Medical Manufacturing in the U.S. is Alive and Well

June 13, 2011 9:56 AM | 2 min read |
"Made in the USA": The Continuous Flow Heart Pump
NPR featured a story this morning titled "Heart With No Beat Offers Hope Of New Lease On Life" about new technological breakthroughs in the U.S. for artificial hearts.  Several specialists at the Texas Heart Institute have developed a continuous-flow heart pump that should last longer than other artificial hearts and cause fewer problems (see photo above).  This development represents a departure from the traditional research in pulsating heart pumps and would result in a patient having "no pulse" because of the continuous flow feature of the new pump.  

The medical breakthrough is interesting by itself, but the story is important for another reason: It's an example of "U.S. manufacturing in the 21th century."   You probably won't see or notice a "Made in the USA" label on a heart pump or a lot of other high-tech medical equipment manufactured domestically like MRI machines, CT Scans or X-ray equipment, but they are all part of America's thriving and growing high-tech manufacturing sector.

The chart above displays the Federal Reserve's monthly inflation-adjusted measure of "Medical Equipment and Supplies" back to 1986, and shows the continual growth in this sector of America's manufacturing industry.  Except for two months in 2008, the amount of medical equipment and supplies manufactured in the U.S. was higher in April of this year than ever before.  The annual growth in the production of medical equipment manufacturing over the last year was 3.5%, slightly lower than the 4.25% annual average growth over the last 25 years.  Consider also that the amount of medical equipment manufactured in the U.S. has doubled since the early 1990s, which is in direct contradiction to the frequent claims about the "demise or death of U.S. manufacturing." 

When you think of "U.S. manufacturing in the 21st century" think of high-end, high-value-added heart pumps, MRI machines, and surgical heart values produced by high-wage medical manufacturing companies like Medtronic.  And don't believe the nonsense from Donald Trump and others about how "we don't make anything in the U.S. any more."  The U.S. is the world leader in the manufacturing of medical equipment and supplies, and we make more now than ever before.    
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