Medtronic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Medtronic, Inc. | |
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| Slogan | Alleviating Pain. Restoring Health. Extending Life. |
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| Type | Public (NYSE: MDT) |
| Founded | 1949 |
| Headquarters | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Key people | Art Collins, Chairman and CEO |
| Industry | Medical technology |
| Products | Medical devices |
| Revenue | USD $10 Billion (2005) |
| Employees | 32,000 |
| Website | www.medtronic.com |
Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE: MDT), based in Fridley, Minnesota, is the world's largest medical technology company. Listed among Fortune 500 companies, Medtronic is a publicly traded company and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MDT. The company was founded in 1949 by Earl Bakken and Palmer Hermundslie and is credited with manufacturing the first wearable artificial pacemakers. However, they started off with much more modest intentions, acting as a repair company, servicing medical equipment in local hospitals. Medtronic's main competitors for cardiac devices are Guidant (now a division of Boston Scientific) and St. Jude Medical.
Medtronic followed a path familiar to technology historians, starting in a garage in northern Minneapolis. The company expanded through the 1950s, mostly selling equipment built by other companies, but some custom hardware was also developed. The employees eventually came to know Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, a noted heart surgeon who was then at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Lillehei was frustrated with the pacemakers of the day, which relied on wall current to operate. This was extremely troublesome because power outages would cause patients to die.
Bakken built a small transistorized pacemaker that could be strapped to the body and powered by batteries. Work into this new field continued, producing an implantable pacemaker in 1960.
The company has continued to innovate in the medical business and is considered an economically-important company for Minnesota. A key attribute in understanding the company is that it remains very focused on the mission originally written by co-founder Earl Bakken in the early-1960s. The first paragraph of the 6 paragraph mission statement reads:
"To contribute to human welfare by application of biomedical engineering in the research, design, manufacture, and sale of instruments or appliances that alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life."
Medtronic makes a wide array of implantable electronic devices, from the relatively common ICD or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, to devices for managing urinary incontinence and obesity to name just a few.
On April 22, 2005, Medtronic paid US$ 1.35 billion to settle a patent lawsuit and also to acquire disputed spine surgery-related patents from Gary K. Michelson.
