Stewart Strong, Q’Apel Medical’s recently appointed CEO, discusses the company, his priorities and plans for growth in an interview with SmartTRAK at SNIS 2025 in Nashville, TN.

Stewart Strong, Q’Apel Medical’s recently appointed CEO, discusses the company, his priorities and plans for growth in an interview with SmartTRAK at the Society of Neurointerventional Surgery (SNIS) Annual Meeting held in Nashville, TN July 14-18, 2025. 

Strong says with recent challenges behind them, it’s the perfect time for him to join Q’Apel Medical. Given Q’Apel’s leadership position in balloon guide catheters, the full market launch of Zebra and the company’s pipeline leveraging its innovative laser-cut technology, he sees significant opportunity in the years ahead. To find out more, listen to the following video (21:12 min). A transcript of the interview is also provided below. 

SmartTRAK: Hi, everyone. Anne Staylor here with SmartTRAK. Today, I'm at the Society of Neurointerventional Surgery meeting in Nashville, and I have the pleasure of talking with Stewart Strong, the new president and CEO of Q'Apel Medical. Stewart, thanks for talking with me today.

Stewart Strong: Thanks, Anne. Great to be here.

So you are really new to the company. They just announced July 1st that you were in this new role. So I think a lot of people, myself included, want to hear a little bit about you. So do you want to start by just talking about yourself?

SS: Sure. And you're right, four weeks into the role, but I've been really excited about not only the opportunity here at Q'Apel, but also with the space that we're in and the growth of the neurovascular space. So to give you a little bit of background on me, I've been in the medical device industry for over 25 years. I've spent time in spaces like interventional cardiology, electrophysiology, and have really focused on areas where we can drive growth. That's one of the things I really enjoy is joining a company where we can drive exponential above-market growth and continue to add value to customers and to stakeholders through that growth.

I knew you're really experienced from what I had heard. So as you enter this new company, what are your priorities?

SS: I think what I saw in doing my own due diligence on Q'Apel is a company that has terrific innovation. When you think about innovation, you think about quality, you think about Q'Apel, and that's been validated here. I have had a chance to speak with a number of physicians that use our products. Everybody really looks at us as ...

Curious about where Q’Apel Medical is headed next? We sat down with CEO Stewart Strong for an exclusive interview conducted by Anne Staylor, SmartTRAK’s Executive Editor and VP & GM of Neuro Therapies. Click below to download the full transcript and get an inside look at Q’Apel’s future plans, innovations and strategic goals.

In this comprehensive article, SmartTRAK provides an overview of the WISeR Model and its potential market impact on skin substitutes.

Click the button below to download and read the complete article "Skin Substitutes Get WISeR – Will it Impact the Market?" by Jay Merkel, SmartTRAK Sr Analyst, Wound.

SmartTRAK is excited to attend the Society of Neurointerventional Surgery’s (SNIS) 22nd Annual Meeting & Fellows Course in Nashville, Tennessee, from July 14-18, 2025. Anne Staylor, VP/GM of Neuro Therapies, will cover the latest news at the conference and provide updates on key studies, trends, and technologies affecting the market for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke devices. 

Meanwhile, click the image below to watch Anne’s video update on the US Market for Mechanical Thrombectomy in 2025.

Spinal Simplicity’s Chief Strategy Officer Neil P. Dougherty shares how the company is advancing minimally invasive solutions to enhance patient outcomes.

Neil P. Dougherty, chief strategy officer of Spinal Simplicity, discusses the company’s position in the interventional spine and pain market, what the company looks forward to in the future and how it serves patients treated by spine surgeons and interventional pain management physicians.

Click on the following video (17:18 min) to learn more. A link to download a complete transcript of the interview is also provided below.

SmartTRAK: Hi, this is Erin Dorgan with SmartTRAK. I'm here today with Neil Dougherty, chief strategy officer with Spinal Simplicity. Thanks for joining me today, Neil.

Neil P Dougherty: Glad to be here. Thanks, Erin.

You're welcome. Can you share a little bit more about what you do at Spinal Simplicity? I know, based upon your background, you've been in the interventional space for a while. How did you end up here at Spinal Simplicity?

NPD: Well, in a startup you wear a lot of hats. So I came to Spinal Simplicity first as a vice president of sales and then moved over to focus on just business development and more of an offensive role for our expansion. And as the company grew, an opportunity for promotion was there to get to my now title, chief strategy officer.

I have been in the interventional pain space for a long time. Gosh, it's about 15 years now. Started with Medtronic, doing spinal cord stimulators and intrathecal pumps--just over five years there. Then went over to Vertiflex in that startup campaign bought by Boston Scientific and only a year of integration there after that purchase.

And then how could you forget? When the whole world basically shut down during COVID, I was kind of losing my mind a little bit. I had a couple phone calls from some doctors and also Todd Moseley, the CEO of Spinal Simplicity, and founder. And I started learning more about Spinal Simplicity. I saw their main product, Minuteman. I was like, ‘This is where I need to be.’

Okay. So speaking of Minuteman, and obviously with your background, Boston Scientific recently discontinued Vertiflex Superion. Do you think that is an opportunity for Spinal Simplicity and Minuteman to explore those customers? Or how would you describe that?

NPD: I think so. I'd like to describe it as just an acceleration to where most of those customers were probably going to graduate anyway. Superion was a great idea. I mean, it wasn't even a Vertiflex idea. This is, indirect decompression has been a great studied spine idea for a long time and it certainly wasn't the first ISP out there, but the aim is ...

Click the button below to download and read the complete transcript of SmartTRAK's interview with Neil P. Dougherty, CSO of Spinal Simplicity conducted by Erin Dorgan, SmartTRAK Sr Analyst, Spine & Bone Replacement.

SmartTRAK provides insights into the latest trends, research and consensus opinions in surgical Orthobiologic treatments and non-operative regenerative medicine from this year’s BA Summit and AANA meetings.

Nearly half a billion in US dollars has been invested in Advanced Wound Care over the last 18 months. Learn where the money is going.

Over the past three years the global Advanced Wound Care Market has almost doubled, an exciting market for investment according to SmartTRAK estimates. The biggest deal in Advanced Wound Care (AWC) has been Coloplast's acquisition of Kerecis in 2023. Kerecis, a startup in the US Skin Substitute Market, demonstrated strong growth and the potential to have a global presence, justifying the high price. Startups have been a key component of the market, with new technologies and products over the years, and have been advancing their portfolios through IPOs, strategic partnerships, and investments. 

This downloadable article reviews the recent top deals and investment trends in AWC, including:

• Recent Global Wound Care Investments
  • Top Deals and Investments Jan 2024 through June 2025
• Market Trends
  • Although the US Skin Substitute/ CAMPs Market has seen exponential growth in the last few years, that isn't where global investment is occurring.
• Investment by Geography
  • US and Canada Wound Care Investments
  • UK, Europe, and Rest of World (ROW)
• Early-Stage Investments
  • Non-Dilutive Funding Sources
  • Strategic and Insurance Provider Investments

Want to know which deals are shaping the future of wound care? Click below to download the full article, “Deals in Advanced Wound Care,” co-authored by Dr. Mitchell C. Sanders, CEO, ProDevLabs and Susan Paquette, SmartTRAK Senior Advisor, Wound, to get a firsthand look at the key investment trends driving this dynamic market.

SmartTRAK, the leading provider of actionable market intelligence for orthopedic companies, and Foot Innovate, the premier platform for Foot & Ankle (F&A) surgeon education and clinical insights, are excited to announce a strategic co-marketing partnership. This collaboration brings together two industry leaders to launch a cutting-edge F&A market research solution that fuses robust analytics with real-world surgeon experience.

The joint offering blends SmartTRAK’s trusted data expertise with Foot Innovate’s deep network of engaged surgeons to deliver a