TE Connectivity

Lifesaving technology for stroke sufferers.

TE Connectivity may not be the first name that comes to mind when thinking about medical care for stroke patients. The Switzerland-based company, which boasts about $30 billion in market value, is a consumer electronics giant specializing in connectivity and sensor technology used by industries ranging from aerospace to automotive to oil and gas. But TE made its way into the hospital setting about three and a half years ago, providing an elegant kind of tech that can help emergency cardiac patients, including the approximately 15 million people who suffer a stroke each year. “When it comes to stroke, it was usually a pharma solution,” says Paraic Curtis, senior vice president and general manager of TE Medical. “What’s emerged over the past decade is that there are device opportunities.” 

Using TE guide wires and microcatheters, doctors can make one simple incision in the femoral artery and thread a medical device to the precise area of the brain where it’s needed (either to bust up a clot or stop bleeding caused by a stroke). To date, the technology has been used to help some 1.3 million stroke patients worldwide, according to TE.