Medtronic has named a new head of its acute care and monitoring division, tapping Kate Benedict to help lead the company’s catalog of vital sign sensors and intensive care equipment.
As a senior vice president, Benedict will also serve on the leadership team for the medtech’s medical surgical portfolio. She takes over for Frank Chan, who left Medtronic this past April after 20 years with the company to become the chief operating officer at Haemonetics.
Benedict, meanwhile, most recently served as president of Flex’s global health solutions business, and has held executive roles at BD, Alcon and Johnson & Johnson.
She’ll take over a unit that was previously put up for sale by Medtronic, as it looked to slim down its operations post-COVID. In late 2022 the company said its respiratory interventions and patient monitoring divisions—with a combined $2.2 billion in annual revenue at the time, despite declines in hospital ventilator sales—would be spun out into an independent player.
That plan was reversed in early 2024. Those two businesses were merged under the single acute care and monitoring banner, while Medtronic dropped its Puritan Bennett ventilators from its offerings, describing them as “increasingly unprofitable.”
“ACM’s vision to personalize patient care, anytime, anywhere motivates me, and I’m excited to support our teams in delivering world-class technology that empowers healthcare professionals and improves outcomes for patients around the world,” Benedict said in a statement.
Medtronic’s quest to shed operations continues. Late last month, the company announced plans to spin out its $2.8 billion diabetes division within the next year-and-a-half, to launch a maker of insulin delivery systems and wearable blood glucose monitors. Prior to that, it hived off its kidney care unit through its Mozarc Medical joint venture with DaVita in 2023.