Santosh Prabhu

Divisional Vice President, Product Development

Studying aerospace and mechanical engineering for his undergraduate, masters and PhD degrees, Santosh Prabhu was chasing his dream of becoming a rocket scientist at NASA. Then, more than two decades ago, he discovered the world of cardiovascular medical devices where they were working with materials and computational techniques long used in aerospace applications, and he hasn’t turned back since. He knew the ways composite materials and metallic alloys behaved under aerodynamic loading conditions in air and space. Now he was applying his knowledge to understanding how the alloys performed in the body.

As the Divisional Vice President of Product Development for Abbott’s structural heart business, he’s helped launch products that help the youngest, tiniest and most frail among us, including work on the world’s first catheter-based tricuspid valve repair system and the smallest minimally invasive medical device specifically created for babies who have a life-threatening opening in the heart. He can talk to the latest innovations he’s seeing in medical device design and how research and development are driving what’s next in this space.