top of page

Posts
Essays, Articles, Notes, and Resources
Search


Why Medical Device Security Budgets Get Cut (And What Actually Works)
Oleg Yusim has built cybersecurity teams at Baxter, Edwards Lifesciences, and Illumina. At each company, he faced the same challenge: products shipping with shared passwords, executives questioning the business case, and security budgets under constant scrutiny. The pattern repeated. Leadership would say cybersecurity mattered. Then came questions about cost, timeline impact, and whether partial security was acceptable. Most security leaders struggle with these conversations.

Shannon Lantzy
Dec 9, 2025


Securing Life-Critical Technology: A Conversation with Jacob Combs on Medical Device Cybersecurity
When your insulin pump connects to your phone, or your glucose monitor shares data with the cloud, is it secure? More importantly—what does "secure" even mean? These are the questions at the heart of my recent conversation with Jacob Combs, Chief Information Security Officer and VP of Cybersecurity at Tandem Diabetes Care. Jacob brings deep expertise from across telecom, defense, financial services, and healthcare—and now protects connected devices that deliver life-sustainin

Shannon Lantzy
Dec 9, 2025


When TikTok Diagnosed Type 1 Diabetes
A 30-year-old producer at CNET was losing weight fast, constantly thirsty, experiencing blurry vision. Two different doctors gave him metformin, a Type 2 diabetes drug, and sent him on his way. For six months, Justin Eastzer felt isolated, scared, and progressively worse. The doctors never ran the autoantibody test that would've revealed Type 1 diabetes. Then Justin made a TikTok video about a blood glucose meter that sent data to his phone via Bluetooth. He thought the tech

Shannon Lantzy
Nov 20, 2025


When "Complaint" Doesn't Mean Complaint: Why Quality Systems Save Medical Device Companies Millions
A software company was using Zendesk to track customer feedback. Every issue, from "can't log in" to actual product defects, was automatically categorized as a "complaint." Thousands of them. When Kyle Rose, president of Rook Quality Systems, showed up for their first internal audit, he found exactly what FDA reviewers would've found: a massive compliance gap that could've killed their regulatory submission. This wasn't a careless startup. This was a functioning medical devic

Shannon Lantzy
Nov 6, 2025


Regulating Connection: How Dr. Omar Al-Kalaa Bridges the Gap Between Telecom and Medical Innovation
From 5G networks to space station surgery, exploring the invisible infrastructure that makes modern healthcare possible Remote surgery between continents. Glucose monitors competing with Netflix streams for wireless bandwidth. Surgical robots on the International Space Station. None of this is science fiction, it's the cutting edge of medical technology that Dr. Omar Al-Kalaa has been working to make safe, effective, and accessible. In this episode of Inside MedTech Innovati

Shannon Lantzy
Oct 15, 2025


When the Lights Went On: A Scientist's Journey from Classroom to Advocacy
The pain hit instantly. Dr. Jennifer Hackett had walked into hundreds of classrooms over her teaching career, but this newly renovated...

Shannon Lantzy
Sep 25, 2025


From Microsoft's Crisis to Medical Device Revolution: The Evolution of Threat Modeling
The year 2002 marked a turning point in cybersecurity history, though few realized it at the time. Microsoft was hemorrhaging customers...

Shannon Lantzy
Sep 25, 2025


When Engineering Meets Parenthood: Lane Desborough's Path from "We Are Not Waiting" to Ecosystem Change
The moment that changes everything isn't always dramatic. Sometimes it's a phone call. [00:11:00] Lane Desborough was at work when his...

Shannon Lantzy
Aug 28, 2025


The Pizza Night Revolution: How One CEO is Personalizing Obesity Care
A conversation with Elina Ontiskansky on removing stigma, embracing personalization, and treating the whole human in obesity medicine...

Shannon Lantzy
Aug 20, 2025


Why Cybersecurity in Healthcare Must Be a Clinical Conversation
Reflections from my conversation with Ed Gaudet, CEO of Censinet Listen to the episode on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0idCT...

Shannon Lantzy
Aug 12, 2025


The 18-Year Journey: How One Algorithm Transformed Energy Markets
A conversation with Dr. Richard O'Neill on regulatory innovation, market optimization, and the challenges of implementing change in...

Shannon Lantzy
Aug 12, 2025
Don't take everything FDAers say on faith!
Nor would they want you to. Treat FDAers as humans, understand the context of your conversation, and remember your common goals....

Shannon Lantzy
Jul 10, 2025
Cyber Hard Problems Workshop Recap
The National Academies of Science released a publication on Cyber Hard Problems . I thought it would be about post-quantum cryptography,...

Shannon Lantzy
Jun 27, 2025


Who Benefits from a Broken System?
Matthew Holt on the Healthcare Status Quo, Data Access, and the Power Struggle Behind Digital Health “If you want to change the system,...
Ula Klein
Jun 24, 2025
2024 Sotagliflozin Decision for Type 1
I am giving a talk and will use Sotagliflozin as a regulatory decision case study. I needed a quick summary of this regulatory decision...

Shannon Lantzy
Jun 15, 2025
What Matters?
In the age of deep fakes and the de-throning of science, trust is dead. Instead of asking what is trustworthy, I am asking: "What...

Shannon Lantzy
Jun 10, 2025
bottom of page