Innovation, influence and business in America's medical cities.

Microbiologics Inc. recently tapped Brad Goskowicz, the medical device sales and marketing veteran, to be its CEO. The company makes microorganisms used in quality control testing for several industries including medical and pharmaceutical. Oh, did I mention Goskowicz is a U.S. Speedskating Hall of Famer and the current president of the U.S. Speedskating Association?

In mid-May, Cameron Health Inc. struck media gold when the New York Times and the New England Journal of Medicine both gave prominent coverage to the company’s efforts to develop the medical device industry’s first subcantaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). Not bad for a relatively unknown startup in San Clemente, California. But a week earlier, Cameron struck managerial gold when it hired Warren Watson.

The union representing 1,300 nurses in Duluth said Wednesday morning it has agreed to a tentative new contract with St. Luke’s Hospital, averting a one-day strike threatened by the union.

Orasi Medical Inc. continued its string of impressive partnerships, this time striking a licensing deal with Swiss pharma giant Novartis AG.

Twin Star Medical is moving to the Excelen orthopedic and bone research center in downtown Minneapolis. The startup, currently based at the University Enterprise Laboratories in St. Paul, will lease a 4,000 square feet of space in the building located next to Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC), beginning in November.

BioMatRx Inc. is the Minnesota Cup’s bioscience champion, MedCity News has learned. The company, based in Edina, Minnesota, is developing ways to use stem cell therapies to restore damaged and diseased teeth.

Steve Burrill is searching for money, this time among rich vacation-goers in northern Wisconsin. The San Francisco-based biotech investor who is trying to create a $250 million investment fund to back the Elk Run BioBusiness Park in Pine Island, Minnesota, also is forming a new angel investment group in the Badger State.Burrill is joining forces with former Wisconsin commerce secretary Dick Leinenkugel to target wealthy individuals and families inhabiting vacation homes in the well-to-do resort area of Vilas County in northern Wisconsin.

“Did you watch the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics?” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) asked the mostly medical tech audience at a recent LifeScience Alley symposium on healthcare. “Did you see the 2,000 synchronized drummers?” I sure did. And like millions of other Americans, I thought: “Oh, crap. We’re in trouble.”

Medical device companies probably aren’t feeling the love from Wall Street, these days. The last two medical device companies from Minnesota to go public priced their IPOs far below what they expected. The malaise is not limited to Minnesota.

People often lament that Republicans and Democrats can’t accomplish anything because they have nothing in common. Nonsense. I think Republicans and Democrats can’t accomplish anything because they do have something in common: some politicians in both parties are equally clueless about how to promote high-tech innovation that creates high-paying jobs.