UNHINGED with Dr. Michael Meneghini

Dr. Michael Meneghini
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Health & Fitness
  • Updated Monthly

The ground is shifting, but not everyone is saying it out loud.  Healthcare is changing. Orthopedics is evolving. Leadership is getting harder. Trust matters more than ever. Yet, most industry conversations still feel polished, filtered, and safe. UNHINGED was built to create the conversations people are actually having behind the scenes — the ones that don't happen on stage. Here, we have real conversations in healthcare and MedTech, said out loud.This is a podcast where experienced operators speak honestly about healthcare, business, and leadership in a setting that feels human. This is NOT chaos for the sake of chaos “unhinged.” It’s controlled honesty from credible people.Check out new episodes every month. Follow UNHINGED with Dr. Michael Meneghini on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.LinkedIn: /dr-michael-meneghini-5904854  Substack: substack.com/@michaelmeneghiniTikTok: tiktok.com/@drmichaelmeneghini

Episodes

  1. 1h ago

    UNHINGED Episode 3, Grit Over Circumstance | Ivan Tornos of Zimmer Biomet

    A kid in Spain watches his family’s world collapse, loses his father to cancer at age five, then loses the uncle who adopted him nine months later. Years later, that same kid becomes an immigrant in rural North Carolina, cleans tanning beds to pay his way forward, builds a business, and eventually leads Zimmer Biomet, the world’s largest hip and knee replacement company. We talk with Ivan Tornos about the turning points that shaped him and the mindset that kept him moving: refusing victimhood, practicing grit, and choosing problem solving when life gets brutal. We get tactical about leadership and career growth in healthcare and medtech. Ivan breaks down why an MBA can help with skills like strategy and finance but won’t magically teach leadership, and why failure is often the real training. He also shares one of the clearest frameworks for advancement: mentors show you the way, sponsors clear the way. If you’ve ever wondered how people land “too big, too soon” roles and survive them, this conversation explains the difference. Then we zoom into Zimmer Biomet’s reality: post-merger complexity, FDA warning letters, compliance pressure, culture friction, and what it takes to regain trust while catching up on innovation. Ivan lays out a customer-first approach across patients, physicians, providers, and payers, plus how robotics, ambulatory surgery centers, efficiency, and AI-driven data could reduce waste in musculoskeletal care without pushing surgeons out of the operating room. If you care about orthopedic surgery, medical device innovation, healthcare costs, or modern leadership under pressure, hit play, then subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review with the biggest idea you’re taking from the conversation.

  2. Aug 7

    UNHINGED Episode 2, Work Life Balance Is A Myth | Dr. Richard A. Berger

    Same-day hip replacement used to sound like a bad idea someone would regret out loud. Then Dr. Richard Berger did it anyway and backed it up with results. Sitting with him in Chicago, we walk through the real story behind outpatient joint replacement: how an engineer’s obsession with motion became a surgeon’s obsession with systems, and why the biggest breakthroughs weren’t flashy gadgets but hard, unglamorous protocol changes that made patients feel better faster. We talk minimally invasive hip surgery, the early four-hour cases, and the moment patients started asking the uncomfortable question: “Why am I still in the hospital?” From there, Berger breaks down what had to change to make same-day discharge safe and repeatable, including anesthesia choices, medication strategy, physical therapy alignment, admissions messaging, and the grind of personally shepherding patients until the entire machine caught up. We also get into the backlash, the threats, and what it actually costs to challenge medical convention when incentives and egos are on the line. Then we shift into the business of medicine: building a word-of-mouth practice, adopting a concierge-style model, and the pivotal decision to drop Medicare after running the numbers. Berger shares how he builds a high-touch team using hospitality standards, why he resists replacing humans with automation, and how leadership, grace, and “extreme ownership” create loyalty in the OR and the office. If you care about hip replacement, knee replacement, outpatient surgery, practice building, or redefining work-life balance for physicians, hit subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave us a review with your biggest takeaway.

  3. Jul 13

    UNHINGED Episode 1, The Silent Killer | Chris Hughes & Eric Stookey of OsteoRemedies

    Infection after joint replacement is one of the few problems in orthopedics where the stakes can go from “recover and rehab” to “fight for your life” in a matter of weeks. We sit down with Chris Hughes and Eric Stookey, two longtime orthopedics operators who built OsteoRemedies by doing what most companies would not: going all-in on joint infection (PJI) and infection management while everyone else treated it like a side project. We talk candidly about the entrepreneurship leap in healthcare and medical devices, including the lonely early days of shipping product, assembling conference booths, and learning that a napkin plan only survives through execution. Chris and Eric break down how they protect culture as they scale, why they “check titles at the door,” and how “micro leadership” means removing obstacles so teams can move fast without getting micromanaged. We also get into the messy truth of innovation: FDA and 510(k) hurdles, changing goalposts, multi-year gaps in launches, and why acquisitions can restore the cadence of innovation when organic pathways slow down. Then we go straight at the market forces shaping orthopedic infection care right now: antibiotic spacers, local antibiotic delivery beads, debridement tools, wash solutions, and the rising debate over one-stage vs two-stage revision. Their core argument is simple: if the standard of care shifts, a patient-first company cannot cling to a single product category. It has to build an infection management portfolio that follows the clinical need. If you care about PJI, orthopedic infection prevention, medical device startups, or leadership that holds up under pressure, subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review. What part of the infection story do you think the industry still avoids talking about?

  • 3 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

The ground is shifting, but not everyone is saying it out loud.  Healthcare is changing. Orthopedics is evolving. Leadership is getting harder. Trust matters more than ever. Yet, most industry conversations still feel polished, filtered, and safe. UNHINGED was built to create the conversations people are actually having behind the scenes — the ones that don't happen on stage. Here, we have real conversations in healthcare and MedTech, said out loud.This is a podcast where experienced operators speak honestly about healthcare, business, and leadership in a setting that feels human. This is NOT chaos for the sake of chaos “unhinged.” It’s controlled honesty from credible people.Check out new episodes every month. Follow UNHINGED with Dr. Michael Meneghini on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.LinkedIn: /dr-michael-meneghini-5904854  Substack: substack.com/@michaelmeneghiniTikTok: tiktok.com/@drmichaelmeneghini

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