Device Nation Podcast

The reverse total shoulder is on OR schedules every day now, but someone had to do the first one in the United States. In 2003, in OR Room 36 at Duke University Hospital in Durham, NC, that someone was Dr. Carl Basamania! What an honor sharing the inspiring story of Dr. Basamania, tracing a career that runs from Rochester, New York, through the U.S. Army, and into some of orthopedics’ most important innovations! In this episode: What put him on the path to medicine Military service...

The case went sideways, the films look ugly, and somebody needs a Surgeon with an "I can fix that" mindset. For so many years, that Surgeon has been Dr. Richard Buch! Dr. Buch is the founder of the Dallas Limb Restoration Center in Carrollton, Texas, and with more than 13,500 joint procedures behind him, he's seen the outcomes many Surgeons hope they never see. He's the founder of DisasterPlasty, a conference built around the hardest cases in arthroplasty (and how to avoid disasters in ...

Device Nation sits down for a most inspiring conversation with two leaders I so respect in our space! Independent Distributor Kris Jones "opens the room" for us as we talk about his life, his career as a scrub tech, why he likes to fix all things, the family medical device business, how to run a successful independent shop (should you even do it in the first place) and so much more! We finish with one of my c-suite heroes, Ashesh Shah, MBA! Ashesh Shah is President & CEO of Ma...

What an inspiring conversation with an entrepreneurial icon in our industry, Dr. Stephen Gunther! From an assistant professor at UCSF to founder of Shoulder Innovations, a company that rang the bell on the NYSE in 2025, a 20-year build of a most inspiring story!! Dr. Gunther saw a gap in shoulder arthroplasty that nobody else was solving (implant loosening, one of the leading causes of failure in the space) and instead of writing a paper about it, he patented the fix. The inset glenoid. 15 pa...

This week, Device Nation sits down with one of orthopaedic trauma's true legends, Dr. Thomas "Toney" Russell. Over four decades, Dr. Russell hasn't just practiced trauma surgery, he's built it. The Russell-Taylor nail. The Intertan. Periloc plates. Osstic bone glue. 30 + U.S. patents. A career that runs from the Elvis Presley Trauma Center to the C-suites of global med-tech companies. We cover it all: IM nailing, plates, screws, ex-fix, calcium phosphate and sulfate, OTA, BBQ, and yes, ...