Job creator

Hiroyuki “Hiro” Fujita, MS ’98, PhD ’98, founded Quality Electrodynamics in 2006 using technology he developed in physics labs on Case Quad. His company designed and manufactured components for medical imaging machines and was soon exporting worldwide.

Executives at Canon Inc. liked what they saw. In 2019, the Tokyo-based tech giant acquired a controlling interest in QED and made it a foundation of Canon Medical Systems. Now Canon is poised to make a deeper investment in Greater Cleveland.

In late November, Canon announced plans to invest about $300 million in a new Cleveland-based healthcare subsidiary, Canon Healthcare USA, which will seek to make Canon a larger player in the medical imaging industry.

Several news outlets, including Fierce Biotech and Radiology Business, noted that Canon was drawn to Cleveland by QED and Fujita, who will lead the new venture as CEO.

Fujita is presently the CTO of the CT-MR Division of Canon Medical Systems, as well an adjunct professor in the Department of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences.

A native of Osaka, Japan, Fujita came to Case in 1992 to earn advanced degrees in physics. After scientific positions with Picker International, GE Healthcare and the CWRU Department of Physics, he launched QED in Cleveland with four employees. The company specializes in radiofrequency coils for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines. Today it employs about 175 people.

Fujita told Crain’s Cleveland Business that Canon will start by housing employees at QED’s operations in Mayfield Village but that eventually Canon Healthcare USA will need its own building as it grows to more than 200 employees. Sites on the Opportunity Corridor near campus are being considered.