Innovator Insights: A Conversation with MTLP Grad Andrew Willwerth

As a regulatory affairs specialist with Johnson & Johnson MedTech, part of Andrew Willwerth’s job is interacting with professionals from multiple fields - from marketing and engineering to legal and medical teams. Andrew, a graduate of the MedTech Leadership program, says he’s able to effectively communicate with them because, thanks to what he learned here at NEMIC, he’s able to “speak their language.”

In this episode of Innovator Insights, Andrew discusses what attracted him to NEMIC's MedTech Leadership Program and how it prepared him not only to land a job in MedTech but excel in the field.

Transcript:

00:00 Williamson:

Hi there. My name is Andrew Williamson. I'm the Business and Engagement Coordinator at NEMIC, the New England Medical Innovation Center, and I'm joined today by Andrew Willwerth, a former participant in our MedTech Leadership Program.

For those who may not be familiar, we are a med tech and med device incubator and accelerator located in Providence, Rhode Island. We work with entrepreneurs and startups across a range of health tech innovations. We offer two types of programming:

We have our NEMIC Accelerator, as well as our MedTech Leadership Program, of which Andrew is a graduate. The program is designed to provide a holistic overview of everything needed to commercialize a medical device.

It includes an array of classes organized across different verticals, covering everything from product launch and market strategy to intellectual property (IP) and defensibility. It also covers launching a company, funding it, and pitching it.

Both programs aim to advance medical innovations in a particular field for entrepreneurs.

And with that, welcome, Andrew—my namesake and fellow cohort.

Willwerth:

Thank you for having me. I am happy to be here.

Williamson:

Thank you so much. So maybe just some introductions about yourself and your educational background and how you came to us.

1:19 Willwerth:

Yeah, of course. I just graduated about eight months ago from Brown University, where I was an undergrad.

I studied biomedical engineering, and my background is in medical device college internships and early career explorations.

They were all in that field, and I'm really interested in not just the engineering side but the whole med tech field as a whole.

I found NEMIC actually through an announcement from one of the student clubs that I was a part of, just an email chain.

One day, an email came through with an announcement about this cool program that was being offered at a nonprofit in Rhode Island.

I looked into it, and the MedTech Leadership Program looked like something really interesting and aligned with how I wanted to further my education. And here we are.

02:26.4 Williamson

Very good. Did you have, prior to taking the MedTech Leadership Program did you have a particular career goal set out in mind, or was it a little murky at that time?

I'm curious sort of what your mindset was prior to enrolling.

Willwerth:

As I said, my undergrad degree was in biomedical engineering.

I knew that I wanted to be in the MedTech space, but my only experience and frame of reference was really from an engineering point of view.

I really enjoy the technical side, but I wasn't yet convinced that was something I could see myself doing as a career.

And I didn't really have much exposure to other areas within the field, whether it be intellectual property or regulatory. The MedTech Leadership Program was really my first exposure to a lot of these areas.

It really broadened my horizons as to what I could do. Not only what I was qualified for after the program but also what career paths were out there for me.

3:29 Williamson:

So you mentioned this sort of came to you in a forum at your school.

What about it eventually drew you in and made you think, "Yeah, this is something that's good for me and I think I'd like to do it?"

I mean, students are super busy, right? You have any number of things you could be doing with your time.

Was there a particular thing that made you say, "Yeah, I'm gonna take this course?"

Willwerth:

I consider myself someone who really likes to try new things.

So getting to the first class was a no-brainer for me because if I didn't like it, it wouldn't be for me, but I had nothing to lose.

So I came to that first class, and that was really what grabbed me.

Not only because Aiden and Lydia introduced the class and this wide array of topics that interested me, but because of my co-participants.

This cohort of about 20 other participants ranged from medical students to industry professionals who were experts in their field with 20 years of experience to mid-career professionals who were looking for a change.

They had backgrounds in engineering and regulatory, some with little to no MedTech experience at all.

I really saw the value in exposing myself to this collection of unique experiences and a group of people who all had different things to offer me.

05:05 Williamson:

Reflecting now on the program as a whole and your experience there, what were your biggest takeaways from having done the program?

Willwerth:

Sure. First of all, NEMIC broadly and the MedTech Leadership Program really made me realize that innovation is for everyone within Rhode Island, within the U.S., and across the world.

I would say another one of my big takeaways was that the community you build around you is key to innovation.

It's key to creating a new product. It's key to understanding a market and building something new, whether it be an app or a device.

Understanding the resources and care that NEMIC and the MTLP put into the participants made me realize that if I have an idea and I have this community of support behind me, anyone can do it.

06:06 Williamson

Now, being on the other side of the program, I think I want to shift gears a little bit and talk about your current role.

So now you're employed at Johnson & Johnson, a large strategic company. Do you feel as though there was a benefit to having gone through the program from a professional standpoint, in terms of your positioning?

I'm curious to hear what about that might have come through—whether it was in your selection process when looking for employers or how some of the interactions went when you were applying to these places.

Any insights there, I would love to hear.

Willwerth:

Yeah, for sure.

First of all, the MedTech Leadership Program prepared me incredibly well for moving into what I would say was a new space for me.

Beyond students moving into the workforce, I think it also extends to anyone mid-career who is changing focus areas or switching sectors entirely.

As we talked about, this kind of exposure to all these different background areas is so valuable.

When you're working in a larger company like Johnson & Johnson, every day I’m working with engineers, legal teams, medical affairs, and marketing professionals.

Being able to speak their language because of the classes I took at NEMIC really positions me well and makes me better at my job.

And I do think it made me a better candidate when I was looking for work, for sure.

07:45 Williamson

What advice would you give to anybody who might be thinking about enrolling in the MedTech Leadership Program?

Are there certain insights or pearls of wisdom you'd want to share?

Willwerth:

I would certainly say that you will never regret it.

There is no amount of time that wouldn’t be worth the invaluable experience and insight you will gain as part of the program.

The program really allows you to be a better, more well-rounded professional in any setting.

I can't recommend it enough, and I think it truly is bolstering the Rhode Island ecosystem as a whole.

Boston has a big, bubbling biotech system, but Rhode Island is right behind because of NEMIC, universities, and health systems.

Providence and Rhode Island as a whole are poised to become a hub of innovation, and NEMIC and the MedTech Leadership Program will play a really important part in that.

09:03 Williamson

So thinking about people going through the program, how would you say participants can best maximize their experience?

Or is there any way they should prepare? Not that preparation is required by any stretch, but how can they get the most out of the program?

Willwerth:

I would say be open to learning.

Be open to being surrounded by people from different backgrounds and different professional areas.

And be curious. It’s a program designed for people who want to learn.

I think it is best suited and really effective for those who are curious about the med tech ecosystem.

I would say come into it with an eagerness to learn and excitement to meet new people.

09:58 Williamson

Very good. Yeah, thinking about cases like yours, of which it seems with each passing year, each passing cohort, there are more and more—cases like yours are precisely what we had in mind as one of the groups that would benefit from taking this type of program.

So, perhaps an undergraduate or graduate student who is seeking to enter the workforce and being able to bolster their skills, add to their skill set, and make them more competitive in the health technology sector.

And so, you know, it's always heartening to hear people going through the program confirming that this is in fact the case—that you were able to take all that away and now you find yourself gainfully employed by a strategic.

So looking back at your personal journey, your time with the program, I’m curious—what are you most proud of so far? If you had to boil it down.

Willwerth:

The other thing that I wanted to touch on was that I was working on a product, on a startup, when I was in the Med Tech Leadership Program.

Many participants in the program are, and many are not—it is by no means a requirement. But the program was incredibly valuable for making really important connections.

I was gaining exposure to a lot of fields I didn't understand, and when you are working on a startup, you don't always have the time to sit around and learn.

So while I was learning about reimbursement, having an industry professional teach it to me—who I could then go to and say, "Hey, could we connect later? I have some more questions for you, and I'm working on something of my own that I'd really love to run by you"—that was invaluable.

There’s this whole network of professionals who are ready to help with the next generation of innovation.

Beyond anyone who's just excited about learning, I think the program is incredibly valuable for anyone who has an idea.

For me, when I first started the program, that idea was brand new—it was just a notebook drawing.

By the end of it, we were patent pending.

You can start from anywhere. I had co-participants in my cohort who were already looking at funding, already moving forward in the process.

And I think the Med Tech Leadership Program would be valuable to anyone at any stage of that journey.

12:41 Williamson

Yeah, I heard you touch on two really critical things that I think are key to the Med Tech Leadership Program, the build-out of it.

One of those is that there’s a practical application element behind it, and I think this differentiates the in-person programming a little bit from, say, e-learning or even a classroom setting. I mean, it's built with a classroom setting in mind, but having that access to the industry professional, who certainly is a subject matter expert, but is either practicing or formally practiced—critical.

To be able to go to them with something like a napkin sketch or, on the other end, something that's already seeking funding to work through all those particulars is quite rare and probably, you know, arguably invaluable.

Willwerth:

Yeah. And for students, I would say there's another layer of value, which is that I talked to a number of those professionals about what their career path was like and how they started and how they got where they were, and kind of their favorite parts of their field and focus area.

Because I wasn't necessarily sure at the time what path I wanted to take. So speaking to FDA or regulatory professionals really not only made me a better candidate but also made me more passionate about the field.

The same goes for any number of focus areas, but I think that's a really important focus point for students who might be considering enrolling in the program.

Williamson:

Well, thank you so much for your time today. Andrew Woolworth, our former Med Tech Leadership participant, we are so thrilled to be speaking with you and happy for you. We look forward to staying in touch.

For those of you watching, certainly for more information, you can visit nemec.org. We have a page there with all of our information about our programming or sign up for our newsletter, which we send out every month, and you can find it at nec.org/news.

With that, thank you very much.

Willwerth:

Thank you.