NEWS:
Female Engineer at Medtronic Receives Prestigious Industry Award for Work on
Innovative Therapy for Parkinson's Disease
PR Newswire, Tuesday, March 16, 1999 at 10:54
Lynn Otten Will Grant $34,000 to the University of Minnesota School of
Biomedical Engineering to Fund Scholarships for Female Engineering Students
MINNEAPOLIS, March 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT), today
announced that Lynn Otten, a principal design engineer for the neurological
business, has been named "Engineer of the Year" by a leading trade magazine,
Design News. As part of the award, Otten will grant $34,000 in her name to
the University of Minnesota School of Biomedical Engineering to fund
scholarships for aspiring female engineering students.
Readers of Design News voted to recognize Otten, based upon her work for
the Activa(R) Tremor Control Therapy, heralded as the first completely new
approach in 30 years for treating tremor associated with Parkinson's disease.
Otten is only the second woman to receive the award. The magazine's 1998
"Engineer of the Year" was Brian Muirhead, lead designer on the 1996
Pathfinder mission to Mars -- other past winners include Victor Poirier
(1992), who pioneered the left-ventricular lead and Terry Haber (1991), who
developed the non-stick needle used in hospitals.
"Lynn's leadership on this project is reflective of both the team approach
and the innovation that we encourage and support everyday at Medtronic," said
John Meslow, Corporate Senior Vice President and President, Neurological
Business. "We are extremely proud of Lynn and the entire Activa team."
The magazine credits the winners of this award as engineers that have
created whole new technology paradigms in their industries. Otten joined
Medtronic in 1989, at a time when Medtronic was first considering tremor
control therapy as a chief initiative. Otten and a small team of engineers
championed Activa, designing and testing both electrode leads and extension
wire systems.
Otten also played a key role in the documentation for Medtronic's
application for the commercial approval of Activa, which consisted of 23
volumes of documents, each containing approximately 350 pages. In August
1997, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Activa Tremor
Control Therapy to treat people with Essential Tremor and tremor associated
with Parkinson's disease.
Activa Tremor Control Therapy is an implantable system that delivers mild
electrical stimulation to block brain signals that cause tremor. The system
includes an insulated wire lead that is surgically implanted deep within the
brain's communication center, the thalamus. The lead is connected by an
extension wire passed under the skin to an implanted pulse generator, similar
to an advanced cardiac pacemaker, which is implanted near the collarbone.
Otten was primarily involved in designing and developing the lead that's
implanted in the brain.
Prior to joining Medtronic, Otten worked for 3M's health care division,
where she was involved in researching and developing cochlear implants for the
hearing-impaired. While there, she also gained extensive experience in
miniaturization and how to use electrical devices in the human body.
Otten will be honored at the annual Design News awards dinner this
evening, at the Ritz Carlton in Chicago.
Submitted by Helen
