Carl Zeiss Meditec was formed in 2002 when the medical device business was spun off from the larger Zeiss Group, a leader in optical, semiconductor and electronics manufacturing equipment founded in 1846 in Germany. Today, the publicly traded Carl Zeiss Meditec is one of the world’s leading medical technology companies, building the surgical machines and therapeutic lasers that doctors use to diagnose and treat ophthalmic diseases and perform microsurgery, neurosurgery, and interoperative radiotherapy.

R&D is a priority for the firm. It’s the key to driving future growth, to enabling its customers and physicians to improve treatment results, and to developing and testing new technologies. An example of this focus on innovation was the company’s quick response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the early days of 2020, before the virus was understood and treatments were discovered, the firm developed a video laryngoscope, the tool doctors use to look deep into a patient’s throat for examining or intubating patients. It consists of a disposable laryngoscope with built-in illumination, camera and a reusable display, offering medical personnel distance and protection against infection. Carl Zeiss Meditec also worked to apply technology for new and innovative ways of conducting socially distanced eye examinations for its customer base.

The ZEISS Nura Video Laryngoscope, credit: Carl Zeiss Meditec

This year, the firm’s biggest launch was the Zeiss Medical Ecosystem, integrating digital data, applications and devices to drive the digital transformation of ophthalmology by integrating diagnostic and therapeutic devices into a fully connected cloud-based platform it says is unsurpassed in the medical industry. Based in Jena, Germany, Carl Zeiss Meditec employs more than 3,000 people worldwide, more than half of them based in the USA, Japan, Spain and France.

As of 6/30/21, Carl Zeiss Meditec was held in the Knowledge Leaders Strategy.