MTC26: Driving focus, resilience and innovation in medtech

As our leaders took the stage in Boston for The MedTech Conference 2026 (MTC26), one thread connected every conversation: how we're sharpening our focus to become a more dedicated medtech leader.

Solventum showed up at MTC26 with a significant presence across the conference, contributing perspectives on some of the biggest issues facing medtech today, from portfolio focus and innovation to keeping patients at the center of healthcare.

More than two years after spinning out of 3M, we're turning Solventum’s independence into a strategic advantage.

A sharper portfolio, built for the long run

Rachel Ellingson, our chief strategy and corporate development officer, joined peers on the CEOs Unplugged stage for “Creating the Next MedTech Leaders.” 

She shared how we have sequenced our moves since becoming an independent company guided by a strategic plan focused on our strongest capabilities and executed through a three-phase transformation: completing the separation, rebuilding our commercial and innovation engine, and actively shaping our portfolio for long-term growth. 

Ellingson explained Solventum’s diversified portfolio at formation provided a strong starting point and created opportunities to make deliberate choices about where the company could best compete and grow. 

“We had the great privilege of having a diversified portfolio in very attractive areas,” she said.

The Purification and Filtration (P&F) divestiture completed in September 2025 strengthened Solventum’s balance sheet, enabling us to significantly pay down debt. The company was then in a stronger financial position to pursue inorganic investment opportunities, like the Acera Surgical acquisition and its Restrata technology. And within a year, the team received FDA 510(k) clearance for the combined Restrata™ Matrix and Solventum™ V.A.C.® Therapy. 

“Acera was a perfect first acquisition for us given our ability to leverage our commercial and technology capabilities, which we would not have been able to do had we not done the divestiture first,” she explained.

Ellingson explained that Solventum will continue to evaluate targeted, tuck-in acquisition opportunities, focusing on attractive markets where the company has relevant expertise, differentiated capabilities and a clear right to win. Areas of interest include advanced wound care, infection prevention and surgical solutions, as well as dental restoratives and prevention. 

“That's where you get the most success as we know those areas better and we know the customers better,” she explained. She emphasized that completing a transaction is only the beginning; effective integration is what protects the strategic and commercial value drivers behind an acquisition.

“You have to be very clear on an integration plan that protects those value drivers,” Ellingson explained.

Together, our P&F divestiture, the Acera Surgical acquisition and the announced intent to separate our Health Information Systems (HIS) business reflect a consistent strategy: becoming a more focused medtech company positioned to drive innovation and growth in our Medical Surgical and Dental Solutions businesses for years to come.

The patient behind every product

At the center of our strategy are the patients and providers who depend on our products every day. That focus shapes how we innovate, how we make decisions and how we think about the impact of our work.

At the MTC26 Patient Pavilion, our Chief Commercial Officer Heather Knight sat down with Arend Schuurman, a quality engineer at our Brookings, South Dakota facility, to talk about his own experience as a patient.

Schuurman shared the story of his daughter Naomi, whose diagnosis with a rare genetic heart condition led doctors to uncover the same condition in him after 20 years of unexplained symptoms. He underwent open-heart surgery, where V.A.C. Therapy supported his wound healing while Tegaderm products helped prevent infection.

“They took the wound V.A.C. Therapy off my chest at 72 hours, and there are people that thought it was weeks out based on how well it was healing,” he shared. That experience reshaped how Schuurman approaches his work with us overseeing quality in the manufacturing process of many of our infection prevention products.

“It becomes very personal because there is a face to every patient’s story,” he said. “It’s easy to get caught up in the mundane, the day-to-day, but we always have to ground ourselves and remember that it’s safety for our patients that we’re advocating for.”

Schuurman also connected his story to the scale of our impact. “We do impact a lot of lives, 1.9 million touch points every day,” he said. “Those 1.9 million people are someone’s loved one.”

Arend's story puts a human face on that scale. Behind every one of those touch points is a person, a family and a story.

Building resilience through change

Disruption isn't a once-a-year risk anymore. It's a constant. That's why we're working to build greater resilience into how we serve our customers and patients. Heather Knight, our chief commercial officer, brought that perspective to the CEOs Unplugged stage for another panel discussion, “Resilient by Design.”

“The one thing I know for sure, just having grown up in this industry for 32 years, is that supply disruption is going to happen,” she said.

Knight urged collaboration across the industry to help healthcare develop more connected, automated supply chains, such as linking directly into customer systems to “auto replenish” critical products.

With roughly 30,000 SKUs across our portfolio, we have to focus our resilience efforts where they matter most. 

“You couldn’t possibly build redundancy everywhere across a portfolio that large,” she said. “You have to really start at the top with the products customers are absolutely dependent on for life-saving patient care.”

Science you've seen on screen

At our booth in the MedTech in Motion Hub, attendees of MTC26 got an up-close look at some of our most recognizable innovations, including Littmann Stethoscopes and Tegaderm dressings, products often spotted on television medical dramas. The display offered a tangible, conversation-starting look at the science behind these trusted medical devices.

It was a fun reminder that our science doesn't just show up in hospitals and clinics. Some of our most iconic products have become recognizable in households and living rooms across the country. Most importantly, they're part of how we impact lives every day.

Finding our focus

Our week in Boston with nearly 4,000 leaders from across the medtech industry reinforced where we're headed. More than two years into our journey as an independent company, we're making deliberate choices across our portfolio, our innovation pipeline and the way we serve customers to become a more focused and resilient medtech leader.

As Heather put it on stage, resilience means being ready to “adapt and deliver no matter what comes next.”

Read more about Arend’s story here: https://www.solventum.com/en-us/home/resources/stories/living-with-heart-a-solventum-engineers-renewed-purpose/

Read more about Restrata and V.A.C. Therapy here: go.Solventum.com/AdvancedWoundHealing