Medtronic, Inc.  based in Minneapolis, 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 Boston Scientific and St. Jude Medical.
Medtronic followed a path familiar to technology historians, starting in a garage in northeast 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 C. Walton Lillehei, a heart surgeon who was then at the University of Minnesota. 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 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.”
On May 11, 2009, Medtronic announced it has chosen San Antonio, Texas for the location of its new Diabetes Therapy Management and Education Center. An expected 1,400 new jobs will be created to staff the 150,000 square-foot facility.
Medtronic makes a wide array of implantable electronic devices, from the relatively common implantable cardioverter-defibrillator or ICD, to devices for managing urinary incontinence and obesity to name just a few.
Founded 1949
Headquarters Minneapolis, Minnesota
Key people Bill Hawkins, Chairman & CEO
Industry Medical technology
Products Medical devices
Revenue $12.3 Billion (2007)
Employees 40,000
Website www.medtronic.com
Medtronic Diabetes
Medtronic Diabetes is the diabetes management manufacturing and sales division of Medtronic based in Northridge, California. The original company Minimed Technologies was founded in the early 1980s and spun-off from Pacesetter Systems, in order to design a practical insulin pump for lifelong wear. Most devices at the time were either too large or impossible to program and extremely unreliable. The release of the lightweight, menu-driven MiniMed 500 series changed the landscape, and was a major factor in bringing pump usage to the mainstream. By the early 2000s Medtronic had bought out Minimed to form Medtronic Minimed.
Current models consist of the MiniMed Paradigm 522/722. It is the first Insulin Pump which integrates continuous glucose monitoring, allowing patients to see in real time their glucose level. As well as insulin pumps Medtronic Diabetes also makes Continuous Blood Glucose Monitoring Systems (CGMS) for use as a stand alone system or integrated into their Minimed Paradigm 522/722 series pumps. Medtronic Diabetes also makes a large range of accessories and components for their insulin pump and CGMS products.
The Former Medtronic Minimed logoAs of March 2007 the MiniMed name has begun to be absorbed into the parent company, Medtronic. Medtronic has kept the MiniMed name to brand their insulin pumps, for example: The MiniMed Paradigm 722. Medtronic frequently uses Medtronic Diabetes as the name for the division, it is unclear to the extent the division will be integrated into Medtronic, as it still maintains its own website. Many products and marketing material still say Medtronic MiniMed, as the brand is being phased out.
Maximo security vulnerability
In March of 2008 researchers at the medical device security center released a report indicating that a security vulnerability in the Maximo Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator could permit attackers to remotely gain access to personal patient information, alter treatment instructions, or even induce potentially fatal rhythms

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