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MD Start – Can Medtech Incubators Work In Europe?

Europe has historically been rich in physicians with innovative ideas but has lagged in turning those ideas into novel devices. MD Start, a new incubator, backed by a group of leading device companies and VC firms, hopes to turn those ideas into viable companies.

Sitting over a PowerPoint presentation, Stephen Oesterle, MD, senior vice president, medicine and technology, for Medtronic PLC, goes through a long list of the major medical device technologies that make up Medtronic’s portfolio, perhaps the broadest in the industry. “Where do you think the first implantable pacemaker came from?” he asks and, answering his own question, says “A physician in Sweden.” The first dual chamber pacemaker? Germany. Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT)? France. ICDs? Poland.

And it’s not just CRDM (Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management) devices. Everyone knows that the first interventional cardiology procedures came, famously,...

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