Earl Bakken

Earl Bakken (1924–2018) was an American engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Medtronic and developed an early wearable, battery-powered pacemaker.

C. Walton Lillehei: An American cardiac surgeon whose innovations included open-heart operations and the use of external pacemakers. Lillehei’s patients needed reliable pacing after surgery, prompting Bakken to build a portable device.
Wearable pacemaker: An external cardiac pacing device worn on the body and powered by batteries. Bakken’s 1957 design made pacing portable and independent of wall power.
Bradycardia: A heart rate slower than the normal range for a person’s age and circumstances. Severe postoperative bradycardia was among the problems an external pacemaker could address.
Medtronic: A medical technology company co-founded by Earl Bakken and Palmer Hermundslie in 1949. Bakken developed devices and helped build the company that became a major medical-device manufacturer.
Implantable pacemaker: A device placed inside the body to deliver electrical impulses that regulate heart rhythm. Its internal placement contrasts with Bakken’s external wearable solution and marks a later design direction.
Palmer Hermundslie: An American business partner who co-founded Medtronic with Earl Bakken. Hermundslie helped turn Bakken’s engineering work into a medical-device company.
Cardiac pacemaker: A device that delivers electrical impulses to regulate the heart’s rhythm. Bakken’s wearable design belongs to the broader technology of cardiac pacing.
Heart block: A disorder in which electrical signals travel abnormally or fail to travel between parts of the heart. Heart block can make artificial pacing necessary to preserve an effective heartbeat.
Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator: An implanted device that detects dangerous heart rhythms and delivers therapy to restore a safer rhythm. It represents a later expansion of implantable electronic treatment for cardiac rhythm disorders.
Cardiac surgery: Surgical procedures performed to treat diseases and structural problems of the heart. Reliable pacing supported patients facing rhythm complications after cardiac operations.

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University of MinnesotaRelated: Bakken studied electrical engineering at Minnesota and helped shape medical-device innovation.