Advertise on podcast: Gradical Podcast - The Podcast about Plastics in Medical Technology

Want to get PVC out of your tubing without losing the handling, the bonding or your margin? This episode walks through a real PVC-free tubing case study from start to finish. In this episode you are going to learn: - Why PVC has stayed in drainage sets, feeding tubes and IV tubing - Why going PVC-free and DEHP-free pays off: Nordic tenders and fewer biocompatibility headaches - The drop-in requirements: kink radius, Shore hardness, transparency, bonding and sterilization - How we run the plastic selection - The four candidates and how they fare in the comparison - When food grade is good enough, and why comparing old non-medical PVC to a medical-grade alternative is unfair Want the requirements checklist from this episode? Connect with Lucas Pianegonda on LinkedIn and send him a DM asking for the checklist. ABOUT THE PODCAST MedTech Sustainability by Design: how medtech companies build more sustainable devices, one material decision at a time. Book a free consultation: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical Gradical: https://www.gradical.ch If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

How do you get a medical device to market faster? Dr. Stuart Grant has over 25 years of experience in medtech, a PhD in biomedical engineering and multiple patents, and today he helps startups get to market approval. In this episode you are going to learn: - Why product development is a decision-making process, and what slow decisions cost - Stuart's trick to stop scope creep - How to state your unmet clinical need and intended purpose - Why "do it as early as possible" is bad advice for startups - How to observe clinicians, and when you have interviewed enough users - How to turn user needs into design requirements - Why design requirements are never frozen - Why compliance and business requirements belong in separate lists CONNECT WITH DR. STUART GRANT: [Stuart's LinkedIn URL] | [Company website] ABOUT THE PODCAST: MedTech Sustainability by Design: how medtech companies build more sustainable devices, one material decision at a time. Book a free consultation: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical Gradical: https://www.gradical.ch Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

Want a lower-carbon pipette tip without touching your mold, your process or your validation? This episode walks through a real conductive pipette tip case study from start to finish. In this episode you are going to learn: - Why conductive pipette tips are so hard to change - The brief: lower CO2, same performance, minimal price premium, same mold - How we run the plastic selection - The shortlist and which candidate came out on top - Why our first AI run got it wrong - What to align with your suppliers, molders and CMOs before you switch Want the plastic requirements checklist from this episode? Connect with Lucas Pianegonda on LinkedIn and send him a DM asking for the checklist. ABOUT THE PODCAST MedTech Sustainability by Design: how medtech companies build more sustainable devices, one material decision at a time. Book a free consultation: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical Gradical: https://www.gradical.ch If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

Want to use AI for medtech plastic selection without getting wrong answers fast? This is our six-month journey to a fully automated AI workflow, including every mistake we made along the way. In this episode you are going to learn: - Why "just ask AI" fails, and what you need before you automate anything - The three medtech defaults that keep bad materials in devices - What AI is brilliant at today - How we got to a database with 30k+ grades - How we cut quote requests by modelling prices - How AI compares to a human expert, and where it beat me Want our GradeMatch skill for your own system? It includes the questionnaire, the process and the value analysis. Book a free call below and Lucas will help you set it up. ABOUT THE PODCAST MedTech Sustainability by Design: how medtech companies build more sustainable devices, one material decision at a time. Book a free consultation: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical Gradical: https://www.gradical.ch If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

Can one product be a drug and a medical device at the same time? Subhi Saadeh, founder of Let's Combinate and host of the Let's Combinate podcast, has spent his career at that line, from IV bags at Baxter to device quality on the mRNA flu vaccine at Pfizer. In this episode: - The three types of combination products: integral, co-packaged and cross-labeled - Why pharma and device teams use the same words and mean different things - What human factors studies show about real users - Why patients prefer single-use pens, and what that means for sustainability - Why drugs and devices define quality differently, and why that is fine CONNECT WITH SUBHI SAADEH: https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhi-saadeh-1169aa21/ | Let's Combinate: https://www.letscombinate.com ABOUT THE PODCAST: MedTech Sustainability by Design is the show for people choosing better plastics in medical technology. Book a free consultation: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical Gradical: https://www.gradical.ch Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

A special episode hosted by Swiss Medtech, with Barbara Mettler asking the questions. Prof. Dr. Martin Scheringer from ETH Zurich, toxicologist Arne Jaksch and Lucas Pianegonda work through what medtech companies should actually do about PFAS this year. In this episode: - Where PFAS sit beyond the product: process water, piping, cooling and cutting fluids, packaging, processing aids - Why your supply chain will be interrupted before any regulatory grace period ends, and what to do about it now - How to find PFAS in your own company without burying your suppliers in questionnaires - Why replacing a PFAS in an existing product takes about three years, and why new development is the place to act - Essential use and non-essential use, and why what is essential today may not be essential next year This episode was co-hosted by Swiss Medtech. CONNECT: Swiss Medtech https://www.swiss-medtech.ch | Barbara Mettler https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-mettler-a5705722/ | Martin Scheringer, ETH Zurich | Arne Jaksch, Jaksch LifeScience Consulting https://www.jlsc.ch ABOUT THE PODCAST: MedTech Sustainability by Design is the show for people choosing better plastics in medical technology. Book a free consultation: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical . Gradical: https://www.gradical.ch Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

From September 2026, the EU stops accepting green claims that nobody has verified. Self-certified labels are banned. Fines run up to 4% of annual revenue. I talked to James Connelly, CEO of My Green Lab, the non-profit behind the ACT Ecolabel, the first third-party verified eco-label for laboratory products. Over 5,300 labs in 62 countries have engaged with My Green Lab certification, including 42 of the 50 largest biotech and pharma companies. In this episode: - How the ACT 2.0 label's 100-point score actually works, and why there is no on-site audit - What the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive bans, and what "verifiable" means for your own claims - The line between a defensible CO2 claim and one that gets you in regulatory trouble - Why medical devices don't have an ACT-style label yet, and what would have to change first CONNECT WITH JAMES CONNELLY: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-connelly-55909024/ ABOUT THE PODCAST: MedTech Sustainability by Design is the show for people choosing better plastics in medical technology. Book a free consultation: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical Gradical: https://www.gradical.ch Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

European hospitals are already scoring sustainability in tenders. Joachim Almdal from Care Pathway Consulting explains why the device is only 10 to 15% of the emissions across a care pathway, and why that changes what you optimise and who you have to convince. In this episode: - What a care pathway is, and why looking at the device alone moves the problem around instead of solving it - Why European healthcare providers cannot hit their 2035 and 2045 targets without pushing requirements onto suppliers - Where you can charge a green premium, where sustainability is only a tiebreaker, and why segmentation decides which one you are in - Why your salespeople will dodge the sustainability question unless you train them, and what that costs you in tenders CONNECT WITH JOACHIM: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/joachim-espeland-almdal-017a6973/ | Care Pathway Consulting https://carepathwayconsulting.com | Sustainable Healthcare Podcast, on Spotify and Apple ABOUT THE PODCAST: MedTech Sustainability by Design is the show for people choosing better plastics in medical technology. Book a free consultation: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical . Gradical: https://www.gradical.ch Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

Why are most catheters still glued and heat-shrunk together by hand? Simone Maccagnan from Gimac International makes the case for microextrusion: single continuous parts, controlled molecular weight and crystallinity, and dynamic extrusion that changes stiffness along one tube. In this episode: - How microextrusion replaces multi-part catheter assemblies, and why that matters for validation, scrap and patient safety - What dynamic extrusion is, and where the physics gets hard - How inline measurement cuts revalidation and total cost - An honest take on fluoropolymers, PFAS and where automation helps This episode was sponsored by Gimac. GET IN TOUCH WITH GIMAC: https://www.gimac.com ABOUT THE PODCAST: MedTech Sustainability by Design is the show for people choosing better plastics in medical technology. Book a free consultation: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical . Gradical: https://www.gradical.ch Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

What is the most sustainable catheter we could design from scratch today? Damian Carr, founder of Eyedea MedTech Education and author of the Catheter R&D Handbook, joins me for a full case study. We break down how catheters are built today, why the process is still manual and fluoropolymer-heavy, and what a modern reel-to-reel line would look like. We cover PFAS-free liners, UHMWPE, dynamic co-extrusion, same-polymer designs that can be recycled, and the cost reality: 20 to 25% of today's cost at five times the output once the line runs. Damian is clear that there is no one-to-one replacement for fluoropolymers, so the job is to match the property the application actually needs. We also talk about the human side. The "point of no return" in the operating room, and why engineers need to sit with surgeons before they design the next device. This episode is sponsored by Masterflex Group. Masterflex | Schlauchhersteller | Schläuche und Verbindungen  Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

Can bio-based plastic move past the nice story and scale in regulated MedTech? Tim Wagler is Commercial Director EMEA for Braskem's I'm green bio-based portfolio, polyethylene made from sugarcane instead of fossil feedstock. Braskem just launched an I'm green bio-based medical grade. In this episode: - What "physical content" bio-based means and how it differs from mass balance - Why fossil prices are spiking and bio-based is no longer the expensive option - The supply and land-use question, and why sugarcane uses 0.03% of Brazil's land today - Why bio-based is not biodegradable, and the claims you can actually make - Where a drop-in bio-based polyethylene fits in medical and pharma CONNECT WITH TIM Tim Wagler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-wagler-891436a4/ Braskem I'm green: https://www.braskem.com/imgreen/landingpage ABOUT THE PODCAST MedTech Sustainability by Design is the Gradical podcast on choosing better plastics and building better medical devices. Book a free consultation: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical Gradical: https://www.gradical.ch Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

How does a company with 120,000 colleagues and 500,000 products put a number on its carbon footprint and actually act on it? Matthew Yamatin is Global Director Sustainability at Thermo Fisher Scientific. He built the corporate sustainability program from scratch after joining in 2022 and now runs it across eight business groups. In this episode: - The scalable method Thermo Fisher uses to calculate product carbon footprints across half a million products - Why mass balance is the only realistic path to non-fossil plastics in a regulated industry - How biogenic carbon accounting actually works, and where the greenwashing debate sits - Why bio-based plastics stay tied to the oil price, and what it takes to decouple them - How to keep a sustainability program simple enough to move If you work in sustainability, procurement, or product development in life sciences or medtech, this gives you a model you can copy. Connect with Matthew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyamatin/ Thermo Fisher Scientific: https://www.thermofisher.com 00:00 How a 120,000-person company tackles sustainability at scale 01:16 The shampoo aisle problem 06:21 Inside Thermo Fisher 12:43 Scope 1, 2, 3 and the GHG Protocol 15:23 PCF vs CCF 17:50 The scalable PCF method 24:21 Why mass balance is the only scalable path 30:27 Biogenic carbon explained 40:59 Why bio-based costs more 44:10 Building a program from scratch 49:33 Find your North Star KPI 55:14 Closing Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

"Do not do ego-design." A professor told Bart Verleije that in school, and it shaped how he has built medical devices ever since. Bart is Commercial Director at Voxdale, a Belgian design and engineering firm, with more than 1,400 projects over 19 years. He explains how a napkin sketch becomes a certified, manufacturable device, and where most MedTech projects go wrong before they reach a patient. In this episode: - His BURST framework: Business, User, Regulatory, Sustainability, Technology - Why design for manufacturability has to start on day one - How to stop feature creep and trade off conflicting requirements - The Ergotrics story: an inflatable system for turning and proning patients If you develop devices, this one will change how you scope your next project. Connect with Bart: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bartverleije/ Voxdale: https://www.voxdale.be 00:00 From a napkin sketch to a certified device 00:56 Meet Bart Verleije: 1,400+ projects, 19 years at Voxdale 01:45 Commit to your product before you build it 05:05 "Do not do ego-design" 06:42 Why every stakeholder needs at least a neutral stance 09:56 The BURST framework: Business, User, Regulatory, Sustainability, Technology 15:46 Design for manufacturability from day one 20:30 The operational cost teams overlook 23:20 A healthy take on AI in documentation 28:29 Database-first documentation and regulation as code 30:13 The conservation of misery: trading off requirements 34:04 Only five value drivers make the board 37:28 "How do you know this?" Breaking false requirements 40:11 Over-requirement is the biggest cost driver 41:33 From a highway traffic jam to proning patients 45:10 The toothpaste factory and the 20-dollar fan 48:17 Bart's advice: commit, talk to experts, stay in your lane 55:28 Closing Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

Most sustainable plastics cost two to six times more than oil-based alternatives. That's why you don't see them everywhere. Alex Braun decided to fix that. Alex is the Chairman of Pillar Ltd, an Israeli industrial R&D company with 26 years of experience building materials for the world's largest manufacturers. Out of that work came three startups: PlasticBack, which chemically recycles PVC at under 100 degrees Celsius. Snow Polymers, which makes bio-based plastic at oil prices without requiring new machinery. And Inteligels, a smart wound care polymer that washes off with cold water instead of being peeled off a burn. Here's what we get into: Why most sustainable plastics fail commercially before they ever reach the marketHow Snow Polymers makes bio-based plastic price-competitive with fossil fuels using industrial waste as feedstockWhy PVC is the fourth-largest plastic produced but the last to be recycled, and what PlasticBack does about itHow Inteligels eliminates the most painful procedure in hospitalsThe R&D model that lets Pillar Ltd take risks that neither startups nor corporates canThis episode is sponsored by Pillar Ltd. If you want to make your products more sustainable, let's talk: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical 🔗 CONNECT WITH Pillar Ltd: https://www.Pillar Ltd-ltd.com/about-us 🔗 CONNECT WITH US: 🎧 Apple Podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gradical-podcast-the-podcast-about-plastics-in/id1773569554 🟢 Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/4vNQ6rPE2CQUGgQtEY3sYq 📺 YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@GradicalGmbH 🌍 Gradical: https://gradical.ch/  📩 Work with us: [email protected] #MedTechSustainabilityByDesign #GradicalPodcast #SustainablePlastics #Bioplastics #ChemicalRecycling #PVC #WoundCare #DeepTech #MaterialScience Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

Over a billion autoinjectors are used every year. Almost all of them are single-use. Almost all of that plastic gets incinerated. John Palmer-Felgate spent 30 years designing medical devices. At some point, he decided to actually fix the problem. John is the Founder and CTO of Eco-Inject, a UK startup that has built a sustainable autoinjector from the ground up using 100% bio-based polymers, fewer components, and a completely rethought internal architecture. Here's what we get into: Why you can't just swap in sustainable materials and call it a dayHow John reduced the device to five simple plastic moldingsWhy the production line footprint is a quarter of the current standardHow Eco-Inject achieves a lower cost of goods and better sustainability at the same timeThe commercial reality of selling sustainability to pharma procurement This episode is sponsored by Eco-Inject. If you want to make your medical devices more sustainable, let's talk: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical 🔗 CONNECT WITH JOHN PALMER-FELGATE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-palmer-felgate/  🔗 CONNECT WITH ECO-INJECT: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eco-inject/posts/?feedView=all 🔗 CONNECT WITH US: 🎧 Apple Podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gradical-podcast-the-podcast-about-plastics-in/id1773569554 🟢 Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/4vNQ6rPE2CQUGgQtEY3sYq 📺 YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@GradicalGmbH 🌍 Gradical: https://gradical.ch/  📩 Work with us: [email protected] #MedTechSustainabilityByDesignPodcast #GradicalPodcast #MedTech #AutoInjector #SustainableDesign #MedicalDevices #Bioplastics #DrugDelivery Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch