Vintage implantable devices
Northstar was founded in 1999 as Vertis Neuroscience headquartered in Seattle, WA, and the original goal was to develop electrical stimulation for chronic back pain. In 2003, under its new name, Northstar Neuroscience, then developed the Renova cortical stimulation system to deliver targeted electrical stimulation to the brain cortex as a treatment for stroke-related upper extremity. Continue reading
Transneuronix, Inc. was founded in 1995 and was based in Mount Arlington, New Jersey. It was acquired by Medtronic in 2005.
Before its acqusition by Medtronic, Transneuronix developed the Transcend, an implantable gastric stimulator device for the treatment of obesity by electrical stimulation of the stomach. Later, Medtronic developed the Transcend II IPG. Continue reading
Transoma was the name that Data Sciences International of St Paul, MN adopted in 2003 when it re-fucused its animal telemetry implant business to develop an implantable wireless system to capture electrocardiogram data for diagnosing human cardiac arrhythmias, as well as to monitor the electrical activity of the heart and transmit data from the patient’s home to monitoring centers.
In 2007, Transoma received FDA’s approval for its Sleuth implantable device to wirelessly monitor a patient’s ECG for possible diagnosis of arrhythmias and prevention of syncopal episodes. The Sleuth ECG Monitoring System included a High Definition Implantable Loop Recorder (HD-ILR), a Personal Diagnostic Manager, a Base Station and a Monitoring Center staffed 24/7. Continue reading
Sicel Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1999 and was based in Morrisville, NC. It ceased operations in 2010 after it declared bankruptcy.
Sicel developed an implantable dosimeter that was 2 mm in diameter and 18 mm long, and was injected into the tumor to send back readings to an external receiver via RFID. Continue reading