MINNESOTA 2.0
(Check out our hottest startups feature for more examples.) When it comes to medtech startup success, pointing out differentiation is key, according to Jodi Hubler, managing director at Lehmhi Ventures (Wayzata, Minn.), which counts Bind in its portfolio. “There is opportunity for all sides – to stand out and to seek out innovation. It’s there for the taking.” Back to its roots Though Minnesota may be slower than other states to embrace new medical innovation, that hasn’t always been the case. Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., one of the top providers in the country, was a pioneer in integrated care – a model it started honing about 130 years ago. One of the largest private health insurers in the U.S., UnitedHealth Group, is based in Minnetonka, Minn., with its Optum subsidiary seeking to combine technology, data and expertise to improve health care delivery. And one of the world’s largest advanced manufacturing and medical device companies, 3M Co., is headquartered in Maplewood, Minn., with a history going back more than a century. “This actually has always been a healthcare hub,” said Shaye Mandle, the Medical Alley Association’s CEO. The medtech cluster’s roots go back to the 1950s and ‘60s, when University of Minnesota surgeons including Dr. C. Walton Lillehei pioneered open heart surgery. Lillehei happened to meet Earl Bakken, who along with brotherin-law Palmer Hermundslie had started a business out of a garage repairing hospital equipment. Lillehei tasked Bakken with finding a replacement for the large, unreliable pacemakers then in use. “Over four weeks in 1957, Bakken developed the first external, wearable, battery-powered pacemaker. It was used in the hospital on a patient the day after Bakken delivered it,” the Smithsonian Institution recounted in an article celebrating an exhibit about Minnesota’s Medical Alley. Bakken and Hermundslie’s business eventually grew into Medtronic – now the
Even during the 1980s, Minnesota’s Medical Alley Association was touting the diversity of resources in the state. Image courtesy of the Medical Alley Association.
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Medical Design & Outsourcing
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5/18/18 7:04 AM