by Jill Hoffman | Aug 21, 2013 | Medical Devices
In 1650, a German Jesuit named Athanasius Kircher invented the ear trumpet, a funnel-shaped device to collect sound waves and direct them into the ears of nearly deaf patients. Medical technology has come a long way since then, and today medtech devices include robots...
by Jill Hoffman | Aug 7, 2013 | Medical Devices
When Medtronic manufactured the first pacemakers more than 50 years ago, physicians did not know what they were. The idea of implanting a man-made device in a patient’s chest sounded crazy. It was up to sales reps to teach doctors how pacemakers worked and how they...
by Jill Hoffman | Jul 2, 2013 | Medical Devices
In 2011, an IBM supercomputer named Watson defeated two reigning champions on the TV quiz show Jeopardy, winning the first prize of $1 million. Watson has a 15-terabyte data bank of human knowledge—more than 15 times Wikipedia—and can process the equivalent of a...
by Jill Hoffman | Jun 26, 2013 | Medical Devices
When the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was signed into law in 2010, it contained a 2.3% excise tax on gross sales of medical devices. The tax applies to a wide range of products, from bedpans to the most advanced heart devices, as well as companies, from emerging...