Why Operational Impact Is Becoming the New Currency in Medtech
A founder’s perspective heading into LSI USA ’26
Over the last year, one theme has become impossible to ignore across boardrooms, hospitals, and investor meetings alike: operational impact is moving from a “nice to have” to the decisive factor in medtech adoption.
Clinical excellence will always matter. But in 2026, health systems are under historic pressure—staffing constraints, inflation, supply‑chain variability, and rising procedural demand. Procurement teams and clinical leaders are increasingly aligned on a simple question:
Does this technology make the workflow more reliable, faster, and easier to scale—today?
The companies that answer “yes” with evidence, not aspiration, are the ones earning budgets and attention.
From features to friction removal
For the past decade, many device categories competed on incremental features—slightly better performance, a new mode, a nicer interface. Those advantages are now table stakes. What differentiates winning solutions is their ability to remove friction in the clinical pathway:
Reduce variability so outcomes are more consistent across sites and teams.
Improve predictability so scheduling, staffing, and logistics become easier, not harder.
Extend usable time in time‑critical workflows, giving clinicians more options and reducing waste.
Integrate cleanly with existing processes so the burden on staff goes down, not up.
That’s operational ROI—and it’s measurable.
Why this matters across medtech (not just one specialty)
This shift is visible in cardiovascular, oncology, perioperative care, imaging, and yes—transplantation. Different domains, same pressures: clinical teams want technology that strengthens the foundations of care delivery rather than adding complexity.
In practical terms, this means investors and hospital buyers are rewarding solutions that:
Translate quickly from pilot to routine practice
Offer clear cost‑to‑value logic at the service line level
Can be implemented with minimal training debt
Create data and quality signals that support continuous improvement
Where ScubaTx fits
At ScubaTx, we apply this operational lens to organ preservation. Transplantation is one of the most time‑sensitive, capacity‑constrained areas in medicine. Reliability and repeatability matter as much as biology.
Our focus is simple: make preservation more controlled, more consistent, and more predictable—so the right organ reaches the right patient in the right condition, with less variability and more usable time for the teams who make transplants possible.
We think of this as active organ protection rather than passive transport. It’s a mindset shift that aligns with what hospitals and OPOs are asking for: better control of the critical steps that determine whether a transplant goes ahead—and how well the patient does afterward.
What investors are asking in 2026
As we head into LSI USA ’26 (Dana Point, CA), conversations with investors increasingly revolve around execution clarity:
What operational bottleneck are you removing?
How do you measure the improvement? (time, variability, throughput, consistency)
What does adoption look like in the real world? (training, workflow, integration)
What are the near‑term milestones that de‑risk scale‑up? (regulatory, manufacturing, first customers)
These are the right questions—and they reflect a market that values evidence of operational impact as much as technical novelty.
The decade ahead: infrastructure wins
Many of the most transformative medtech companies of the next decade will look like infrastructure: not always the flashiest tools, but the ones that make entire clinical pathways function better. Preservation belongs in this category. When underlying steps become more reliable, everything downstream—utilization, outcomes, patient experience—improves.
That’s where we’re placing our bets.
Meet us at LSI USA ’26
If you’re an investor, clinical partner, or operator interested in technologies that deliver measurable operational impact, we’d welcome a conversation at LSI USA ’26 in Dana Point.
Topic we’re most excited to discuss: the shift from transport to active organ protection—and what it unlocks for reliability, scheduling, and outcomes.
What we’ll bring: clear milestones, an execution roadmap, and a focus on repeatable value in real‑world workflows.
Let’s talk in Dana Point.
— David Campbell, CEO, ScubaTx