Acting on Evidence and Shaping What Comes Next — Medtronic’s Linnea Burman

The evidence doesn’t always point toward the outcome you hoped for. Leadership means acting on it anyway.

Leadership means being prepared to act on evidence, even when it points toward a difficult decision.

In this episode of the Women in MedTech podcast, Host Kayleen Brown talks with Medtronic’s Linnea Burman, SVP and President of Neurovascular, about her journey from communications and patient storytelling to leading a medtech business. Linnea shares how listening, preparedness, and accountability have shaped her approach to leadership—and why building strong teams and an innovation roadmap are essential to moving technology forward. She also discusses a painful recall decision and what her team learned from it.

Kayleen welcomes Skyler Rivera, associate editor across MassDevice, Medical Design & Outsourcing, and DeviceTalks, for an in-studio conversation about accountability and storytelling. They discuss why sharing difficult experiences and what teams learn from them matters, not only for individual leaders, but for the wider MedTech community.

Thank you to Orthopedic Technologies Week for sponsoring this episode, register for the free webinar series at:  https://event.on24.com/wcc/mr/7017117/B6E1342D4E6805EE537326E516AAE81D?partnerref=KB

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Chapters

(00:00:00) - Introduction: Acting on Evidence, No Matter How Painful(00:02:09) - Start of In-studio guest interview: Skyler Rivera, Associate Editor, MassDevice, MDO and DeviceTalks(00:08:52) - Accountability, Vulnerability & Learning from Difficult Moments(00:15:45) - Start of Keynote guest interview: Linnea Burman, President, Medtronic Neurovascular(00:26:30) - Patient Stories, Career Growth & the Power of Listening(00:30:13) - Becoming a Business Leader & Taking Accountability(00:36:09) - Leading Medtronic Neurovascular & Building a Team(00:43:13) - Innovation Roadmaps & the Future of Neurovascular Care(00:49:52) - Women in MedTech: Leadership, Community & Connection(00:52:29) - Outro: What Helps You Act on Evidence?