Not if, but when: The next medical device breakthrough is coming

The Bakken Medical Devices Center is creating new devices and developing researchers with the potential to solve critical healthcare challenges.

Inside the University of Minnesota’s Earl E. Bakken Medical Devices Center, engineers tinker with prototypes, clinicians sketch out solutions to problems they've witnessed firsthand, and researchers run experiments with the potential to change lives. It’s here where some of tomorrow’s promising medical technologies are being born.

The Bakken Medical Devices Center is rare because it brings together a mix of technical know-how, clinical insight, and entrepreneurial drive all under one roof. Whether it’s reimagining how to treat chronic conditions or mentoring the next generation of medtech pioneers, the center is deeply committed to transforming bold ideas into tools that heal.

Named in honor of pioneering engineer, pacemaker inventor, Medtronic cofounder, and University of Minnesota alumnus Earl Bakken, the Bakken Medical Devices Center is where innovation and entrepreneurial spirit help solve real-world health problems.

"The vision for the Bakken Medical Devices Center is to become a leading collaborative center where researchers, clinicians, engineers, industry experts, entrepreneurs, and community groups come together across the University of Minnesota, the nation, and worldwide to translate new medtech to patients while training the next generation of medtech innovators,” says Hubert Lim, the director of the Bakken Medical Devices Center. 

The Bakken Medical Devices Center brings together expertise from the University of Minnesota’s College of Science and Engineering and the University’s breadth of health sciences fields, including the University of Minnesota Medical School, School of Dentistry, College of Veterinary Medicine, School of Nursing, and College of Pharmacy. The center combines basic research, applied and translational research, education and training, and outreach and public engagement related to medical devices.

The center is home to all kinds of tools and expertise to help get a medical device from idea to product. It includes 3D printers, a virtual reality suite, mechanical and electronic labs, and a wet lab, a laboratory environment designed for experiments involving liquids, chemicals, and biological matter.

“This is a place where people come together to create potential solutions to unmet medical needs,” Lim says.

Lim has seen firsthand how new medical devices can have a major impact on people’s lives. Lim was part of a team that recently received FDA approval for a tinnitus treatment—the first device of its kind to be granted such approval in the U.S. Tinnitus, or ringing in the ear, affects at least 25 million Americans.

“Devices created here and throughout the University of Minnesota have an impact that can’t be overstated,” he says. “We are improving the lives of millions.”

Creating the conditions for innovation to thrive

Inside the Bakken Medical Devices Center is the Innovation Fellows Program, which trains seasoned professionals from different disciplines to address unmet medical needs with novel solutions. 

Each year, a select group of fellows from inside and outside of the University—engineers, clinicians, scientists, and business professionals—are chosen for an immersive experience. They embed themselves in hospitals and clinics across the University of Minnesota by shadowing doctors, interviewing patients, and identifying healthcare gaps that demand new solutions. 

The fellows work collaboratively to prototype new devices and test their market feasibility.

The Innovation Fellows Program is led by Danny Sachs, a serial physician entrepreneur who founded several companies with now FDA-approved products. “We invite professionals from the Medical Alley ecosystem across Minnesota who are leaders in their craft to roll up their sleeves and work with the fellows," Sachs says. “These relationships continue long after trainees graduate from the program.”

Hands-on experience is another important aspect of the program. 

“Our fellows collaborate with University experts in needs-finding, brainstorming, and grant proposals. Fellows learn how to use a variety of prototyping tools through a series of fun exercises,” Sachs says. “They may also work with the Medical School’s Anatomy Bequest Program, honoring the wishes of donors who wish to contribute to research that could benefit society.”

Since its inaugural cohort in 2008, the Innovation Fellows Program has trained 91 fellows. Nine new fellows joined the program this summer, including University faculty.

The program continues to draw potential applicants because of the unique experience it offers trainees to collaborate with and learn from teammates across disciplines. 

“We graduate innovators who can help patients at scale over their careers,” Sachs says.

The program lasts for approximately 10 months. At its conclusion, fellows pitch venture capital investors and successful entrepreneurs describing the need, solution, supporting data, and path to key milestones such as FDA approval, reimbursement, and adoption.

While the program’s mission is innovation training, start-up ventures have emerged from it, including Stimdia Medical, a startup created around a device that stimulates a person’s diaphragm to support independent breathing and reduce a patient’s length of stay in a hospital’s intensive care unit. 

Another promising company is Aria CV and its device, an implant for patients with pulmonary hypertension, a type of high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs that affects millions of people worldwide.

“We teach our fellows to identify unmet medical needs and develop commercially viable solutions to those needs,” Sachs says. “We hope that these devices will lead to better quality of life, reduced pain, and improved function.”

Giving link

Support University of Minnesota startups with a gift to the University's Discover, Advance, Impact Initiative Fund, providing early stage investment funding to support innovative research in successfully entering the market, ensuring groundbreaking ideas become impactful businesses.