General Frequently Asked Questions
Physician Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you may continue to use the same sewing techniques you already use. However, you will be spared the work of harvesting vessels from the body.
The Medical 21 team is comprised of industry professionals who excel at their work, even when the odds are stacked against them. If you look at the track record of our Founder, Manny Villafaña, he has always created medical devices that people said couldn’t be done. There was a time when pacemakers lasted only 12–18 months; Manny made a pacemaker that would last more than ten years. “That’s impossible!” everyone said, but he did it.
At St. Jude Medical, Manny and his team developed a heart valve using a technology that no one had ever used before and that people said couldn’t be done. Everyone else was making heart valves out of metal, hoping to create strength in the valve. Manny made the St. Jude valve out of glass (pyrolytic carbon), which people thought would be too fragile. The St. Jude heart is now the most used prosthesis in the world. Later, Manny started ATS Medical, and they developed an even better version of that valve using some of the same principles. Medtronic, Inc. presently owns ATS Medical.