Christopher Gates

About this Speaker

Gates has over 30 years of experience both developing and securing medical devices. He has worked and continues to work with numerous industry-leading device manufacturers, and frequently collaborates with regulatory and standard bodies including the NTIA, MITRE, Bluetooth SIG, IEEE, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the FDA to present, define, and codify tools, techniques, and processes that enable the creation of secure medical devices.

Wherever he works, Gates promotes the “secure development lifecycle” and recently co-authored - along with Axel Wirth, Jason Smith, and a host of global experts on medical device cybersecurity with backgrounds ranging from manufacturing to regulatory - a definitive textbook on the subject, Medical Device Cybersecurity for Engineers and Manufacturers (Artech House, Aug. 31, 2020. ISBN: 9781630818159). This approach ultimately eases the burden on developers and ensures high-quality products that work as intended to save and improve lives without putting users at risk.

Gates' passion for medical device development became tangible when his first grandchild was born prematurely, before the newborn's lungs could fully close. When Gates visited the NICU, he realized that a handful of the machines allowing his grandson to breathe had been designed by Gates himself.