Kara Couch

Sally L. Maher is a seasoned regulatory, clinical affairs, and health care compliance strategist with more than 25 years of experience guiding complex medical devices and combination products from development through regulatory clearance and commercial access. She leads regulatory strategy and clinical integration at Cambridge Orthopaedic Labs and serves as principal of S Maher Consulting, providing expert advisory in regulatory submissions, quality systems, reimbursement strategy, and compliance across the medtech ecosystem. 

Ms Maher’s previous executive roles include vice president of Regulatory & Clinical Affairs at Edwards Lifesciences and senior leadership in regulatory, reimbursement, and health care economics at Smith & Nephew’s Advanced Surgical Products Division. Her career spans foundational work at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and senior regulatory posts at Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and early-stage wound-care and device firms, giving her a unique perspective on evidence requirements, regulatory pathways, and market access dynamics. 

She holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Baltimore, a bachelor’s degree from Ohio Wesleyan University, and the Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC). Ms Maher also contributes to industry education as an adjunct professor and engages in cross-stakeholder efforts to improve regulatory and clinical frameworks that support innovation and safe patient access to advanced therapies. 

Emma Wright is a customer-centric executive in Global MedTech leadership with over 25 years of experience in medical devices in both start-up and international companies based in the UK, the US, and, most recently, in Sweden. Her career has focused on the development, commercialization, and clinical adoption of devices in wound care, reconstructive surgery, and orthopaedics, with a specific interest in products that actively promote tissue repair. Emma’s drive is steered by the challenge of bench-to-bedside transfer of innovation, leading her to spend the last decade driving clinical, medical, and health economic and government affairs, with a passion for improving clinical and economic outcomes for the physician, payer, and, most importantly, the patient. Throughout her career, she has seen many innovative technologies fail to overcome market access hurdles, whether regulatory or reimbursement. Then, those that are successful are not always adopted into the standard of care, meaning an opportunity to improve patients’ lives is lost. With an entrepreneurial spirit, she is an ardent advocate for change in health care and ensuring the patient’s voice is heard and represented.

Ms. Couch graduated with her Master of Science in Nursing (FNP) from Georgetown University in 2002.  Currently, she works as the Director of Wound Care Services at The George Washington University Hospital in Washington DC.    She is an Associate Research Professor of Surgery at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at George Washington University.  Her wound care interests include caring for persons with limb loss/limb differences, complex abdominal wounds and use of technology in wound healing.
Ms.  Couch is the current Chair of the Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders and the Immediate Past-President of the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care (AAWC).  Kara is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care.  She is an editorial board member of the Journal of Wound Management, the International Wound Journal and WoundSource 2026.   Kara is currently working towards a Doctor of Nursing Practice in Systems Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania with an expected graduation date of August 2027.

Dr Ryan Egeland leads Solventum’s Global Medical and Clinical Affairs team. Prior to joining Solventum, Dr Egeland served as chief executive officer of Crossfire Medical. He previously held senior leadership roles at Cardiovascular Systems, Inc. (CSI) as head of Strategic Ventures and chief medical officer, and he led teams across business development, medical and scientific affairs, and product marketing at Medtronic, Covidien, and ev3. 

Dr Egeland earned his MD from Harvard Medical School and was a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, where he completed his PhD in Biomolecular Engineering and MBA. He trained in plastic and reconstructive surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and has worked in both academic and private clinical settings. He currently serves on the boards of Piraeus Medical and Vergent Bioscience. 

Patricia (Patty) Ghikas, Principal, The Ghikas Group, LLC, serves as a consultant to the medical device and health care industries. Prior to this, she served as director of Global Medical Partnerships for Solventum and had been employed by 3M and formerly KCI for many years in a variety of positions in sales, medical education, and medical affairs. Prior to working in industry, Patty enjoyed a long clinical career as a physical therapist with a specialty in wound care. She was a certified wound specialist (CWS®) through the American Board of Wound Management from 2002-2022. Throughout her career, she has also been an active educator, administrator, author, and consultant. Patty has presented both oral and poster abstracts at wound care conferences. She has published journal articles on geriatric physical therapy and wound management. She is the co-author of the textbook Case Studies in Rehabilitation. 

Patty completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Therapy from the University of Vermont in Burlington, VT; a Master of Education degree from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA; a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in Geriatric Physical Therapy from the MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston, MA; and the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program through the University of Montana. 

Dr Sarah Griffiths Langbord is a thought leader in wound care standards development and product evaluation frameworks. She is chair of the Wound Care Collaborative Community (WCCC) Gaps Dressing Standards Work Group. In this role, she leads multidisciplinary efforts to identify gaps in current wound dressing evaluation methods and to develop standardized, clinically relevant preclinical testing protocols that drive consistency, evidence-based product comparisons, and improved patient outcomes in wound care. 

Under her leadership, the WCCC initiative brings together clinicians, materials management and procurement teams, regulators, and industry experts to align on a unified testing framework that reflects real-world wound care performance and supports innovation across the wound care ecosystem. 

Dr Griffiths Langbord also contributes to advancing the field through her involvement in clinical case research, including collaborative work on real-world data studies examining wound-healing modalities such as nitric oxide–delivering therapies. 

Her work at the intersection of product standards, evidence development, and cross-stakeholder collaboration underscores her commitment to elevating clinical relevance and scientific rigor in preclinical and translational wound care research. 

Kurt Matheson is vice president of Marketing at Organogenesis with more than 20 years of health care industry experience in advanced wound care and regenerative medicine. Over the years, he has led strategic marketing initiatives that have resulted in the commercialization of innovative technologies, the adoption of evidence-based therapy, and clinician education nationwide, positively impacting patients with chronic and complex wounds.

Dr Kathleen Young is a lead reviewer at the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH). She joined the agency in CDRH/OPEQ/OHT4 in December 2022 and conducts total product life cycle reviews with a focus on wound care and plastic surgery devices. She has led the review of more than 150 pre- and postmarket submissions, including Medical Device Development Tools for wounds, and provides biocompatibility and engineering consults. She serves on cross-cutting inter-center groups to foster wound care and regenerative medicine efforts across centers, and is a liaison to the Wound Care Collaborative Community Tools Working Group.