MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.– Nominations open next week for the inaugural “Thomas J. Fogarty Prize” (Fogarty Prize), a prestigious new recognition for an innovator or team who has developed and brought to market a lifechanging medical technology. The award consists of an unrestricted $100,000 cash prize, a custom-cast bronze medal, and a formal celebratory dinner and award ceremony with medtech leaders in Silicon Valley.
Named in honor of cardiovascular surgeon and serial medical technology innovator Thomas J. Fogarty, MD, the Fogarty Prize is made possible through a foundational grant from the Linda and Mike Mussallem Foundation, with Silicon Valley-based law firm, Wilson Sonsini, also contributing to the prize endowment.
Fogarty dedicated his career to improving medicine. His balloon embolectomy catheter, invented when he was still in medical school, revolutionized vascular surgery and launched an era of minimally invasive device innovation that has improved and saved the lives of millions of people. He also invented a legion of other surgical tools and technologies and has been recognized by numerous organizations for his contributions to medical science, including the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the Presidential Medal of Technology and Innovation.
“Tom’s constant refrain, ‘there must be a better way,’ has inspired countless innovators to search for new solutions to important problems in patient care,” said Mike Mussallem, co-founder of the Linda and Mike Mussallem Foundation and former CEO and Chairman of the Board of Edwards Lifesciences. “We are proud to take part in the inaugural Fogarty Prize, which honors the magnitude of Tom’s contributions to healthcare while recognizing the next generation of trailblazers who are developing transformational medical technologies today.”
“The process of translating an idea into a commercially available medical device or therapy is hard,” said Andrew Cleeland, CEO of Fogarty Innovation, the nonprofit educational medtech incubator and accelerator that is administering the prize. “It’s a long, costly process that involves navigating a multi-stakeholder landscape far more intricate than most industries. This award illuminates and acknowledges the collaboration and grit required to drive a new therapy to patients and achieve broad acceptance and use.” This ethos is best reflected in a Fogarty quote that is well-known across the startup ecosystem: “An idea by itself has no importance whatsoever. It’s the implementation of that idea and the acceptance by others that bring true benefit to our patients.”
Eligibility for the Fogarty Prize
The Fogarty Prize recognizes a singular, clinically impactful technology, which differentiates it from a lifetime achievement award. Recipients must be individuals (up to three per award); companies are not eligible. An independent selection committee whose members include Dorothy Abel; K. Angela Macfarlane; Mike Mussallem; Asha Nayak, MD, PhD; Carla Pugh, MD, PhD; Allan Will; and Bill Starling will review nominations and select the annual award recipient/s.
The nomination period opens March 24, 2025 and closes on July 31, 2025. The winner(s) will be announced in August. The award will be presented at a formal dinner in October 2025 in Silicon Valley, California, the night before the annual Thomas J. Fogarty, MD: Focus on Innovation Lecture (Fogarty Lecture). The nomination form can be found on the Fogarty Innovation website.
Dr. Fogarty’s Impact on Medical Innovation
During his acclaimed career, Fogarty, age 91, acquired 190 medical patents for his revolutionary work, including the “industry standard” Fogarty balloon embolectomy catheter, The Hancock Tissue Heart Valve, and the AneuRx Endovascular Aortic Stent Graft. He is the founder or co-founder of over 45 medical technology companies, and his inventions significantly influence the way surgery is performed today.
However, nearly all of Fogarty’s inventions involved a long journey through what has been characterized as “hand-to-hand combat and a slog through things that ‘couldn’t be done.’” After inventing the balloon embolectomy catheter, which replaced a high-risk, open surgical procedure to remove blood clots that frequently resulted in amputation, Fogarty struggled first to publish and then to find a manufacturing partner. In 1969, Edwards Laboratories became that partner.
In 2007, Fogarty founded Fogarty Innovation on the campus of El Camino Health with the goal of using his experience to help innovators and young companies navigate a web of stakeholders that include regulators, insurers, hospital systems, physicians, investors, acquirors, and patients. Since 2017, Fogarty Innovation has been helmed by CEO Andrew Cleeland, who moved the organization into a 30,000 square-foot facility complete with lab, office, and conference space; hired a core senior staff of medtech veterans with a broad range of expertise to actively coach young companies; and expanded the nonprofit’s educational offerings and alliances program, with the goal of streamlining the path forward for promising medical technologies.
