NATICK, Mass., May 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Boston Scientific Corporation today announced that Donald S. Baim, M.D., will be joining the Company as Executive Vice President, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer. Dr. Baim will assume responsibility for Clinical Sciences and Medical Affairs. Pending approval from the Board of Directors, Dr. Baim will join Boston Scientific’s Executive Committee. Dr. Baim plans to join the Company in July.
Dr. Baim’s primary responsibilities will include management of Clinical Affairs, including pre-clinical and clinical studies; and Medical Affairs, including educational programs and physician relationships. He will also play a major role in the development of technology strategy, including the assessment of technologies from acquisition and partnership candidates, and their integration with internal technologies to help develop the Company’s product portfolio. Dr. Baim and the Clinical Sciences and Medical Affairs teams will report to Chief Operating Officer Paul LaViolette, as will the Regulatory Affairs team.
Dr. Baim is currently a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Senior Physician at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an internationally recognized leader in interventional cardiology who specializes in the development and evaluation of new interventional cardiovascular devices. He completed his undergraduate training in Physics at the University of Chicago, medical training at Yale Medical School, and post-graduate training in medicine and cardiology at Stanford, where he worked with Dr. John Simpson during the development of some of the earliest moveable guidewire coronary angioplasty catheters. In 1981, he brought this still-investigational technology to Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital, where he was recruited to establish an Interventional Cardiology program. Under his leadership, this program went on to perform seminal research in the refinement, critical evaluation and optimal application of newer devices, including stents, atherectomy, clot removal and distal embolic protection.
Dr. Baim has published nearly 300 scientific papers on interventional cardiology, currently edits the leading textbook in the field (Grossman’s Cardiac Catheterization, Angiography and Intervention, now in its 7th edition), and serves as a member of the Interventional Cardiology Test Committee of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). In 2000, he was recruited by the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where in addition to his clinical responsibilities, he directs the hospital’s participation in the Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT), a federally funded inter-disciplinary consortium of leading Boston teaching hospitals and engineering institutions that develops innovative device solutions for a wide range of unmet medical challenges. Since October 2005, Dr. Baim has also served as Chief Academic Officer of the Harvard Clinical Research Institute (HCRI), a not-for-profit organization that designs, conducts, and analyzes pilot and pivotal trials of new medical devices to support their approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In parallel, Dr. Baim has continued to work actively with a number of early-stage companies and medical device incubators, helping develop next-generation technologies for percutaneous valve repair or replacement, chronic total occlusions, bifurcations, drug-eluting stents, and circulatory support.
“I look forward to applying a skill set developed through 25 years of interventional cardiology practice, medical device development, clinical trial participation and medical education, to help Boston Scientific consolidate its enormous technology strengths, and deliver an ongoing stream of safe, effective, and innovative device solutions for both cardiovascular and key non-cardiac diseases,” said Dr. Baim. “I do not leave a lifetime career in academic medicine lightly, but I am convinced I can have a greater impact on the development of revolutionary health care technologies by becoming a member of the leadership team of what is now one of the world’s largest medical device manufacturers.”
“We are very pleased to welcome a renowned physician such as Dr. Baim to Boston Scientific,” said LaViolette. “His experience, leadership and vision will benefit our ongoing efforts to strengthen our world-class clinical trial programs and to bring innovative technologies to the marketplace.”
Dr. Baim replaces Dr. Mary E. Russell, who plans to leave the company in July to pursue other opportunities that will allow her to continue to focus on her life-long goal of translating basic science research into patient care by leveraging her medical, clinical and business skills.
“During the six years Dr. Russell has been with us, she has made an enormous contribution to Boston Scientific,” said LaViolette. “She played a central role in bringing our TAXUS drug-eluting stent to the marketplace, and to thousands of patients who today live better and fuller lives because of this break-through technology. She will be greatly missed.”
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Boston Scientific is a worldwide developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices whose products are used in a broad range of interventional medical specialties. For more information, please visit: http://www.bostonscientific.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements. Boston Scientific wishes to caution the reader of this press release that actual results may differ from those discussed in the forward-looking statements and may be adversely affected by, among other things, risks associated with new product development and commercialization, clinical trials, intellectual property, regulatory approvals, competitive offerings, integration of acquired companies, Boston Scientific’s overall business strategy, and other factors described in Boston Scientific’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CONTACT: Milan Kofol 508-650-8569 Investor Relations Boston Scientific Corporation Paul Donovan 508-650-8541 Media Relations Boston Scientific Corporation Boston Scientific Corporation
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CONTACT: Milan Kofol, Investor Relations, +1-508-650-8569, or PaulDonovan, Media Relations, +1-508-650-8541, both of Boston ScientificCorporation
Web site: http://www.bostonscientific.com//
