Earl Bakken: Difference between revisions

Earl Bakken
Earl Bakken
	Bakken in 2007
Born	January 10, 1924; Columbia Heights, Minnesota, United States
Died	October 21, 2018 (aged 94); Kona District, Hawaii, United States
Education	BSEE and MSEE from the University of Minnesota
Known for	founding Medtronic, inventing the wearable portable pacemaker, founding Bakken Museum
	Engineering career

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Earl Elmer Bakken (January 10, 1924 – October 21, 2018) was an American engineer, inventor, businessman and philanthropist of Dutch and Norwegian American ancestry. He founded Medtronic, where he developed the first external, battery-operated, transistorized, wearable artificial pacemaker in 1957.^[1]^[2]

Early life and education

Bakken was born on January 10, 1924, in Columbia Heights, Minnesota and was of Norwegian ancestry. Bakken had a long-held fascination with electricity and electronics. A self-described "nerd", Bakken designed a rudimentary electroshock weapon in school to fend off bullies. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1948 from the University of Minnesota. His electrical engineering education continued, and he obtained a Master's degree with a minor in mathematics, also from the University of Minnesota.^[1]

As a boy, Bakken was inspired by the combination of electricity with medicine in Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, and the subsequent 1931 film version starring Boris Karloff was a direct inspiration for his future work, including his improvements to the pacemaker (the first to be battery-powered and wearable) and founding Medtronic. Bakken later founded a museum about medical science and electricity in Minneapolis, The Bakken, which features an extensive Frankenstein display.^[3]

Career

Post-World War II hospitals were just starting to employ electronic equipment, but did not have staff to maintain and repair them. Sensing an opportunity, with his brother-in-law, Palmer Hermundslie, he formed Medtronic (a portmanteau of "medical" and "electronic") in a small garage, primarily working with the University of Minnesota hospital.

In the 1950s, Dr. C. Walton Lillehei was performing life-saving surgery on children with blue baby syndrome. That surgery often left the children needing to be temporarily attached to a pacemaker. The pacemakers at the time were large devices that required their own carts and relied on wall current for power. As a result of a power blackout on October 31, 1957, one of Dr. Lillehei's young patients died. Dr. Lillehei, who had worked with Bakken before, asked him the next day if he could solve the problem. Four weeks after finding a circuit diagram for a metronome in Popular Electronics, Bakken delivered a battery-powered transistorized pacemaker about the size of a few decks of cards to Dr. Lillehei. After successfully testing the hand-made device in the laboratory, Bakken returned to create a refined model for patients. However, much to his astonishment, when he came in the next day, he found the pacemaker already in use on a patient. (The Food and Drug Administration did not start regulating medical devices until 1976.)^[4]

Over the next several years, Bakken and Medtronic worked with other doctors to develop fully implantable pacemakers, but they also veered toward bankruptcy. He borrowed money that kept Medtronic going, but the bankruptcy near-miss drove Bakken to develop the Medtronic Mission, which still guides the company.^[5] The mission helped the young company to stay focused on areas where it could truly help patients.

Bakken retired from Medtronic in 1989 and moved to a 9-acre estate in the Kona District of Hawaii he called Bakken Hale,^[6] but still returned to the company several times a year to meet new employees and explain the Medtronic Mission to them in person.

In 1996 he helped to dedicate the North Hawaii Community Hospital and was active there for some time afterward, working to combine Eastern and Western approaches to medicine to develop a more holistic approach to health care.^[7]

In 2001, Medtronic started the construction of its new European distribution center in Heerlen, The Netherlands. The street on which the facility was built is named after Bakken.

Bakken died at his Hawaii home on October 21, 2018, at the age of 94.^[8]

References

^ ^a ^b Spencer, William H. (2001). Hurst, J. Willis; Fye, W. Bruce (eds.). "Earl E. Bakken". Clinical Cardiology. 24 (5): 422–423. doi:10.1002/clc.4960240515. ISSN 1932-8737. PMC 6655043.
^ Hebrew University of Jerusalem Institute of Chemistry: Earl E. Bakken Archived 2007-12-05 at the Wayback Machine
^ Rana, D. (2021). A Frayed New World: From Science Fiction to Society. Notion Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-68554-027-2. Retrieved 2023-06-02.
^ Paul A. Iaizzo (13 November 2015). Handbook of Cardiac Anatomy, Physiology, and Devices. Springer. pp. 449–. ISBN 978-3-319-19464-6.
^ Medtronic's Patient-Focussed Mission medtronic.com
^ Mykleseth, Kathryn (2015-01-07). "Supersize solar setup underway on Big Isle". Honolulu Star Advertiser. Oahu Publications d.b.a. Staradvertiser.com. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
^ "Ability Magazine: Earl Bakken Interview with Chet Cooper" (2009)". Retrieved 2012-04-03.
^ Medtronic founder Earl Bakken Has Died at His Home In Hawaii

Bibliography

Borghi L. (2015) "Heart Matters. The Collaboration Between Surgeons and Engineers in the Rise of Cardiac Surgery". In: Pisano R. (eds) A Bridge between Conceptual Frameworks. History of Mechanism and Machine Science, vol 27. Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 53-68

External links

[Spencer2001-1] Spencer, William H. (2001). Hurst, J. Willis; Fye, W. Bruce (eds.). "Earl E. Bakken". Clinical Cardiology. 24 (5): 422–423. doi:10.1002/clc.4960240515. ISSN 1932-8737. PMC 6655043.

[2] Hebrew University of Jerusalem Institute of Chemistry: Earl E. Bakken Archived 2007-12-05 at the Wayback Machine

[Rana2021-3] Rana, D. (2021). A Frayed New World: From Science Fiction to Society. Notion Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-68554-027-2. Retrieved 2023-06-02.

[Iaizzo2015-4] Paul A. Iaizzo (13 November 2015). Handbook of Cardiac Anatomy, Physiology, and Devices. Springer. pp. 449–. ISBN 978-3-319-19464-6.

[5] Medtronic's Patient-Focussed Mission medtronic.com

[BakkenHale-6] Mykleseth, Kathryn (2015-01-07). "Supersize solar setup underway on Big Isle". Honolulu Star Advertiser. Oahu Publications d.b.a. Staradvertiser.com. Retrieved 21 June 2016.

[7] "Ability Magazine: Earl Bakken Interview with Chet Cooper" (2009)". Retrieved 2012-04-03.

[8] Medtronic founder Earl Bakken Has Died at His Home In Hawaii

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Short description|American engineer, inventor, and holistic healthcare promoter (1924–2018)}}
-{{BLP sources|date=February 2010}}
+{{sources|date=February 2010}}
 {{Infobox person
-|name          = Earl Bakken
+| honorific_prefix          =
-|image         = 090707-NCVH-EarlBakken.jpg
+| name                      = Earl Bakken
+| honorific_suffix          =
-|image_size    =
+| image                     = 090707-NCVH-EarlBakken.jpg
-|alt           = waist-high portrait, wearing Hawaiian shirt, brown suitcoat and necklaces
+| image_size                =
-|birth_name    =
+| alt                       =
-|birth_date    = {{Birth date and age|1924|1|10}}
+| caption                   = Bakken in 2007
-|birth_place   = [[Columbia Heights, Minnesota]]
+| native_name               =
-|residence     = [[Hawaii]]
+| native_name_lang          =
-|nationality   = [[United States|American]]
-|known_for     = founding [[Medtronic]], inventing the wearable portable [[artificial pacemaker|pacemaker]], founding [[Bakken Museum]]
+| known_for                 = founding [[Medtronic]], inventing the wearable portable [[artificial pacemaker|pacemaker]], founding [[Bakken Museum]]
-|education     =
+| birth_name                =
+| birth_date                = {{Birth date|1924|1|10}}
-|alma_mater    = [[University of Minnesota]]
+| birth_place               = [[Columbia Heights, Minnesota]], United States
-|occupation    = inventor
+| death_date                = {{Death date and age|2018|10|21|1924|1|10}}
-|home_town     =
+| death_place               = [[Kona District, Hawaii]], United States
-|spouse        =
-|partner       =
+| resting_place             =
+| resting_place_coordinates =
-|children      =
+| education                 = BSEE and MSEE from the [[University of Minnesota]]
-|parents       =
+| spouse                    =
+| parents                   =
+| children                  =
+| module                    = {{Infobox engineering career
+| discipline           =
+| institutions         =
+| practice_name        =
+| employer             =
+| significant_projects =
+| significant_design   =
+| significant_advance  =
+| significant_awards   =
 }}
+| signature                 =
-'''Earl E. Bakken''' (born January 10, 1924 in [[Hennepin County, Minnesota]]) is an [[United States|American]] [[engineer]], [[businessman]] and [[philanthropist]] of Dutch and [[Norwegian American]] ancestry. He founded [[Medtronic]], where he developed the first external, battery-operated, transistorized, wearable [[artificial pacemaker]] in 1957.<ref>[[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] Institute of Chemistry: [http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/history/bakken.html Earl E. Bakken]</ref>
+| signature_alt             =
+| website                   =
+}}
+'''Earl Elmer Bakken ''' (January 10, 1924 &ndash; October 21, 2018) was an American engineer, inventor, businessman and philanthropist of Dutch and [[Norwegian American]] ancestry. He founded [[Medtronic]], where he developed the first external, battery-operated, transistorized, wearable [[artificial pacemaker]] in 1957.<ref name="Spencer2001">{{cite journal |last1=Spencer |first1=William H. |editor1-last=Hurst |editor1-first=J. Willis |editor2-last=Fye |editor2-first=W. Bruce |title=Earl E. Bakken |journal=Clinical Cardiology |date=2001 |volume=24 |issue=5 |pages=422–423 |doi=10.1002/clc.4960240515 |language=en |issn=1932-8737 |pmid= |pmc=6655043 }}</ref><ref>[[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] Institute of Chemistry: [http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/history/bakken.html Earl E. Bakken] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071205094724/http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/history/bakken.html |date=2007-12-05 }}</ref>
+==Early life and education==
-Born in [[Columbia Heights, Minnesota]], Bakken had a long-held fascination with electricity and electronics. A self-described "[[nerd]]", Bakken designed a rudimentary [[electroshock weapon]] in school to fend off bullies. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1948, he studied electrical engineering with a minor in mathematics at the University of Minnesota Graduate School. Post-[[World War II]] hospitals were just starting to employ electronic equipment, but did not have staff to maintain and repair them. Sensing an opportunity, with his brother-in-law, [[Palmer Hermundslie]], he formed Medtronic (the combination of "medical" and "electronic") in a small garage, primarily working with the University of Minnesota hospital.
+Bakken was born on January 10, 1924, in [[Columbia Heights, Minnesota]] and was of Norwegian ancestry. Bakken had a long-held fascination with electricity and electronics. A self-described "[[nerd]]", Bakken designed a rudimentary [[electroshock weapon]] in school to fend off bullies. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1948 from the University of Minnesota. His electrical engineering education continued, and he obtained a Master's degree with a minor in mathematics, also from the University of Minnesota.<ref name="Spencer2001" />
+As a boy, Bakken was inspired by the combination of electricity with medicine in [[Mary Shelley]]'s novel ''[[Frankenstein]]'', and the subsequent [[Frankenstein (1931 film)|1931 film version]] starring [[Boris Karloff]] was a direct inspiration for his future work, including his improvements to the [[Artificial cardiac pacemaker|pacemaker]] (the first to be battery-powered and wearable) and founding [[Medtronic]]. Bakken later founded a museum about medical science and electricity in Minneapolis, [[The Bakken]], which features an extensive ''Frankenstein'' display.<ref name="Rana2021">{{cite book | last=Rana | first=D. | title=A Frayed New World: From Science Fiction to Society | publisher=Notion Press | year=2021 | isbn=978-1-68554-027-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZTBCEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT12 | access-date=2023-06-02 | page=12}}</ref>
-In the 1950s, [[C. Walton Lillehei|Dr. C. Walton Lillehei]] was performing life-saving surgery on children with [[blue baby syndrome]]. That surgery often left the children needing to be temporarily attached to a pacemaker.  The pacemakers at the time were large devices that required their own carts and relied on wall current for power. As a result of a power blackout on October 31, 1957, one of Dr. Lillehei's young patients died. Dr. Lillehei, who had worked with Bakken before, asked him the next day if he could solve the problem. Four weeks after finding a circuit diagram for a [[metronome]] in ''[[Popular Electronics]]'', Bakken delivered a battery-powered transistorized pacemaker about the size of a few decks of cards to Dr. Lillehei. After successfully testing the hand-made device in the laboratory, Bakken returned to create a refined model for patients. However, much to his astonishment, when he came in the next day, he found the pacemaker already in use on a patient. (The [[Food and Drug Administration]] did not start regulating [[medical devices]] until 1976.)
+==Career==
-Over the next several years, Bakken and Medtronic worked with other doctors to develop fully implantable pacemakers, but they also veered toward bankruptcy. He borrowed money that kept Medtronic going, but the bankruptcy near-miss drove Bakken to develop the ''Medtronic Mission'', which still guides the company.<ref>[http://www.medtronic.com/corporate/mission.html Medtronic's Patient-Focussed Mission] ''medtronic.com''</ref> The mission helped the young company to stay focused on areas where it could truly help patients.
+Post-World War II hospitals were just starting to employ electronic equipment, but did not have staff to maintain and repair them. Sensing an opportunity, with his brother-in-law, [[Palmer Hermundslie]], he formed Medtronic (a portmanteau of "medical" and "electronic") in a small garage, primarily working with the University of Minnesota hospital.
+In the 1950s, Dr. [[C. Walton Lillehei]] was performing life-saving surgery on children with [[blue baby syndrome]]. That surgery often left the children needing to be temporarily attached to a pacemaker.  The pacemakers at the time were large devices that required their own carts and relied on wall current for power. As a result of a power blackout on October 31, 1957, one of Dr. Lillehei's young patients died. Dr. Lillehei, who had worked with Bakken before, asked him the next day if he could solve the problem. Four weeks after finding a circuit diagram for a [[metronome]] in ''[[Popular Electronics]]'', Bakken delivered a battery-powered transistorized pacemaker about the size of a few decks of cards to Dr. Lillehei. After successfully testing the hand-made device in the laboratory, Bakken returned to create a refined model for patients. However, much to his astonishment, when he came in the next day, he found the pacemaker already in use on a patient. (The [[Food and Drug Administration]] did not start regulating [[medical devices]] until 1976.)<ref name="Iaizzo2015">{{cite book|author=Paul A. Iaizzo|title=Handbook of Cardiac Anatomy, Physiology, and Devices|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4PLuCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA449|date=13 November 2015|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-19464-6|pages=449–}}</ref>
-Bakken retired from [[Medtronic]] in 1989 and moved to a 9-acre estate in the [[Kona District, Hawaii|Kona District]] of [[Hawaii]] he calls ''Bakken Hale'',<ref name=BakkenHale>{{cite web|last1=Mykleseth|first1=Kathryn|title=Supersize solar setup underway on Big Isle|url=http://www.fbactinsider.org/supersize-solar-setup-underway-on-big-isle|website=http://www.fbactinsider.org|publisher=The Honolulu Star-Advertiser|accessdate=12 January 2015}}</ref> but still returns to the company several times a year to meet new employees and explain the ''Medtronic Mission'' to them in person.
+Over the next several years, Bakken and Medtronic worked with other doctors to develop fully implantable pacemakers, but they also veered toward bankruptcy. He borrowed money that kept Medtronic going, but the bankruptcy near-miss drove Bakken to develop the ''Medtronic Mission'', which still guides the company.<ref>[http://www.medtronic.com/us-en/about/mission.html Medtronic's Patient-Focussed Mission] ''medtronic.com''</ref> The mission helped the young company to stay focused on areas where it could truly help patients.
-In 1996 he helped to dedicate the North Hawaii Community Hospital and has been active there ever since, working to combine Eastern and Western approaches to medicine to develop a more [[Holistic health|holistic]] approach to health care.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://abilitymagazine.com/Earl_Bakken.html|title=''Ability Magazine: Earl Bakken Interview with Chet Cooper"'' (2009)|accessdate=2012-04-03}}</ref>
+Bakken retired from [[Medtronic]] in 1989 and moved to a 9-acre estate in the [[Kona District, Hawaii|Kona District]] of [[Hawaii]] he called ''Bakken Hale'',<ref name=BakkenHale>{{cite web|last1=Mykleseth|first1=Kathryn|title=Supersize solar setup underway on Big Isle|url=http://www.staradvertiser.com/business/supersize-solar-setup-underway-on-big-isle/|website=Honolulu Star Advertiser|publisher=Oahu Publications d.b.a. Staradvertiser.com|access-date=21 June 2016|url-access=subscription |date=2015-01-07}}</ref> but still returned to the company several times a year to meet new employees and explain the ''Medtronic Mission'' to them in person.
+In 1996 he helped to dedicate the North Hawaii Community Hospital and was active there for some time afterward, working to combine Eastern and Western approaches to medicine to develop a more [[Holistic health|holistic]] approach to health care.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://abilitymagazine.com/Earl_Bakken.html|title=''Ability Magazine: Earl Bakken Interview with Chet Cooper"'' (2009)|access-date=2012-04-03}}</ref>
+In 2001, Medtronic started the construction of its new European [[distribution center]] in [[Heerlen]], The Netherlands. The street on which the facility was built is named after Bakken.
+Bakken died at his Hawaii home on October 21, 2018, at the age of 94.<ref>[http://www.startribune.com/medtronic-founder-earl-bakken-has-died-at-his-home-in-hawaii/498167261/ Medtronic founder Earl Bakken Has Died at His Home In Hawaii]</ref>
 ==See also==
@@ Line 38: / Line 65: @@
 {{Reflist}}
-==External links==
+==Bibliography==
+* [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-9645-3_4 Borghi L. (2015) "Heart Matters. The Collaboration Between Surgeons and Engineers in the Rise of Cardiac Surgery". In: Pisano R. (eds) A Bridge between Conceptual Frameworks. History of Mechanism and Machine Science, vol 27. Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 53-68]
-* [http://www.earlbakken.com/ Earl Bakken's Website]
-* [http://www.thebakken.org/ The Bakken Museum Homepage]
-*{{worldcat id|id=lccn-no2003-47094}}
+==External links==
+* [http://www.earlbakken.com/ Earl Bakken's website]
+* [http://www.thebakken.org/ The Bakken Museum homepage]
+{{Medtronic|state=autocollapse}}
 {{Authority control}}
-{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
-| NAME              =Bakken, Earl
-| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
-| SHORT DESCRIPTION = American academic
-| DATE OF BIRTH     =January 10, 1924
-| PLACE OF BIRTH    =[[Columbia Heights, Minnesota]]
-| DATE OF DEATH     =
-| PLACE OF DEATH    =
-}}
 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bakken, Earl}}
 [[Category:American futurologists]]
-[[Category:University of Minnesota alumni]]
+[[Category:University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering alumni]]
 [[Category:American people of Norwegian descent]]
-[[Category:Sustainability advocates]]
+[[Category:American electrical engineers]]
 [[Category:1924 births]]
-[[Category:Living people]]
+[[Category:2018 deaths]]
 [[Category:Medtronic people]]
+[[Category:People from Columbia Heights, Minnesota]]
+[[Category:People from Hennepin County, Minnesota]]
+[[Category:People from Hawaii (island)]]

v t e Medtronic
Subsidiaries	Covidien
People	Earl Bakken Wilson Greatbatch C. Walton Lillehei
Products	Minimed Paradigm
Legal cases	Eli Lilly & Co. v. Medtronic, Inc. (1990) Medtronic, Inc. v. Lohr (1996) Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc. (2008) Medtronic, Inc. v. Mirowski Family Ventures, LLC (2014)

Authority control databases
International	VIAF FAST WorldCat
National	United States
Other	SNAC