Founded in St. Petersburg under Peter the Great in 1721, the Krasnogvardeets factory is one of Russia’s oldest medical instrument manufacturers. Its development was closely associated with European physicians and surgeons, including James Wylie and Nikolay Pirogov. In the 20th century, the factory became a major producer of surgical stapling devices, anesthesia equipment, and ventilators. Today, Krasnogvardeets continues manufacturing surgical instruments and medical equipment.

Laerdal is the company that made medical education different. Instead of 'see one, do one, teach one' future medical doctors today 'learn, practice, improve, repeat' – and all this without harming the real patients! It is here, in this company the world-wide used CPR mannequin Resusci Anne was born.