Executive Summary

"Paranoid" but not "paralyzed": The recent spate of Guidant recalls is not causing a "material dampening effect on the marketplace," Cardiac Rhythm Management President Steve Mahle said Oct. 11 at the firm's annual analyst meeting in Minneapolis, though he admitted that "anytime your business becomes a front page article repeatedly in the newspapers is usually not good." Mahle, who stressed Medtronic's work with AdvaMed to help determine when firms should notify patients and physicians of potential problems with their medical devices, said that the "biggest issue we have to deal with...is putting things into perspective." He added: "Survivors have to be paranoid. We're sufficiently paranoid, but we're not paranoid where we're paralyzed in terms of doing what's right for the business"...