Apr 17, 2025
Sirius Medical, a medical device company that provides surgical navigation for non-palpable tumor localisation, announces a new Director Clinical & Medical Affairs. Kitty Kempen will strengthen the team with the focus on clinical activities and medical education.
What drives you to work at Sirius Medical?
I am passionate about clinical research and medical technology and how it helps to improve the life of so many patients. After a very inspiring and successful journey in clinical affairs at Medtronic, I love to leverage my experience and expertise for Sirius Medical. I am amazed about the Sirius Pintuition System tumor localization technology and how easy and accurate it is. And I very much enjoy being part of a very talented, young and practical team at Sirius that makes things happen!
Why in the breast oncology field?
This area is rather new to me and I am very excited to learn more about it! The therapeutic areas I specialized in before at Medtronic were mainly in cardiology: arrhythmias, heart failure, stroke. In addition, I supported clinical research and affairs activities in diabetes, heart valves, endovascular, neuromodulation and spinal.
Breast cancer is such an important area. Everyone has someone close, who is affected by this disease. Fortunately, therapies and breast conserving surgery have improved a lot. For me it is now great to focus and specialize on one product and therapeutic area. And I am very surprised to learn that wire-guided surgery is still standard of care in many countries. This has to improve!
What do you think about GPSDetect, the company and the team?
I already had the opportunity to join the Sirius Team to attend the St Gallen conference in Vienna. It was amazing to me to see how surgeons were intrigued by the technology at the booth! GPSDetect really navigates them in their procedures, which I also already could observe live in AZ Turnhout in surgeries performed by Dr. Natacha Ruyssers. She loves the Pintuition!
It is also impressive to see how fast Sirius Pintuition received CE mark and FDA clearance. This must have to do with the promising technology, the talented team and the collaborative and practical mindset!
What is your background?
Education: I have a background in Biological Health Sciences and I completed my PhD in Human Biology at the University of Maastricht. The topic of my thesis was metabolic effects of weight cycling in obesity. I worked a few years as Medical Writer at Organon in contraceptives and joined Medtronic in clinical research in 1997. During my Medtronic career I led clinical teams in Europe for pre-market & post-market studies, research, clinical operations and clinical affairs.
Work life: I live together with my husband Arjo close to Maastricht, in a small village Bunde; we call our home regularly Bundi beach. We enjoy cooking, hiking, we love Italy and visit the country for holiday every year.
What do you want to achieve?
I want to support the Pintuition System in building more and stronger clinical evidence to demonstrate the safety, performance and benefits for surgeons and (breast) cancer patients. This to increase therapy adoption globally and improve therapies and outcomes for cancer patients worldwide.
How do you want to help?
By collaborating closely with surgeons and radiologists to reinforce the value of Sirius Pintuition by clinical activities and medical education. It is inspiring to learn that breast cancer surgeons are well united in network organizations such as iBRA-NET and EUBREAST aiming to improve cancer patients’ quality of life and help them return as quickly as possible to their professional and active daily lifestyles.
About Sirius Medical
With its roots in the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Sirius Medical was born to make things better. The Sirius Pintuition System was developed by and for surgeons addressing a clear clinical need with a solution that simply makes sense. The Sirius Pintuition system is CE mark and FDA cleared and is currently commercially available throughout Europe. Our mission is to improve care for cancer patients by delivering unsurpassed, yet affordable solutions that enable precise and efficient surgical removal of tumors.