Video Feature

Vol.11, January 2018

Mitsuyo Oka

Senior Director
Integration Management Office
Medtronic Innovation Center
Medtronic Japan Co., Ltd.

Medtronic Innovation Center

The Medtronic Innovation Center is the largest project launched immediately after the integration of Medtronic and Covidien.

The integration was finalized in January 2015, and as a result, Medtronic became the leading company in medical device industry.

As our role as leading company, it is our mission to provide our products safely and appropriately.

This Center was opened under the mission to provide high-quality training programs meeting the needs of our customers in an environment with state-of-the-art medical training facility and easy access. The Center was opened on 1st September 2017.

History of Integration

It was around the time laparoscopic surgery became available, a surgery requiring just a small incision instead of incising the abdomen. Covidien opened “Advanced Training Center” in Fujinomiya City, Shizuoka Prefecture in 1994.

As a brand-new procedure, hands-on training facilities were needed in order for healthcare professionals to learn safe and appropriate implementation of laparoscopic surgery. This is how the history of this training center started.

Then in 2013, we opened another training center with four operation tables in Kawasaki City, very close to this Tonomachi. Approximately 32,000 physicians visited over 23 years.

We believe because these trainings becoming standard, more than half of surgical procedures such as open-stomach and open-chest surgeries in the early days are now performed with only small incisions, which became standard procedures. We believe this was due to the role of the training center.

Meanwhile in 1996, Medtronic had a training center and facilities for lectures and hands-on training to provide training for customers at its Head Quarter. The three training centers were integrated into Medtronic Innovation Center to provide state-of-the-art facilities with easy access.

Results of Integration

The integration of Medtronic and Covidien has led to a great expansion of our products. We have 14 Business Units. For example, our products cover almost from head to toe, including the heart and cardiovascular, orthopedics, neurosurgery, general surgery, and anesthesia monitoring devices.

Training Programs Close to Clinical Environments

What is essential is creating environments as close to clinical conditions as possible to conduct training programs. This way, I believe we can safely standardizing the use of medical devices.

Here provide trainings using tissues and simulation devices, and so on. Specifically, we have surgical tables that enable 15 surgical operations.

We can also offer training for surgical laparotomy, open-chest surgery training, and practice laparoscopic surgery by inserting a small camera, without cutting the abdomen. Angiography and intraoperative imaging equipment are available as well. There are six catheter laboratory rooms.

There, you can also undergo trainings in cardiovascular system, endovascular treatment, orthopedics, and neurosurgery.

There is also state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment. For example, video from the surgical operating table can be streamed into the lecture room for joint training. The video streaming is not limited to within this facility, it is possible to link with remote training facilities both in other locations of Japan and overseas.

We offer both basic and advanced training. For basic courses, trainees first participate in lectures, in rooms including our largest conference room that accommodates up to 180 people. There are also many small- and medium-sized conference rooms for smaller groups.

Medtronic Innovation Center aims to achieve healthcare innovation by offering educational opportunities and contributing to the promotion of safe and appropriate medical care.

First of all, our focus will be on implementing training for the safe and proper dissemination of medical devices.

Also, in the mid- to long-term, we expect many experts to visit this center and it is our goal to turn this center into a hub for such experts.

We have 14 Business Units and cover a wide range of conditions and markets.

We believe Medtronic Innovation Center will enable building networks for patients and conditions, and information coordination from the viewpoint of technology.

The Center of Asia-Pacific

Since King SkyFront is very close to Haneda International Airport, many healthcare professionals from Asia-Pacific, and of course employees, will use this center.

When saying, "become a hub for experts", we want to be a hub not only but also those from Asia-Pacific. We also want to be at the center of Asia Pacific in terms of education and product development.

Advantages of being based at KINGSKYFRONT

King SkyFront is the location for companies, organizations, and research institutions that possess state-of-the-art technology. So we expect KINGSKYFRONT will enable us to accelerate collaborations with potential partners located here in order to contribute to the health care of patients in Japan.