Data uncovered by EDCUtah Researcher Brigham Mellor shows that Utah leads the nation in its concentration of medical device manufacturing firms and also in its employment of medical device engineers and medical appliance technicians.

Of the 600+ life science companies located in Utah, more than 100 are medical device companies. They make products such as arterial and vascular access devices, MRI and ultrasound equipment, pacemakers, hearing aids, surgical instruments and a whole lot more.

A story published on the web site Qmed describes Utah this way: "Beehive State is abuzz with medical device manufacturing.

"From its stunning red sandstone deserts and rugged mountains to its world-famous national parks, Utah is quite a looker. Add to this a dash of culture -- most famously the Sundance Film Festival -- and you already have several reasons for paying a visit to the Beehive State. But if you're a medical device manufacturer, you have even more reason for keeping an eye on Utah -- its rapidly expanding medtech industry."

Medical Device Manufacturing

Since Utah leads the nation in its concentration of medical device manufacturing firms, it stands to reason that the Salt Lake City metro area would have the largest concentration of people working in the medical device manufacturing sector of any metro area in the nation. And, indeed, it is so.

"We beat Greensboro, NC and Boston, MA (second and third, respectively) with more than 30% higher employment, according to 2011 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This industry has exploded over the last few years in Utah," says Mellor. "Since 2007, employment in medical device manufacturing has gone up in the U.S. 25.54%; however, in Utah it has gone up a whopping 6,300%!"

Such an increase for Utah is not hard to believe, given the rapid expansion of the medical device and overall life sciences sector, which includes the expansion or addition of companies like:

Company Name	Utah Jobs Created
Fresenius Medical Care	700
Edwards Lifesciences Corporation	1272
Cryomed Manufacturing	15
WorldHeart	93
Haemonetics Corporation	220
Nelson Laboratories	750
Thermo Fisher Scientific	255
Merit Medical Systems, Inc.	392

Medical Appliance Technicians

BLS data shows that the Salt Lake City metropolitan area leads all other metropolitan areas with the highest employment level in the medical appliance technician occupation. The low resolution map below depicts medical appliance technician occupation concentrations in the U.S. Click on the image to view a larger version.



Here's a table that lists the MSAs with the highest concentrations of medical appliance technicians.

 

MSA	Employment	Employment / 1,000 jobs	Annual mean wage
Salt Lake City	550	0.91	$35,340
Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL Metropolitan Division	490	0.14	$34,970
Philadelphia, PA Metropolitan Division	470	0.26	$37,280
Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA NECTA Division	450	0.27	$45,740
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	440	0.26	$43,020
Pittsburgh, PA	350	0.31	$35,330
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA Metropolitan Division	270	0.07	$33,990
Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX Metropolitan Division	270	0.13	$28,410
Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ	250	0.15	$33,400
New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ Metropolitan Division	200	0.04	$34,390

The table below depicts Utah's rank among states with the highest concentration of medical appliance technicians, based upon employment per thousand jobs.

State	Employment	Employment / 1,000 Jobs	Annual mean wage
Utah	590	0.51	$35,160
Massachusetts	760	0.24	$43,010
Pennsylvania	1,270	0.23	$37,020
Illinois	1,030	0.19	$38,550
Minnesota	480	0.18	$42,510

Utah Leads in Biomedical Engineers

Other interesting data from the BLS shows that Utah has the highest concentration of biomedical engineers. Here's a breakdown of the top five states. The states are ranked based upon employment per thousand workers in the biomedical medical engineering field.

State	Employment	Employment / 1,000 workers	Annual mean wage
Utah	620	0.519	$81,750
Massachusetts	1,380	0.437	$93,030
Minnesota	810	0.310	$96,930
Indiana	630	0.226	$60,530
Maryland	560	0.223	$85,620

With the assistance of USTAR and the technology commercialization offices at Utah's two research universities, the University of Utah and Utah State University consistently spin out about a dozen new medical device companies each year combined. This includes companies like AvanSci Bio Micro Disesection, Liyen, EMRID Technologies, Ligadon and Add-It, among others, according to Mellor.

As Ron Wortley, president of Utah-based Medron Inc. told Qmed: "Utah is no slacker when it comes to medical device manufacturing. 'I moved to Salt Lake City in 1973. At that time, the area was known to have more medical companies per population base than most states. Salt Lake City provides a good source of educated and motivated workers.'" (Medron develops and manufactures disposable medical products, specializing in vascular-access products and ancillary items for catheter placement.)