In MedTech History: Top 10 Posts of 2019

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

1. In MedTech History: Dialysis Innovations, Part 1
   Celebrating Dutch physician Willem J. Kolff who, while treating World War II casualties in 1943, was inspired to build the first dialysis prototype using tin cans, sausage casings, parts from washing machines, and other scarce available resources.
    
2. In MedTech History: Surgical Robotics, Part 1
   In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit, the “World Wide Web” was conceived, and the first robotic, computer-driven system for use in endoscopic surgery was approved by the FDA.
    
3. In MedTech History: Cataract Surgery
   In 1967, the Vietnam War was escalating while protests took place around the globe, and pioneering American ophthalmologist Charles Kelman, MD, transformed surgery for cataracts—the single most common preventable cause of adult blindness.
    
4. In MedTech History: Spinal Fusion
   In 1891, the ubiquitous zipper and basketball as a sport were invented, and American orthopedic surgeon, Berthold Hadra, MD, was one of the first surgeons to successfully fuse the spine of a patient suffering from a fracture dislocation.
    
5. In MedTech History: Women Who Changed the World: Patricia Bath, MD
   In this post, we honor the legacy of Patricia Bath, MD, a trailblazer who overcame sexism, racism, and relative poverty to become an ophthalmologist, inventor, and humanitarian in the prevention and treatment of blindness.
    
6. In MedTech History: The Pure Food and Drug Act
   The year 1906 was marked by the great San Francisco Earthquake, sweeping social reforms in Britain, and a landmark new law, the Pure Food and Drug Act—the precursor of today’s US Food and Drug Administration.
    
7. In MedTech History: The BRAIN Initiative
   In 2013, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft was the first man-made object to exit our solar system, and the landmark, large-scale Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative was launched, with the goals of filling major gaps in our knowledge about the brain’s function, and to catalyze rapid advances in neuroscience.
    
8. In MedTech History: Diabetes Technology, Part 2
   This post highlights recent developments in the brave new world of automated diabetes devices, from Medtronic, Tandem Diabetes Care, and DexCom.
    
9. In MedTech History: The Hubble Space Telescope’s Contribution to Digital Breast Biopsy Technology
   The successful launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 spurred the development of high-resolution charge-coupled devices sensitive enough to peer at distant galaxies—and detect breast cancer.
    
10. In MedTech History: Dialysis Innovations, Part 3
    In 2016, the White House Organ Summit called for an increase in breakthrough R&D to improve outcomes for patients needing transplants. This effort led to the development of the ongoing KidneyX: Redesign Dialysis prize competition, a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership between the US Department of Health and Human Services and the American Society of Nephrology.

(Note: Order of the listing above is current as of December 16, 2019.)

In addition to these Top 10 posts, more than 20 additional In MedTech History posts published to date celebrate landmark achievements during the 109 years between 1895 and 2004, that completely changed the face of medicine.

As we close this year of celebrating some of the most awe-inspiring moments ‘In MedTech History,” we offer our sincerest thanks to all of you—our global community of MedTech Strategists—for reading IMH and our team’s other popular Community Blog posts this year. This includes Kayleen Brown’s inspiring Meet the Innovators video interview series and David Filmore’s on-point Pathways’ Pick of the Week, on MyStrategist.com and also on Apple News.

To all of you passionate innovators, keep thinking BIG. We are proud to follow your dreams and journeys, as we start a brand new decade, here on the MedTech Strategist Community Blog.

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