Innovation in Cardiology--and Beyond.

Few would contest that the past quarter-century has seen an explosion of medical device technology that has brought incalculable benefit to patients and, despite some down times, abundant riches to inventors and the investors who’ve backed them. By its very nature, device innovation is incremental: most often serving as tools in the hands of skilled physicians and surgeons, innovative devices build on the clinical success of existing technology in enhancements large and small, though usually small. It is an innovation model that has served the device industry well.

And yet, despite the clinical advances and financial successes that have flowed from new technology, fostering meaningful innovation seems only...