Medtronic buys GE unit to boost information services
Terry Fiedler
Star Tribune
Published Jan 4 2002
Medtronic Inc., the world's largest manufacturer of
pacemakers and defibrillators, continues to build its
post-implant services, announcing the acquisition Thursday of
the Pace art database business from GE Medical Systems.
Paceart, based in New Jersey, was the first company to use data
from pacemakers for patient follow-ups. The 16-year-old
company's database software system remains the industry
standard, said Christopher O'Connell, vice president and
general manager of Medtronic's patient-management group.
Paceart's system has been used at 900 clinics and hospitals to
organize and interpret data read from pacemakers and
defibrillators by hand-held telemetry devices. The purchase
price for the company was not disclosed.
The Paceart system works with devices from all the major
manufacturers and will continue to be geared for that
versatility, Medtronic said.
The newly acquired business has annual revenue of less than
$25 million, but Fridley-based Medtronic sees the convergence
of medical and information technology as a major area of
growth this decade.
The announcement of the acquisition comes a day after the
company said it had received Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) approval for an Internet-based network that allows for
remote monitoring of some patients with implanted
defibrillators.
Medtronic has invested about $30 million in that network,
called CareLink. The FDA is expected to ultimately allow
remote monitoring for all of the company's 2 million
implanted devices. In five years, analysts think the fee-based
network could be generating $250 million in revenue for
Medtronic.
Separately, Medtronic said it got FDA approval for its
implanted Synergy Versitrel neurostimulator, used for
management of chronic pain. The product is 20 percent
smaller than Medtronic's existing Synergy neurostimulator.
Both systems include a pulse generator implanted in the
abdominal area. Conduction leads that are surgically placed
under the skin deliver electrical impulses to block pain.
-- Terry Fiedler is at tfiedler@startribune.com .
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