People In Brief
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
LaViolette joins valve developer board: Former chief operating officer and soon-to-be former senior advisor to Boston Scientific Paul LaViolette last week joined the board of directors of privately held Direct Flow Medical, which is developing a minimally invasive aortic valve replacement system. Edwards Lifesciences has the only transcather valve product on the market (in Europe), but several other large firms, including Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson, are developing such products. LaViolette had been with Boston Scientific for 15 years, but is slated to leave the company at the end of the year following a reorganization announced in June (1"The Gray Sheet" June 9, 2008, p. 8)