Rich Yang
👤 PersonAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Sure.
I was one of the...
early product managers for the very first CGM that was ever approved by the FDA.
That was in 1999.
So as an early product manager in a new category, in a new domain, it was a tough run, right?
There was no reimbursement.
The product was retrospective.
It was not wireless at the time.
So there was a lot of education, travel to 50 plus countries, educating doctors and endocrinologists on the technology and why it's meaningful.
And did about eight years at Medtronic Diabetes and went on to spend nearly a decade at Dexcom in a strategy role.
So that is where we saw the birth of reimbursement for this category.
A lot of great work done by the JDRF.
back then to help establish reimbursement for people on insulin and went on to see connectivity, interoperability.
So it started really becoming a gold standard for people on insulin.
So nearly 20 years in the space, but 28 years as an operator.
And about five years ago, Jared asked me to come join as CEO.
And when I looked at the technology, I couldn't say no.
Sure.
I think glucose has been the first marker that really transformed the wearable market, meaning for people with diabetes on insulin, the single greatest thing that needs to be mitigated is when you have too much insulin or too much intense activity in the severe hypoglycemia.
And so there was no other way to mitigate severe hypoglycemia.