SynerFuse™ Announces Team Additions
MINNEAPOLIS – September 14, 2021 – Justin Zenanko, CEO of SynerFuse™, a Minneapolis-based developer of a novel implantable neurostimulator to treat chronic low-back pain without the use of addictive opioids, today announced the addition of Arti Masturzo and Barbara Stinnett as strategic advisors and William Still as vice president of business development and operations to the SynerFuse team.
“We continue to attract great talent because our quest to provide a non-opioid solution to post-surgery lower back pain holds such extraordinary promise, and people want to be a part of it,” said Zenanko. “Arti Masturzo, Barbara Stinnett, and William Still are bringing valuable expertise to SynerFuse that will help us bring relief to people afflicted with chronic pain.”
Masturzo is a healthcare transformation executive with nearly 20 years’ experience in medical leadership. In addition to running her own business, which was successfully sold to private equity, her experience in CMO, clinical innovation, and P&L roles has provided her a deep knowledge of diverse healthcare operations, services, and products in multiple sites of care. Currently, she is vice president of clinical innovation at Humana, leading the transformation in home care from fee for service to value based care through the creation of new clinical and business models. She has a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of South Florida, an MD from the University of South Florida School of Medicine, and a master’s in business administration from the Jack Welch Management Institute.
Stinnett is recognized as one of the top senior executive women in the high tech industry, bringing over 3 decades of experience leading strategy, growth, and innovation for companies such as Hewlett Packard, Sybase/SAP, Oracle and Cisco. She has extensive experience in the investment, mergers, and acquisitions, and served as CEO & Chairman of the Board for multiple PE firms in their portfolio companies. Her experience in raising and managing multiple early stage and mid cap funds for technologies and life sciences companies is extensive. As the CEO of the Timmaron Group, her firm advises and assists in the build out, transition, and transformation of early stage and mid-cap firms, from concepts through exits. Stinnett is Chairman of the Board at SMILE Network International, Chair of the Strategy Committee for The Bakken, and for the Children’s Hospital, and has served as an independent director on both public and private companies. She is one of the founding partners of the Sofia FundII, an early-state fund focused on women-led technology companies, and at AUXtc, a fund focused on technologies in the mobile market. Stinnett graduated from the University of Wisconsin with degrees in computer science and international business.
Prior to joining SynerFuse™, Still was a senior business development manager at the Mayo Clinic, where he was responsible for the evaluation, analysis, and development of new business opportunities, including partnerships, joint ventures, new company spin-offs, and other M&A. Before Mayo Clinic, he served in business development and executive roles at Recombinetics, vBox, Haemonetics, Advanced Respiratory, and St. Jude Medical. Still also served as a pilot and flight aviation officer for the U.S. Navy. He holds a bachelor of science degree in physiology from The Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.
About Chronic Lower Back Pain (CLBP)
CLBP is defined as pain that continues for 12 weeks or longer, even after an initial injury or underlying cause of acute lower back pain has been treated. With 500,000 procedures performed annually, spinal fusion remains a common treatment for spinal instability, albeit with a high incidence of residual neuropathic pain. The continuum of increasingly ineffective opioid treatments, additional interventions and adjacent level spinal fusions leaves up to 46% of patients with significant, lingering pain, costing the US healthcare system $20B per year and significantly effecting the quality of life of patients.
About SynerFuse
SynerFuse is a Delaware corporation based in Minnesota—the heart of Medical Alley. SynerFuse believes that individuals with chronic back pain and their providers deserve a better option than spinal fusion alone. Even when spinal fusion is successful, it can often result in residual chronic pain and use of addictive opioids. The company is working to create a new future of non-narcotic pain management for lower back pain with a patented therapy that integrates spinal fusion hardware, an active neuromodulation system, and sensors in a novel "smart" device. For more information on the company, please visit www.synerfuse.com.