IT launches new Medical Devices Center, strengthens ties to Medical School

A new Medical Devices Center launched this summer at the University of Minnesota aims to strengthen interdisciplinary research among faculty in the health sciences and engineering specifically related to medical devices. The center will educate the next generation of medical device inventors and develop new relationships with the successful Twin Cities medical device industry and various government agencies in an effort to improve health care worldwide.

The Medical Devices Center is part of the new Institute for Engineering in Medicine (IEM). IEM is a new initiative jointly sponsored by the University’s Institute of Technology and the Medical School that replaces the University’s former Biomedical Engineering Institute.

IEM will serve as an umbrella organization that will connect and amplify research efforts between the medical biosciences and various engineering departments and physical sciences. Other research centers within the Institute for Engineering in Medicine include the Center for Biomedical Imaging and a Center for Cardiovascular Repair.

Researchers will primarily use existing facilities, but a core lab with common use equipment specifically for designing and testing medical devices is planned for the new Medical Devices Center. The center will provide resources and assistance to researchers and industry partners in the medical device design process from design concept through clinical trials.

The IEM is under the direction of former Biomedical Engineering Institute Director Jeffrey McCullough who will report to both Medical School Dean Deborah E. Powell and Institute of Technology Dean Steven L. Crouch. Assistant directors include mechanical engineering professor John Bischof, and Medical School professors Gerry Timm (EE ’63 , EE M.S. ’65, EE Ph.D. ’67), and Paul Iaizzo. The IEM will also rely upon its industry advisory board members to provide recommendations, direction and expertise.

Art Erdman, a long-time University of Minnesota mechanical engineering professor and medical devices expert, has been chosen as director of our new Medical Devices Center. Medical School professor Doris Taylor serves as director of the Center for Cardiovascular Repair.