Q M E D . C O M / M P M N M E D I C A L P R O D U C T M A N U F A C T U R I N G N E W S S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 5 2 1
Chardack-Greatbatch Implantable Cardiac
Pacemaker (Around 1961)
In 1960, news came out that William Chardack, MD, and
Andrew Gage, MD, at the Veterans Administration Hospital in
Buffalo, NY, had joined electrical engineer Wilson Greatbatch
to test out totally implantable pacemakers. As Medtronic's
corporate history relates,
the company's founders were
pretty interested. Palmer
Hermundslie f ew his own
plane to Buffalo to meet
Chardack and Greatbatch,
and signed a contract giving
Medtronic exclusive rights
to produce and market
the Chardack-Greatbatch
implantable pulse generator.
Medtronic received
orders for 50 of the $375
implantable units within two
months of starting production.
Microlith P 0505 Pacemaker
(1978)
Medtronic's founders weren't the only
commercial visionaries in Minnesota's
medtech industry. A real mecca of
commercial innovation and talent
blossomed in the state during the 1960s and
1970s—a hub of innovation that exists to
this day.
Just one of many signif cant players
in this story is serial entrepreneur Manny
Villafana. He started St. Jude Medical in the
1970s and worked with Lillehei and others
to improve, patent, and commercialize heart
valves, the Smithsonian recounts. Villanafa
also launched Cardiac Pacemakers Inc.,
which is now part of Boston Scientif c's
Guidant business. CPI's achievements
included the programmable Microlith P
0505 pacemaker.
Medical Alley
Poster (1988)
By the late 1980s,
Minnesota could easily
boast of itself as "Medical
Alley"—one of the top centers
of medical device innovation
in the world. Along with
California and Massachusetts,
it is one of the top three
medtech hubs in the United
States.
