The Road to Regaining Dominance

Art Erdman, director of the Medical Devices Center, says that he’s pleased that the report recognizes the center, but he doesn’t agree with its assessment that the U of M is behind the curve in the area of medical devices.

“I would have agreed with it if it was said in the early ‘90s,” says Erdman. The U’s relationships with industry hit a lull in that period but has since turned around, he says. “I think there’s perhaps a bit of a lag in observing that the university is, through its leadership, providing increased value to industry.”

The Medical Devices Center, which opened in summer 2008, resulted from years of planning that preceded the Destination 2025 research and report, says Erdman. The university’s decision to allocate $5 million over five years to the program is a sign of its commitment to both medical devices and technology transfer, he says. (The center was one of the top strategic investments listed in the university’s 2007 budget request to the Minnesota Legislature.)

The center is a joint endeavor between the school’s Institute of Technology and the Medical School. “We’ve been able to pull teams together from both sides of Washington Avenue,” Erdman says. The mission is to accelerate the research and development of devices by forging a better link between the two departments, as well as between the U and industry.

Housed on the fifth floor Shepherd Labs on the East Bank campus, the center has all of the equipment students need to take new devices from idea to prototypes. That includes computers loaded with design software, tools for mechanical and electronics fabrication, and video consoles where students can watch live surgeries in 3D to better visualize how and where devices will be used. It’s the first time all of this equipment has been under one roof.

“All of this is focused on training engineers and others to be the leaders of the next generation of medical technology,” Erdman says.

Wahlstrom and the report push the university to do more, but they say it doesn’t shoulder all of the responsibility. The state should also be more aggressive about recruiting small companies that use active implantable technology.

“Let’s go hunting,” Wahlstrom says. “Let’s help those companies realize that if they want access to the human capability and the infrastructure to apply active implantable technology, Minnesota is the place to be.”

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) has one specialist who works with medical technology companies—and spokeswoman Kirsten Morell says that DEED does focus on retaining existing companies and trying to recruit new ones from other states.