Nursing leader and phlebotomy expert will lend expertise as advisors while medical technology veteran assumes role of Chief Commercial Officer
San Francisco, Calif. – Dec. 5, 2018 – Vascular access technology innovator Velano Vascular continues to aggressively expand in pursuit of its mission to dramatically remake blood collection as a more efficient, effective and safer standard of patient-centered care. As part of this growth, the company today announced the hiring of Richard Foust as its first Chief Commercial Officer and the addition of two industry experts - former Intermountain Healthcare SVP of Clinical Operations and Chief Nursing Executive Kim Henrichsen and Center for Phlebotomy Education Director Dennis J. Ernst - to its Advisory Board.
More than one billion inpatient blood draws occur around the world every year, informing nearly 70% of all medical decisions. Yet this procedure is made more difficult and less efficient through the use of needles, a process that is further complicated by the rising incidence of aging, obesity and chronic illness that characterize Difficult Venous Access (DVA) patients, and line draws from a variety of indwelling catheters.
Velano’s award-winning PIVO™ needle-free blood collection device and its family of vascular access products combat the urgent challenge of vascular access globally through a new, more humane standard of care.
“Driven by medical necessity yet complicated by the growing number of DVA patients globally, there is an urgent and enormous need for more efficient, effective and humane ways to collect blood,” said Velano Vascular Chief Executive Eric M. Stone. “Kim and Dennis are true industry experts and pioneers whose insights and guidance will be invaluable as Richard and our team bring PIVO to hospitals around the world.”
Richard Foust
Foust is a veteran medical device and technology sales and marketing leader, following two decades building organizations in the sector. After early engineering and product management roles at Guidant Corporation, Foust was the tenth hire at Abbott Vascular, a global division that now employs more than 5,000 people and delivers $2.4B in annual revenue. During his 14-year tenure with Abbott, he served in a number of sales and marketing leadership roles in the U.S. and overseas.
Before joining Velano, Foust helped create and execute commercial strategies for a number of companies, including as VP of Commercial Development at Honor and as Chief Business Officer at Analyte Health. Foust holds a B.S. in Applied Physics from Emory University and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Kim Henrichsen, RN, MSN
Henrichsen is the Senior Vice President, Medical Management for Centene Corporation. Prior, she spent more than thirty years with Intermountain Healthcare, an integrated health system based in Utah and Idaho that includes 23 hospitals and more than 180 clinics. Most recently, she served as the system’s Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations and Chief Nursing Executive, helping set the vision and strategic leadership for the organization while overseeing the delivery of clinical services across the Intermountain system.
In addition to her leadership at Intermountain, Henrichsen serves the community through a number of board memberships, including the HealthInsight Board, BYU College Volunteer Leadership Council, Weber State University National Advisory Council, and an advisor to the Westminster College Nursing Leadership Council. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s in adult continuous care from the University of Utah. She is also a graduate of Intermountain Healthcare’s Advanced Training Program in Healthcare Delivery Improvement and the Wharton Nursing Fellowship Program.
Dennis J. Ernst, MT (ASCP), NCPT (NCCT)
Ernst is the Director of the Center for Phlebotomy Education, Inc. in Corydon, Indiana. In addition to being a frequent international lecturer, he is the author of over 50 articles on phlebotomy, has written two textbooks and three desk references, and edits the Phlebotomy Today family of newsletters, which has a worldwide monthly readership of over 14,000 health care professionals.
He has appeared as a subject matter expert on Dateline NBC and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. He is regularly engaged by the US Centers for Disease Control to participate on evidence review panels that develop best practices for the industry and serves as an expert witness in phlebotomy-related litigation. Ernst has served on nine document development committees for CLSI, five of them as chairholder.
About Velano Vascular
Velano Vascular is a medical device innovator committed to reducing the pain, risk and inefficiencies of traditional blood collection practices while enhancing the clinical domain of vascular access. The company’s revolutionary FDA-approved PIVO device expands the use of peripheral IV lines for frequent, high quality blood draws, aiming to deliver painless, compassionate care for hospital inpatients, a safer practice for caregivers, and a more financially responsible alternative for health systems. More information is available at www.velanovascular.com.
