What started as a one-year break from surgery became a global medtech movement.
In this episode, Dr. Dylan Attard, CEO and Co-founder of MedTech World, shares how his journey from surgical training to entrepreneurship led to the creation of MedTech World, now a global platform hosting events across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North America. What began as a single event in Malta has evolved into a multi-region ecosystem connecting startups, investors, and healthcare leaders. He highlights the strategic expansion into Florida, a growing yet underrecognized medtech hub, and emphasizes the importance of creating spaces where companies can raise capital and enter new markets. Dr. Attard also reflects on the personal “why” behind his work, sharing how exposure to cardiac innovations, especially after losing his father, reinforces the mission to accelerate life-saving technologies.
Tune in to hear how Dr. Dylan Attard scaled MedTech World across continents, and the personal story driving his mission to accelerate life-saving innovation!
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[00:00:02] Hello, everyone. And welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket. I am recording episodes here at the MedTech Innovator Radius event. And today I have the privilege of hosting Dr. Dylan Attard. He is no stranger to the podcast. So Dylan, I want to welcome you to the show again. Dylan Attard No. Thank you. It's been a pleasure and good to see your face again. Evan Brando Yeah. Yeah. So folks, Dylan is with MedTech World. They do a conference every year based out of Malta where MedTech companies,
[00:00:31] strategies, VCs, governments all huddle to move the industry forward. But Dylan, tell them a little bit about you, your background, the company, and just kind of what you're doing here at MedTech Innovator. Yep. So I'm a surgical doctor by background. So initially I went through medical school, was working in surgery, studied both in Malta where I'm from, as well as Dublin, Ireland five years ago. Initially it was meant to be a one-year break. So I'm like, all right, let me take a break from clinical training. I loved events. I loved entrepreneurship. I want to tap
[00:01:01] into more the innovation side of healthcare, of pure medtech, pure medical devices. So we started MedTech World back then, which was meant to be a one-year event on the island, promoting Malta's potential hub for medtech and health tech companies to set up on the island. But since then we've grown. So we've been doing events actually across different continents, regions from Dubai to cover the Middle East, Hong Kong, Singapore to cover Asia. And last year was the first time we've set forth
[00:01:26] into the U.S. where we've done a one-day event with some of our industry partners and friends at the Texas Medical Center in Houston. Oh, okay, cool. And last summer together with Paul and MedTech Innovator co-hosted an event together in San Jose. But it was actually our first taste of events in North America, which is obviously a good melting pot of the pure medtech and health tech innovation, both from the innovation side and even more so from the strategic and investment side.
[00:01:52] Right. So we knew we wanted to be here. And that's why actually this year we've continued expanding the number of cities we've hosted our events in. We've doubled down on four regions across four quarters throughout the year. So we've done Dubai earlier in February. We have West Palm Beach in May coming up. Oh, okay, you're doing West Palm. In Florida. And we're going to keep Florida as our base in North America. I love it there. It's very similar weather to where we're coming from, actually Malta, Europe. We have Hong Kong to
[00:02:17] Govrasia in August and then Malta in November. Okay. And Malta's home. Like we've been doing events again across different cities. I can never beat the whole authenticity of the island. The venue continues to be used as a hospital during World War I. So there's a very nice connotation to it. And the more time passes, the more North Americans are actually flying to the island. So it's even more important for us to continue being more present here and attending events like MedTech Innovator and any of the other ecosystem events. Well, that's great, man.
[00:02:46] Thanks for the update. I know last time we talked, which was a couple of years ago, you weren't in the US. And so now you are. What's this West Palm meeting about? We wanted a bay. So, I mean, there's a bunch of events across different cities in North America. And we wanted somewhere where MedTech World could prove useful for. So we went with East Coast. There's already a good amount of events on West Coast and other bigger cities like Boston, Minneapolis, and Andres. So we're like, all right, we wanted somewhere where MedTech World
[00:03:13] could prove useful for. And East Coast, specifically Florida, it's more of there's a good amount of companies already based there, but sometimes seen as a kind of sleeping giant when compared to other bigger cities and states. So that's one of the reasons why we went with Florida. And it's even more so closer to Europe, to where we're coming from. So it's even more accessible to people flying in from that part of the Atlantic. Our event is going to be all about connecting companies for looking to raise capital with investors for looking to deploy capital. Other investors for looking to close
[00:03:42] their own funds to be able to start deploying capital. And then I know one else in between, from hospitals to service providers who are obviously amongst our main supporters to continue supporting the event. And we're looking to not just really tailor the event around the North American ecosystem, but even more so help companies who are not based in the U.S. and are keen to obviously set foot here to help them set up here. That's great, man. Exciting news. We'll make sure to share this event with all of our U.S.-based
[00:04:08] listeners and viewers so you could check it out for yourself. But then you have your flagship, which is every year in Malta. And it's the same concept, right? But you're doing it in that region. Yep. Again, Malta has a lot of authenticity. The venue, the whole three days from culture tour, touring different, touring Valletta, different cathedrals. So Malta gives a lot of character to the event and helps even the people that are joining to be able to open up more and network more.
[00:04:33] Especially when our conference agenda is very much already busy. Everyone's going to one event every weekend, week out, one hotel to another. And Malta offers that something unique, which helps people enjoy it more and even more to become more friendlier to speak, to talk to, and network. And that's a formula that even us ourselves, me and my team, can't beat anywhere else, especially where we're hosting the events. Trying to come up with unique culture tours across different cities or unique venues.
[00:05:02] That's something that even we can't even beat it at any of our other events except Malta. Yeah. And we hope to continue welcoming more and more North Americans to join us. Actually, this year, we've Malta starting direct flights across the Atlantic from JFK in New York. So we're hoping that this one obviously make it much easier and more accessible for North Americans to fly straight. And we look forward to continue building more of our ecosystem and even more so continue partnering with more organizations,
[00:05:29] more associations like MedTech Innovator, who do a very good job with sourcing out the uncut diamonds, the pure MedTech and Celtic innovation, which might have not been yet discovered by the industry in general. That's great. Tell me more about what brings you to this conference this time and what insights are you picking up from the event? This event, I mean, it's the first time MedTech Innovator are doing it in this format because up until last year, it was divided across different cities,
[00:05:55] from Dublin to Los Angeles here, as well as Maryland, which I've been to actually together with them. So it's the first time they're actually doing it over three days, which has made it even easier for everyone to just go to one event and meet everyone. So we've just started, started over a couple of hours ago. I was very honored to have participated in one of the morning's first judging sessions. And this always gives me a good opportunity to get to meet the companies who have yet to go to markets who are still very much early in their stage and try to give them some advice from the little that I know,
[00:06:25] from the little experience that I have in the MedTech industry in terms of how to get their first big check, in terms of how to get connected to a strategic, how to go to market earlier. And this goes on to show why we're doing it after all. This morning, I actually came across a good amount of companies working in cardiology. My father passed away from a heart attack two years ago. As I was on the table, I'm like, all these technologies which would have gone, which like if my father had either was wearing some wearable or something,
[00:06:54] we would have known what's happening to him. So this kind of continued to reinforce the why of why we're doing this, why we're in MedTech and not in any other industry. Man, that's so great. I'm glad that we were able to connect here, Dylan, at the meeting. I always love seeing you and hearing the updates that you have from the industry. If people want to learn a little bit more about you and MedTech world, what's the best way they can get in touch with you and learn, Mark?
[00:07:20] Reach out to us on LinkedIn website, www.med-tech.world. Either me or any one of my team who are very much being overworked at the moment, trying to prepare for a span piece of their seeing this. They're going to laugh. But do reach out to us. We're very much accessible. And we want to continue evolving more and more genuine people, genuine companies, genuine investors to our events. So we continue pushing forward the MedTech industry. That's awesome. Well, thanks for joining us, Dylan. This has been a pleasure.
[00:07:47] And for everybody tuning in, check out the show notes for all the ways to get in touch with Dylan and his team to learn more about MedTech world. Signing off here from MedTech Innovator. Thanks for joining us, guys.