Indiana’s Medical Device Advantage Was Built.
Keeping It Will Require Us to Build Faster.
Indiana did not become a leader in medical devices by accident. Its position was built over decades through manufacturing expertise, scientific discovery, entrepreneurship, workforce development, and a willingness to solve difficult problems.
But leadership is not permanent.
At BioCrossroads’ August FrameWORX program in Bloomington, more than 160 leaders from industry, academia, healthcare, workforce development, and economic development came together to consider what Indiana must do to ignite its next wave of medical device growth.
The day began with tours of Cook Medical, Simtra BioPharma Solutions, and Singota Solutions before moving to Ivy Tech Bloomington for a series of conversations spanning diagnostics, minimally invasive technologies, implantables, orthopedics, advanced manufacturing, talent, and regional growth.
Together, those conversations pointed to a clear conclusion: Indiana has the assets to lead, but its future position will depend on how quickly and intentionally it puts them to work.
Starting from a position of strength
Indiana’s medical device sector employs more than 18,000 people, with jobs concentrated at approximately twice the national rate. The state has distinct strengths across three major areas of the industry: diagnostics, minimally invasive technologies, and implantable devices, including orthopedics.
Global companies such as Roche Diagnostics, Cook Medical, Boston Scientific, and Zimmer Biomet operate alongside emerging companies, research institutions, healthcare systems, and specialized manufacturing partners. Indiana is also home to nationally recognized biomedical engineering, biotechnology, and workforce-training programs.
Recent investments demonstrate what can happen when those assets are connected.
The newly awarded National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engine focused on musculoskeletal health brings together more than 170 partners from industry, research, clinical care, and higher education. The initiative will receive an initial $15 million, with the potential for as much as $160 million over 10 years.
It is a significant opportunity to extend Indiana’s orthopedic expertise beyond any single company or community and build a more connected statewide innovation ecosystem.
Still, the data also underscores the urgency of the work ahead. From 2018 to 2022, medical device employment in Indiana declined by approximately 6 percent. From 2010 to 2020, Indiana recorded the lowest medical device GDP growth among the 50 states.
Other states and countries are moving quickly to attract the same companies, investment, innovation, and talent.
Indiana cannot rely on the strength of its history to secure its future.
In his keynote address, Cook Group and Cook Medical President Pete Yonkman challenged attendees to consider whether institutions, companies, and communities have become too accustomed to studying opportunities instead of acting on them.
He described this pattern as “drift,” a gradual movement away from building and toward waiting, planning, and avoiding risk.
Yonkman illustrated the idea through a recent conversation with Cook Medical interns. When asked how they felt about artificial intelligence, most expressed concern. They worried about jobs, their career paths, and the wider effects of the technology. At the same time, every intern acknowledged using AI.
Their perspective began to change when the conversation moved away from what AI might do to them and toward what they could build with it.
Cook Medical is already using AI to evaluate device designs, monitor manufacturing processes, reduce the potential for quality problems, and accelerate product development. When the interns saw how the technology could help them solve meaningful problems, fear gave way to curiosity.
The lesson extends well beyond AI.
People become more confident with unfamiliar tools when they have an opportunity to use them, learn from mistakes, and see how their work contributes to a larger purpose. Companies and communities develop the ability to build by building.
Yonkman left the audience with a question that carried through the remainder of the program: What would it take for Indiana to become the fastest-learning and fastest-building life sciences ecosystem in the country?
Innovation requires more than an idea
Across four panel discussions, industry and ecosystem leaders explored how that challenge is playing out throughout the medical device sector.
In diagnostics, advances in precision medicine, biomarker discovery, automation, and data are making it possible to identify diseases earlier and connect patients with treatment more quickly. Capturing that opportunity requires closer relationships among researchers, entrepreneurs, diagnostic companies, healthcare providers, investors, and regulatory experts.
For minimally invasive devices, innovation increasingly depends on the ability to combine disciplines. Smaller and more precise devices are being developed alongside advances in imaging, robotics, artificial intelligence, materials science, and advanced manufacturing.
The opportunity is significant, but moving a product from an early concept to patient care remains expensive and complex. Entrepreneurs need access to experienced mentors, clinical partners, capital, manufacturing capabilities, and leaders who understand how to navigate regulatory and commercialization pathways.
Indiana has many of those resources. The greater challenge is making them easier to find and connect.
The discussion of implantables and orthopedics offered a tangible example of what that connection can produce. Indiana’s emerging musculoskeletal innovation engine is creating a structure through which researchers, manufacturers, clinicians, entrepreneurs, and workforce partners can pursue opportunities together.
That model reflects a theme heard throughout the day: Indiana is strongest when it operates as an ecosystem rather than a collection of individual assets.
Growth also depends on place
The program concluded by focusing on the Indiana Uplands, an 11-county region where life sciences account for approximately 16 percent of total employment.
The region has an unusual concentration of assets, including major life sciences employers, Indiana University, Ivy Tech Community College, Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane, entrepreneurship resources, and experienced workforce and economic development organizations.
But companies cannot grow where people cannot build lives.
Housing, infrastructure, education, quality of place, and access to career opportunities are all part of a competitive life sciences strategy. The Uplands conversation reinforced that industry growth and community growth cannot be treated as separate priorities.
Indiana must create places where companies can expand, entrepreneurs can build, and people can see a future for themselves and their families.
The next advantage will be built together
Indiana already possesses many of the capabilities needed to lead the next generation of medical devices. It can invent new technologies, make them at scale, and move them to patients around the world.
The question is whether the state can connect those capabilities and move with the speed the moment requires.
That means giving people the tools to experiment and learn. It means helping promising ideas cross the distance between research and commercialization. It means strengthening the communities that support companies and workers. And it means replacing institutional drift with a shared willingness to build.
Indiana’s medical device advantage was built by people who saw what was possible and acted.
Its next wave of growth will be built the same way.
2026 FrameWorx series
A Platform for Progress
Each FrameWORX event brings Indiana’s life sciences community together around the critical topics that require shared expertise, new partnerships, and coordinated action. Through focused discussion and meaningful connection, FrameWORX helps turn shared expertise into new ideas, partnerships, and progress.
