Health Tech and Maine's Economy

Owen McCarthy, co-founder of MedRhythms, joins Dr. Lisa Belisle and Dr. Jeff Barkin to talk about building a health-technology company in Maine. McCarthy traces his path from Patten, where his father worked as a logger and his mother as a school lunch worker, through engineering studies at the University of Maine and an MBA from Harvard. He describes how MedRhythms, which helps people improve their walking after stroke, moved from Boston to Maine and worked through clinical, regulatory, and reimbursement pathways to reach patients.

The conversation turns to the wider question of how innovation actually reaches everyday care. Drawing on his work with MedRhythms and the University of Maine System, McCarthy reflects on the gap between a promising idea and its real use in clinics and homes. He and the co-hosts discuss Maine's health and innovation economy, including the role of research hubs such as the Roux Institute and the strengths he sees in maritime work, forest products, and the life sciences.

McCarthy and the co-hosts also examine affordability for working families, looking at the cost of energy, housing, and care, along with questions of education, rural health access, and keeping young people in the state. The discussion stays grounded in his experience as an entrepreneur and engineer, exploring how Maine might grow opportunity while caring for the communities that make the state distinctive.