Medtronic 2009 Annual Report Download - page 8

Throughout this past fiscal year, we continued to focus on execution of these key initiatives. In doing so, we
strengthened our common approach to treating chronic disease, better integrated our business processes and
operations across our core businesses, made solid progress advancing our pipelines, and increased our focus on
driving innovation and improving R&D productivity across the company.
Fueling Innovation
If it could be said that One Medtronic is designed to keep the heart of our organization pumping optimally, then
innovation is the lifeblood coursing through our veins. Evidence of One Medtronic’s success has been demonstrated in
each of our businesses, where innovation is paying off, bringing better therapies to patients—and providing better
solutions to today’s healthcare challenges.
• CRDM—we’ve delivered market-exclusive technologies like OptiVol; the EnRhythm MRI SureScan pacing system,*
the world’s first for use in MRI machines; MVP (Minimal Ventricular Pacing) and ATP (pain-free shock reduction). Plus,
we are poised to become the leader in atrial fibrillation through our acquisitions of CryoCath and Ablation Frontiers.
• Neuromodulation—we’re pioneering some of the most compelling opportunities in neuroscience, including the use
of our Activa Deep Brain Stimulation products for the treatment of epilepsy and psychiatric disorders.
• Diabetes—we continued to advance our pioneering leadership in continuous glucose monitoring and the
development of control algorithms that are bringing the possibility of “closed loop” automated insulin delivery closer
than ever before.
• Surgical Technologies—we launched our Pillar technology to treat snoring and obstructive sleep apnea through a
minimally invasive, in-office procedure that is revolutionizing the way these chronic and health-threatening
conditions are treated.
• CardioVascular—clinical data continued to confirm the durability of our Endeavor drug-eluting stent’s long-term
clinical efficacy, which is now approved in all major markets, including the $500 million-plus Japanese drug-eluting
stent market. Coupled with our acquisitions of CoreValve and Ventor, which provide us with the industry’s strongest
platform for market leadership in transcatheter valves, our CardioVascular business is poised to achieve market-
leading performance.
• Spinal—we recently launched our PEEK PREVAIL Cervical Interbody Device and made significant progress towards
our goal of refreshing 40 percent of our Core Spinal products over a 24-month period. We continue to have the most
comprehensive line of innovative products on the market.
There is no greater evidence of our success than the millions of patients we restore to health every year. Pictured on
the previous page with me is Dr. Gunther Faber, a former pharmaceutical company executive who lives in the United
Kingdom. An amazing individual, Dr. Faber is passionate about working to increase access to healthcare in the
developing world and, specifically, Africa. As he so eloquently puts it, “A healthy nation is a wealthy nation.”
Staying Young at Heart
100-year-old Edna Foster can walk a mile a day without
getting winded. So when she was short of breath a few
years ago, she knew it wasn’t normal. She called an
ambulance. When she awoke in the hospital the next day,
Edna couldn’t believe she had had a heart attack and
had been treated with a coronary stent. There was no
scar on her chest. When her granddaughter, a Medtronic
employee (pictured here), told Edna the stent was
inserted through a tube up her leg, she was flabbergasted.
She had quite the story to tell her friends when she
resumed walking a few weeks later.
* Not cleared/approved for marketing in the United States.
4