Guidant's Guiding Spirit: An Interview with Beverly Lorell, MD
Like all medical device companies, Guidant is facing a world of unprecedented changes, most notably the emergence of drug/device therapies that will require radically different skill sets and development strategies. To help it cope with the challenges and opportunities to come, Guidant reached into the academic cardiology community, appointing an internationally-recognized expert in interventional cardiology and heart failure, Beverly Lorell, to oversee the future of its device technology. Lorell will be no ivory-tower academic. She'll help Guidant understand the clinical issues while working through the related business issues, including the growing complexity of the clinical trials process and the proper influence that marketing and sales imperatives should play on product development.