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

St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE: STJ) and the U.S. Justice Dept. are in settlement talks over the St. Paul, Minnesota-based company’s alleged kick-back scheme.

Medtronic’s earnings are bad news for the medical device industry and may indicate the global economy is in worse shape than people think.

In the end, Matt Kramer’s departure from the University of Minnesota was a lot more low key than his hiring less than a year ago.With great fanfare, the school had hired Kramer in July 2009 to run what was then known as the Academic and Corporate Relations Center. The university had good reason to crow: [...]

A small online healthcare education company in Ohio is building a “highly interactive simulation” to teach doctors and radiologists at St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE: STJ) about optical coherence tomography (OCT). MultiWeb Communications in Rocky River just landed the job from the medical device giant in Little Canada, Minnesota, according to MultiWeb founder Karl Wilkens.

Since he assumed his post in January, Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, the top Food and Drug Administration official on medical devices, has walked a delicate tightrope.He has worked hard to reassure a nervous industry that the FDA still values innovation, but has not promised anything specific. But listening to his remarks, an informal understanding seems to [...]

A California state judge has tossed bids to dismiss fraud, conspiracy and medical malpractice charges against St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE:STJ) and two individuals, allowing the case against the medical device manufacturer to proceed.Attorneys for Albert Israel previously filed suit alleging his longtime physician, Dr. Michael Burnam of Tarzana, Calif., placed [...]

In Minnesota, the sincerest form of flattery is not imitation but rather working for the enemy.According to the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE: STJ) filed a lawsuit against a former top executive, accusing the man of violating a non-compete agreement. The company fears the man will share confidential information with rival [...]

Device maker St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE: STJ) is once again tangling with Volcano Corp., this time in a patent dispute over guide wires.St. Jude has filed a lawsuit against Volcano, alleging that the San Diego company infringed on five patents related to its PressureWire technology platform for guide wires, according to a statement from [...]

It’s been a while since we could get excited about implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), the watch-sized devices that shock an irregular heart back into rhythm.The device that helped launched the dominance of Minnesota’s medical device industry barely registers a yawn today. ICDs are what we call a “mature” industry, growing around 4 to 6 percent [...]

Normally, you wouldn’t expect the CEO of a major medical device company to employ the phrase “absolutely awesome” during a conference call with Wall Street analysts.But then again, you really can’t blame St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE: STJ) CEO Dan Starks for showing a little enthusiasm. Starks was specifically referring to the initial sales of [...]