BUSINESS DRIVERS

Siemens Medical Solutions (Malvern, PA) announced that several members of its executive leadership team have been selected for positions with the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT), whose mission is to accelerate the adoption of robust, interoperable health information technology. Gail E. Latimer, vice president and chief nursing officer, was reappointed as a member of the CCHIT inpatient electronic health record (EHR) work group. Donald Bechtel, chief privacy officer of Healthcare Data Exchange, a service of Siemens Medical Solutions, was selected to participate in the CCHIT privacy and compliance expert panel. David Tao, DSc, of Soarian Enterprise Systems, was appointed as cochair of the CCHIT EHR foundation work group. He was also selected as a member of the CCHIT interoperability expert panel. Also, product manager Eric Ringle was appointed as a member of the CCHIT emergency department EHR work group. In related news, Janet Dillione, president of the healthcare IT division of Siemens Medical Solutions, has been named one of the most powerful women in the technology channel by CMP Channel's VARBusiness magazine.

Aspect Medical Systems Inc. (Norwood, MA) has announced that Boudewijn Bollen will retire from his role as president of international operations during the first quarter of 2008. After this time, Bollen will serve on a part-time basis as a senior company adviser and will remain a member of the board of directors. Bill Floyd, vice president of sales and marketing for Aspect, will work with Bollen throughout a transition period starting in September 2007, and will be promoted to executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing upon Bollen's retirement.

NeoGuide Systems Inc. (San Jose), a developer of technology to prevent and treat colorectal cancer, has announced the appointment of Jim Talbot to vice president for quality and regulatory affairs. In this role, he will oversee all aspects of the company's quality assurance and control system and will manage the regulatory approval process for new products in the United States and abroad. Talbot brings more than 25 years of experience in quality, reliability, and regulatory affairs to NeoGuide. He most recently served as director of quality at Boston Scientific's Fremont, CA, facility, where he oversaw the design and development of the company's neurological catheters, GDC coils, and interventional ultrasound products.

Richard A. Gonzalez, president, chief operating officer, and a member of the board of directors of Abbott (Abbott Park, IL), plans to retire after 30 years with the company. Gonzalez will remain with Abbott until September 30, 2007. Upon his retirement, the heads of Abbott's four operating businesses—medical devices, pharmaceuticals, nutritionals, and diagnostics—will report directly to Miles D. White, chairman and chief executive officer of Abbott.

FlowMedica Inc. (Fremont, CA), a medical device company developing targeted renal therapy, has appointed Gary Saxton as president and chief executive officer. Saxton was previously the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Bio-Sphere Medical Inc. (Rockland, MA), a medical device company that has developed and commercialized minimally invasive therapeutic applications for its microsphere technology. Prior to his role with BioSphere, he was a strategy and market development consultant within the medical device industry. He previously served as vice president of sales and marketing at Symphonix Devices Inc., and as vice president of marketing at Cardiogenesis Corp. Saxton has also held a variety of management positions within Medtronic Inc.

Smith & Nephew plc (London) has appointed Joseph DeVivo as president of its orthopedic reconstruction division. He will be based at the company's orthopedic reconstruction headquarters in Memphis. DeVivo joins Smith & Nephew with 18 years of marketing, development, sales, operations, and executive leadership experience. Most recently he served as president and CEO of RITA Medical Systems Inc., which was acquired by AngioDynamics (Queensbury, NY) in 2006. He served as president and chief operating officer of medical robotics company Computer Motion Inc. before it was acquired by Intuitive Surgical Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA) in 2003. From 1993 to 2002, DeVivo was at United States Surgical, a division of Tyco Healthcare (Mansfield, MA), where he held a wide variety of roles.

EndoGastric Solutions (Redmond, WA) has appointed Kelvin Higa, MD, and John Hunter, MD, to its scientific advisory board. Higa is a professor of surgery at University of California, San Franciso-Fresno and the president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. Hunter is Mackenzie professor and chairman of surgery at Oregon Health & Science University and past president of the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons.

Laparoscopic systems manufacturer Viking Systems Inc. (San Diego) has appointed Robert F. Mathews to the position of executive vice president and chief financial officer. Prior to joining Viking Systems, Mathews was senior vice president and chief financial officer for the clinical technologies and services (CTS) segment of Cardinal Health (Dublin, OH), where he was responsible for the global finance function across all of the CTS businesses. Before joining Cardinal Health, Mathews was with Alaris Medical Systems, now a business unit of Cardinal Health. During his tenure at Alaris, he served as vice president of finance and chief accounting officer.