Medtronic
Medical & mobility · Last assessed 6/9/2026
Score breakdown
Why this grade
Medtronic is one of the large medical-device OEMs operating under the service-contract model that PIRG and biomedical technicians (BMETs) document as broadly repair-restrictive: refusal to release full service manuals, password/service-key gating of diagnostics, and calibration software required to activate spare parts but withheld from independents. Medtronic does run a public manuals portal (manuals.medtronic.com), but those are largely device/clinical manuals rather than the board-level service documentation and calibration tooling independents need, and its implantable/surgical/pump lines are heavily software-locked. Grade rests mainly on category-wide evidence; Medtronic name-specific public evidence is thinner than for Philips, hence low confidence.