The next time you’re at the doctor’s office, and you’re getting your vital signs checked – blood pressure, body temperature, pulse rate, and breathing—think about Central New York.

That’s because many of the devices being used to check your vital signs come from a company that got its start in Central New York more than 100 years ago and is now one of the world’s largest medical device manufacturers. Welch Allyn, headquartered in Skaneateles Falls and a subsidiary of Chicago-based Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc., was founded in 1915 thanks to an invention by Dr. Francis Welch and William Noah Allyn: the first hand-held, direct-illuminating ophthalmoscope. The flashlight-sized instrument shines light inside the back of the eye, allowing a clear view of retina health and functioning.

Since that revolutionary scope’s introduction, the company has grown to become a global innovator of medical exam instruments and accessories, including vital signs and cardiac monitoring devices. In May of this year, Hill-Rom broke ground on an expansion of its manufacturing and research and development operations at Welch Allyn’s Onondaga County facility that will create more than 100 new jobs and retain approximately 900 existing jobs.

The company is part of a Central New York business landscape that includes high-growth healthcare related jobs and industries and where opportunity is building—benefiting from the region’s higher educational institutions, innovative tech-focused incubators and business accelerators and strengthened by New York State’s investment in the Central NY Rising blueprint for economic development that is generating economic growth and community development as part of the Upstate Revitalization Initiative.

Central New York, at the crossroads of the state, is having an impact throughout the world. Take a deep breath, exhale and take a look at just a couple of the Welch Allyn devices made here and designed to check you out: