Healthcare Industry News:  arrhythmia 

Devices Cardiology Personnel

 News Release - May 7, 2012

Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics Announces Several Key Appointments

Bill Olson Appointed President and CEO; Oern Stuge Joins Board of Directors; Miriam Taimisto Named VP, Research and Development

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(Healthcare Sales & Marketing Network)--Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics, Inc., a developer of innovative temperature-sensing cardiac ablation systems, today announced several key appointments to support commercialization and clinical efforts related to the company’s TEMPASURE™ cardiac ablation catheter. The TEMPASURE system is designed to improve clinical outcomes by providing electrophysiologists with real-time validation information and greater control in lesion creation for the treatment of patients with cardiac arrhythmias.

"We are thrilled with the caliber of the team that has joined Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics,” said Aris Constantinides, chairman of the company’s Board of Directors and investment director of NBGI Ventures, the London-based medtech specialist investor. “Their extensive leadership and commercial experience in bringing a variety of new medical technologies to patients and physicians around the world will serve the company well as we move forward into our next phase of growth.”

Bill Olson, a seasoned executive with more than 15 years of experience providing operational leadership to growing medtech companies, has been named president and chief executive officer of Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics. Bill previously served as chief executive officer of Satient Ventures, a life-science strategic advisory firm based in Menlo Park, Calif., and of Sawtooth Labs (now Avinger), a company that he co-founded with John Simpson, Ph.D., M.D. Bill served as vice president of corporate development at FoxHollow Technologies (now Covidien) and his broad experience includes direct sales for Guidant's Cardiac Rhythm Management division, strategy and operations consulting with Deloitte Consulting, and six sigma project management at GE Medical Systems. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and undergraduate degrees from Boston College, where he graduated summa cum laude.

The company also announced the appointment of Oern Stuge to the company’s Board of Directors. Oern is the founder of ORSCO Life Sciences A.G. and currently holds several executive and non-executive board and advisory roles with early-stage technology and life science companies, including Impulse Dynamics NV, Systagenix Inc., Quentiq AG and Healthcap AB. Oern previously held a variety of roles at Medtronic including senior vice president, president of Cardiac Surgery, and president, EMEA, Latin America, Canada, and India. He also held a variety of roles at Abbott and is formerly a practicing physician.

In addition, Miriam Taimisto joined the company as vice president of research and development. Miriam has more than 25 years of experience in the medical device industry in both start-up and large organizations. Miriam holds more than 30 U.S. patents and brings deep experience in diagnostic and therapeutic devices. She served as senior vice president of R&D and Operations at Aragon Surgical, Inc.; vice president of R&D at BÂRRX Medical; and vice president at Cierra, Inc. Miriam also spent seven years as director of R&D at Boston Scientific, Electrophysiology where she successfully introduced six new products to U.S. and international markets. Her industry experience also includes various engineering roles at Baxter, Guidant, and CardioGenesis. Miriam has a BS in Mechanical Engineering Technology from the University of Wisconsin.

About Cardiac arrhythmias

Cardiac arrhythmias occur when the electrical impulses in the heart don't work properly, causing the heart to beat too fast, too slowly or irregularly. Atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter are fast cardiac arrhythmias that can be life-threatening and are the leading cause of stroke.

About Cardiac Catheter Ablation

Cardiac catheter ablation procedures are used to treat a variety of cardiac arrhythmias including atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter. The procedures involve advancing a catheter into the heart and selectively ablating certain areas of tissue in order to prevent the spread of electrical signals that give rise to the arrhythmia. The temperature of the tissue during ablation is critical – lower temperatures are ineffective, and temperatures that are too high can result in dangerous over-heating. Saline irrigation ensures that lesions are created safely and are effective deeper inside the cardiac tissue. However, the inclusion of irrigation negates the effectiveness of conventional thermometry.

About the TEMPASURE Cardiac Ablation Catheter

The TEMPASURE system is designed to improve patient outcomes of cardiac ablation procedures by providing electrophysiologists with real-time validation information and greater control in lesion creation. The system’s novel passive sensing microwave radiometry technology allows the electrophysiologist to measure the temperature of cardiac tissue during the ablation procedure, providing real-time information that enables proper energy delivery and lesion control. This technology enables, for the first time, measurement of tissue temperature with a saline-irrigated RF catheter.

About Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics

Headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif., privately held Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics, Inc. specializes in advanced irrigated cardiac catheter ablation systems with proprietary temperature-sensing technology for the treatment of patients with cardiac arrhythmias. For more information visit www.actmed.net.

About NBGI Ventures

NBGI Ventures, established in 2001, is the only European venture capital fund investing exclusively in medical device companies. With over €100 million in total commitments under management, NBGI Ventures is based in London and considers investments across Europe and the U.S. Companies it has supported to date include Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics (USA), BoneSupport (Sweden), Cellnovo (UK), Dysis Medical (UK), EOS Imagine (France), Estech (USA), Quanta Fluid Solutions (UK), Reverse Medical (USA), SuperSonic Imagine (France), Symetis (Switzerland), Technolas/2010 Perfect Vision (Germany) and Upfront Chromatography (Denmark). NBGI Ventures is a division of NBGI Private Equity Limited, which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. For more information, please visit www.nbgipe.com/ventures.


Source: Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics

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