing roles at Ethicon Inc., a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary in Somerville, N.J., and helped created Ethicon Endo Surgery Inc., where he helped launch what is now the leading circular stapler worldwide. He also served as director of market development, surgical pharmacological products, for Johnson & Johnson, and director of marketing for Synthes Spine, another Johnson & Johnson subsidiary. Finally, he joined Johnson & Johnson Interventional Systems and participated in the launch of the firm’s Peripheral Vascular Stent business, and became a founding member of its Cordis Endovascular business.
Whitman says his varied experience with Johnson & Johnson, coupled with a stint as vice president of marketing at Olympus America, where he led a team in combining videoscopy equipment with computer software, gave him the knowledge and experience to strike out on his own.
“It really was an amalgamation of experiences,” he says, explaining that he’d learned a good deal about anatomy and physiology in his work at Johnson & Johnson, then learned about advanced electronics in his work for Olympus. “It was a leap, but it was an inspired leap.”
A little help from some Lafayette friends
The leap began in the basement of Whitman’s home in Upper Makefield Township, Pa., just outside New Hope, where he sought help from his wife, Linda Tedori Whitman ’83, a metallurgical engineer and materials specialist.
“She and I drew up all the business plans,” he says, explaining that once they’d finished that first step, he flew to Scottsdale, Ariz., to meet with Gerald Dorros, medical director of the William Dorros-Isadore Feuer Interventional Cardiovascular Disease Foundation and the third U.S. physician to perform coronary angioplasty. Whitman says he knew Dorros from his work at Johnson & Johnson, and was hoping he would serve as his partner in the new venture.
“He agreed to do it on the same day,” Whitman says.
Whitman also invited his classmate, Gregory Ginsberg ’82, associate professor and director of endoscopic surgery at University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, to serve as the new company’s medical director and as a member of its medical advisory board.
Other Lafayette alumni involved in the endeavor are Dr. Bruce Stouch ’81, associate professor of biostatics and epidemiology at Philadelphia College of Medicine and former director of biostatistics and scientific data management at Johnson & Johnson; David McNally ’83, chairman and chief executive officer of Zevex International Inc., a medical products company; Ron Sickles ’66, director of medical product development for EDGE Medica, a medical product design and development firm in Newtown, Pa.; and David Anshen ’90, a manager with W.L. Gore Corp., which manufactures materials needed in the flexible shaft.
Whitman says that while he knew Ginsberg well and knew several of the other alumni at least a little bit, he was surprised to learn that Anshen was a Lafayette alumnus when he met with him to discuss a working arrangement.
For Whitman, the concept of teaming with Lafayette alums to take on challenges is a natural, not unlike the days when he and his Leopard teammates faced — and conquered — rivals from much larger schools on the varsity basketball court.
Also important to Whitman is the Delaware River. He grew up in Holland Township, N.J., not far from its banks. He graduated from Delaware Valley High School, then moved north to Lafayette, and later south to New Hope. The new company’s logo features a stylized white river on a blue background, and its motto is “the continuous flow of innovations.”
Whitman says much of that flow is driven by the education he received, both in academics and life skills, at Lafayette.
“Lafayette provided me with a well-rounded education,” he says. “I’m well-read because of that experience, and it really has paid off large dividends.”