Top DIY Medical Devices

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These days, medical device design has become a world of specialists—with biomedical engineering a profession in itself. But it is worth noting that some of the earliest and most groundbreaking innovations were made by do it yourselfers such as Medtronic co-founder Earl Bakken, an electrical engineer who created the first battery-operated pacemaker in 1957, or Thomas Fogarty, MD, the vascular surgeon who developed the first embolectomy catheter in the 1960s. They were tinkerers and dreamers with more general engineering backgrounds, or no formal engineering training at all. And their do-it-yourself tradition actually lives on, with stories of an Argentinean car mechanic who came up with a baby delivery device or a Chicago man who created a foot-controlled power wheelchair for his disabled son. Read on to find out more about the medical device field’s do it yourself tradition, both past and present.Or do you think you know the next Bakken or Fogarty? Participate in our informal survey on the greatest medical device innovators ever.