JULY 20248In My OpinionAlphons Vincent, MD is currently Medical Director for the Cardiac Rhythm Management operating unit of Medtronic in Western Europe. He has been with Medtronic for 33 years and has held several positions in marketing, business, clinical, education and medical affairs.My experience includes positions in Vitatron, a pacemaker company within the Medtronic corporation, followed by positions in Medtronic Cardiac Surgery (heart valves), Subcutaneous Diagnostics and Monitoring (implantable cardiac monitors) and Cardiac Rhythm Management (pacemakers, defibrillators, cardiac resynchronization therapy). I am a graduate (MD) of the Medical School at the University of Nijmegen (NL) and hold bachelor degrees in Management Information Systems and Business Economics at the University of Tilburg (NL).Having a cardiologist as my father and growing up seeing pacemakers on his desk, I got in touch with medical technology in early life. It was, however, a research project during my medical study, as well as a vacation job at a research facility at Medtronic, that got me fascinated by medical technology. It was amazing to see how medical devices interact with the human physiology, correct electrical disturbances in the heart and strengthen the heart muscle. After these experiences, it became clear to me that I wanted to pursue a career in business and not in a hospital.When I started working in 1990, the development of pacemakers involved sensor technology to provide rate changes during exercise as well as dual chamber pacemakers to obtain good coordination between atria and ventricles. Thereafter, atrial preventive pacing was developed, which showed benefit in some smaller studies but was never established. Triple chamber pacemakers INNOVATING CARDIAC CARE: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE EVOLUTION OF MEDICAL TECHNOLOGYAlphons Vincent, Medical Director, MedtronicByAlphons Vincent
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