Article preview from IN VIVO - March, 2012
Europe has historically been rich in physicians with innovative ideas but has lagged in turning those ideas into novel devices. MD Start, a new incubator, backed by a group of leading device companies and VC firms, hopes to turn those ideas into viable companies.
Article preview from IN VIVO - March, 2012
Sitting over a PowerPoint presentation, Stephen Oesterle, MD, senior vice president, medicine and technology, for Medtronic Inc., goes through a long list of the major medical device technologies that make up Medtronic’s portfolio, perhaps the broadest in the industry. “Where do you think the first implantable pacemaker came from?” he asks and, answering his own question, says “A physician in Sweden.” The first dual chamber pacemaker? Germany. Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT)? France. ICDs? Poland.
And it’s not just CRDM (Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management) devices. Everyone knows that the first interventional cardiology procedures came, famously, from Austria and Dr. Andreas Gruntzig. But what about coronary stents? The first stents were developed in Lausanne, Switzerland. Percutaneous heart valves? France. Deep brain stimulation? Germany and France. Total spinal disc replacement? East Germany. Even outside of Medtronic’s portfolio, the story’s the same: intra-ocular lenses? The UK. Same with total hip replacement. Dental Implants? Sweden. By this time, Oesterle’s smiling, as he sees the reaction on the face of the person he’s showing this to. Most people know, selectively, that one or more major device technologies were developed in Europe. But the totality of the phenomenon, reflected in a presentation that covers a couple dozen technologies, is arresting. Oesterle notes that 99 of Medtronic’s top-selling products came from ideas from physicians, “and the majority of those came from Europe.”
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