In 1997, Kurt Amplatz, MD and son-in-law Frank Gougeon founded AGA Medical. The company, based in Plymouth, designed and sold small devices that closed defects in the heart. The company was sold to St. Jude Medical in 2010 for $1.3 billion, and has been an Abbott company since 2017.

Amplatz invented the Amplatzer Septal Occluder. The device is inserted by percutaneous catheter placement, thus avoiding open heart surgery. Amplatz, who was a professor of radiology at the University of Minnesota from 1957 to 1997, was a world-renowned pioneer in interventional radiology and pediatric cardiology.