Startups and smaller firms outnumber the big medtech companies, but they haven’t cornered the market on research and development. The major players are always working on new devices and use their scale to quickly assemble teams to develop them. R&D executives from Abbott and Boston Scientific explained how their processes work and dispelled some myths
Abbott is developing a dual-chamber leadless pacemaker
June 4, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Even before its acquisition by Abbott, St. Jude Medical had begun developing a dual-chamber leadless pacemaker, which would be a first if it succeeds. Abbott and Medtronic are the only companies that have developed single-chamber leadless pacemakers; St. Jude recalled its version, Nanostim, in October 2017 after receiving 7 reports of lost telemetry and pacing
8 companies commercializing transcatheter mitral valve replacements
May 22, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Transcatheter mitral valve replacement is a new frontier in the cardio device field, with big legacy medical device companies including Edwards Lifesciences, Medtronic and Abbott spending hundreds of millions of dollars on companies in the space. Much different from transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR) has been mostly experimental. TMVR is used
Minnesota’s Medical Alley has a big presence at EuroPCR
May 21, 2018 By Leave a Comment
The Medical Alley Association in Minnesota is touting the major presence that companies and organizations from the state will have at this year’s EuroPCR, which is being held this week in Paris. The event — the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions’ annual meeting — is May 22–25 at the Palais des Congrès and is expected to
Can Minnesota become a healthcare innovation hub?
May 18, 2018 By 2 Comments
Minnesota has the institutions and the talent to transform healthcare in the U.S. The question is whether the money will follow. RxFunction makes wearable devices called “Walkasins” that help people with chronic health conditions prevent falls that can lead to serious injury. It took eight painstaking years, though, before the Eden Prairie, Minn.-based startup secured
Stryker, J&J and Abbott ranked as top companies to work at in the U.S.
May 16, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Stryker, Johnson & Johnson and Abbott have been named as some of LinkedIn’s top companies to work at in 2018. This marks the third year of “LinkedIn’s Top Companies 2018: Where the U.S. wants to work now,” which names the companies that professionals most want to work at based on a set of data points collected
Speakers you need to see at DeviceTalks Minnesota
May 8, 2018 By Leave a Comment
A Google executive whose own heart problems spurred her to seek medtech innovation, a leader at Abbott who wants to drive healthcare value, the head of an upstart company seeking to transform diabetes care — those are but some of the speakers you will encounter at DeviceTalks Minnesota this June. Read on to find out
For this Abbott executive, solving problems isn’t enough: ‘We need to add value’
May 3, 2018 By Leave a Comment
As payers and providers across healthcare shift their focus to value-based care, leaders in the medical device industry are racing to keep up. Michael Pederson, SVP of cardiac arrhythmias and heart failure at Abbott, told MassDevice.com why simply solving problems with new technology isn’t enough anymore. What was your path like from electrical engineering to
Medtech stories we missed this week: April 27, 2018
April 27, 2018 By Leave a Comment
From DuPuy Synthes’s spinal implant launch to Lumendi’s FDA clearance, here are seven medtech stories we missed this week but thought were still worth mentioning. 1. DePuy Synthes launches spinal implants DePuy Synthes announced in an April 26 press release that it has launched its Proti 360º integrated titanium family of interbody devices that are designed
Bigfoot brings Series B total to $55m with new investment from Abbott
March 28, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Reeling in an $18 million add-on to the $37 million Series B that it reported last year, Bigfoot Biomedical touted today that it has raised over $90 million in total funding since the Milpitas, Calif.-based company first launched. Investments from Abbott (NYSE:ABT), which has an established partnership with Bigfoot, and other new and existing investors, brought the […]
This medtech CEO led his company to a $200 million buyout
March 8, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Guiding a company through a merger or an acquisition can test a CEO’s leadership skills. Here’s how NinePoint Medical CEO, Christopher von Jako, led his former medtech company, NeuroTherm, through a deal with St. Jude Medical. When Christopher von Jako assumed the corner office at NeuroTherm in 2013, the company had gone through two other
Hacking pacemakers is good TV, but is it for real?
February 27, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Worry less about bad people hacking pacemakers and other cardiac devices. Worry more about them disrupting hospitals’ communications networks. That’s the major message out of the American College of Cardiology’s Electrophysiology Council, which published an article about cardiac devices earlier this month in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The idea that hackers might
Webinar: The top medtech stories of 2017
January 30, 2018 By Leave a Comment
This webinar was presented live on Tuesday, January 30, 2018. Click below to watch on demand. The medtech industry saw its transformation accelerate in 2017: Whether it’s the roster of largest companies, business models or the regulatory environment, times are a-changing. Competition is also heating up in areas including diabetes care and robotic
Abbott, Nevro tout spinal cord stimulation tech
January 16, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Abbott (NYSE:ABT) and Nevro (NYSE:NVRO) touted their spinal cord stimulation technologies at the annual North American Neurological Society meeting in Las Vegas. Two-year data from Abbott’s 42-patient Sunburst study revealed that a majority of patients chose its BurstDR therapy when given the choice during the long-term follow-up period and that stimulation from BurstDR provided pain relief […]
Abbott nabs CMS reimbursement for FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitor
January 4, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Abbott (NYSE:ABT) said today that its FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitor is now available to Medicare patients, after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services determined that the device can be classified as a therapeutic CGM. The FreeStyle Libre is designed to read glucose levels through a sensor worn on the back of a person’s upper […]
