A legacy of innovation
C. Walton Lillehei, M.D., Ph.D., participates in the world’s first successful open-heart surgery using a hypothermia apparatus.
Lillehei and Richard DeWall, M.D., develop the bubble oxygenator, the world’s first successful heart-lung machine.
Medtronic founder Earl Bakken and Lillehei develop the first portable, external cardiac pacemaker.
Lillehei and Bhagavant Kalke develop the first mechanical heart valves.
Demetre Nicoloff, M.D., completes the first implant of the St. Jude bi-leaflet aortic valve.
Henry Buchwald, M.D., Ph.D., invents the first implantable infusion pump.
Gladwin Das, M.D., develops AngelWings, the first self-centering ASD closure device.
Trials for the “Amplatzer” heart defect closure device, developed by Kurt Amplatz, M.D., begin.
Robert Vince, Ph.D., develops carbovir compounds, the basis for the HIV drug Ziagen, which are then commercialized by Glaxo Smith Kline.
Bernhard Hering, M.D., reverses diabetes in monkeys using islet cells from pigs.
Gabriel Loor, M.D., performs the Midwest's first "breathing lung" transplant, a process that uses technology to keep the lungs warm, breathing, and essentially alive until transplant.
The FDA authorized the production and use of a low-cost ventilator, designed by Stephen Richardson, M.D., to help address ventilator shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic.
University of Minnesota researchers showed for the first time that lab-created heart valves were capable of growth within the recipient.