Physio-Control, a progenitor of the Seattle-area medical devices industry, will again become part of a large public company headquartered elsewhere. Kalamazoo, MI-based Stryker (NYSE: SYK) has agreed to buy the maker of automated external defibrillators and other devices for $1.28 billion in cash.
For Stryker, Physio-Control is the third acquisition announced this month and its 20th since 2010.
Shift Labs is a small startup launching this spring out of Y Combinator with a lofty tagline: to be “the Nest of medical devices.” But as ambitious as that goal may sound at first, when you take a closer look at Shift Labs, it doesn’t sound that crazy after all. In fact, it seems almost inevitable.
If you’ve spent any time in a hospital, you’ve likely noticed that a lot of the equipment around looks pretty complicated, with an array of buttons, knobs, and screens. Medical device manufacturers have historically built their products by focusing on function way before form. If usability and design are even considered, it’s an afterthought at best.
Researchers aim to print large areas of carbon nanotube thin-film transistors on plastic surfaces to make flexible displays and sensor networks.
Adapting conventional printing technology, researchers have developed a way to rapidly and inexpensively make uniform arrays of high-performing transistors out of carbon nanotubes on flexible plastic sheets. The process could eventually lead to a tool for manufacturing large-area, low-power sensor arrays and displays.
TrakDot is a small signal transmitting device that lets users know if their luggage has successfully arrived at their destination, keeping them up to date on the whereabouts of their possessions.
