01Company News
Q2 town hall recap: where we're investing next
CEO remarks, the FY26 priorities, and what the Abbott partnership means for our cardiovascular pipeline.
Leadership · 6 min
Cover Story
Fifty years of heartbeats — and the next chapter starts with us.
From the world's first implantable mechanical heart valve in 1977 to today's next-generation neurovascular platforms, every St. Jude breakthrough has started with one of our own. As we approach our 50th anniversary, hear from the teams in Memphis and across our global sites who are shaping what comes next.
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Pulse Concierge
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1976
Founded in Memphis, TN
50+
Years of cardiovascular firsts
100+
Countries served worldwide
1 in 7
Heart-rhythm devices made here
In this issue
Featured stories
The Pulse · May 2026
02Inside R&D
Next-gen ICDs: a closer look at Project Cadence
The implantable cardioverter-defibrillator team shares a peek at the platform shipping clinical trial units this fall.
Engineering · 9 min
03Patients First
From Memphis to Manila — a heart valve's journey
Follow a single St. Jude Medical Heart Valve from our manufacturing floor to a cath lab 8,000 miles away.
Global Ops · 7 min
Employee Spotlight
"Every device leaving Memphis is somebody's second chance."
Dr. Lena Okafor · Principal Engineer, Neurovascular Platforms · 11 years at St. Jude
Lena leads the catheter R&D pod on the 3rd floor. This month she received the Founder's Award for her work on the new low-profile delivery system — a project that started as a whiteboard sketch in a Building 2 huddle room.
14
Patents filed
22
Team members
∞
Coffee orders
From the lab
Innovation in motion
The Pulse · May 2026
Project Cadence: the platform behind the next ICD.
Smaller. Smarter. Quieter on the patient. The Cadence platform consolidates three generations of pacing logic into a single SoC — and the team behind it spans four campuses, two continents, and one shared Slack channel that never sleeps.
- +First-in-human cohort scheduled Q4 2026
- +32% smaller footprint than prior generation
- +Integrated remote-monitoring telemetry
- +Co-developed with Abbott's Diagnostics group
On the calendar
Upcoming events
The Pulse · May 2026
03
Jun
Volunteer Day with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Memphis · Sign up by 5/27
Good to know
Resources & announcements
The Pulse · May 2026
Benefits
2026 wellness reimbursement is live
Up to $750 toward gym, mental health, and family wellness — submit through Workday.
Learning
New course: Regulatory Affairs 101
A 4-week intro for any non-RA team working on Class III submissions.
IT
Single sign-on rollout — Phase 2
Manufacturing and field-service apps move to SJ-SSO the week of May 26.
DEI
ERG showcase: Women in MedTech
Open house at the Memphis Innovation Center, Thursday 4–6pm CT.
Postcard from HQ
"Memphis isn't just where St. Jude was founded — it's where the work still gets done. Every shift on the manufacturing floor, every late-night design review, every hand-off to a clinician somewhere in the world. That's the pulse."
— Internal Comms · Memphis, Tennessee