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August 30, 2017 by ken@prime-core.com Ken Dropiewski

Balloon Expandable Stents OUT for Treatment of Peripheral Vascular Disease?

Balloon expandable stents have been the mainstay in treating blockages in the iliac arteries for years. However, recent data suggests a change is in order. According to researchers who recently compared the two versions in a large group of patients being treated in northern Europe, found that self-expanding (SE) stents proved more effective and are recommended for patients with iliac stenosis. The study was published this week in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Endovascular stenting approaches, regardless, are still preferred to surgery and balloon angioplasty as a treatment of iliac lesions. The recent study just answers the question, “Which is the best type of stent to use?”

The Study

“The treatment of iliac artery occlusive disease with SE led to a decreased incidence of restenosis at 12 months and thus provided superior primary patency than the treatment with BE,” says Hans Krankenberg, study director.

Findings were based on data from 660 patients enrolled into a cohort study between August 2010 and June 2013 across 18 Swiss and German medical centers. Each selected patient had a diagnosis of peripheral artery disease with symptoms. The lesions, which did not extend into the aorta or common femoral artery grades 1 to 4 and a single external or common iliac artery lesion between 10mm and 200mm in length. The two treatment groups were matched in terms of the nature and symptoms of the targeted lesions and any co-morbidities, risk factors, and coexisting conditions.

Key Findings

The key finding indicated that restenosis occurred in around 6 percent of the patients treated with self-expanding stents compared to nearly 14 percent of the patients receiving balloon expanding stents.

BE Stents Still Have Their Place

The data clearly suggests that self-expanding stents provide a more favorable outcome for patients with blockages in both the common iliac and external iliac arteries. However, this doesn’t mean that they are the best choice for all patients. One area where balloon expanding stents are still favorable in treating vessels with more complicated anatomical features such as those with tortuous or twisted vessels. This may be due to the fact that the force created from the balloon has a straightening effect due to the sheer force.

Our strategy focuses on enabling our clients to recruit the right people for the structure in which they will perform. Please contact us to learn more about our expertise in Executive Search for Commercial Leadership positions in Medical Device and Biotechnology; including Marketing, Strategy, Sales Leadership, Training, Development, etc. We look forward to the opportunity to help you consistently improve your performance and your business!

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August 25, 2017 by ken@prime-core.com Ken Dropiewski

Curiosity Makes the Leader

From a young age you learn through curiosity. You develop this curiosity so that you can discover new things and learn more about the world around you. Unfortunately, for many, curiosity is just that; something that you will eventually outgrow. However, curiosity is also a fantastic trait for any leader to have and will help you develop further.

Curiosity and Leadership

It is through curiosity that you will have the drive to become a better leader. It is also what gives you the desire to learn more about what a great business structure looks like as well as the reasons your team may struggle with adopting the new skills. In turn, it teaches them how their customers respond to new products and services that your company provides.

How to Foster Personal and Professional Curiosity

Developing curiosity is an important part of leadership. Challenging yourself with projects that will cause you to have questions is a great first step. Leaders should also work develop new skills so that you are open to new experiences. It also helps to have a mindset that allows you to actually enjoy learning and experiencing new things.

Assess Your Knowledge and Embrace Diversity

Connecting what you are learning to what is already known also helps to make you more curious about the subject or project. Above all, be diverse in the areas that are developing throughout the company. This is one of the best ways to bring out your curiosity in and will help you create new possibilities both personally and professionally.

There is always a better, faster and more efficient way of doing things and curiosity is one trait that can help businesses to discover these new and uncharted territories. With this new found curiosity, you will be able to find new and exciting directions in which to lead your team, company, and industry.

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August 23, 2017 by ken@prime-core.com Ken Dropiewski

Implanted Cardiac Device: Newest Ransomware Target

It has the makings of a plot for a blockbuster movie: a high ranking government official or world leader assassinated by a nefarious hacker who remotely accesses an implanted cardiac device. Plot lines and prominent world leaders notwithstanding, cyber-security risks for implantable cardiac devices are a concern. However, the outcome is not quite so dramatic.

Connected Devices and The Internet of Things

With more and more devices connected to the Internet of Things, the greater risk is using the easy access devices to connect to a larger network of health data. By breaking into these networks, hackers have held health systems hostage until ransoms, totaling in the millions, have been paid.

Device Security is Not a New Concern

Way back in 2008, a paper entitled Pacemakers and Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators: Software Radio Attacks and Zero-Power Defenses was presented. Researcher found that cardiac devices were more susceptible to attacks compared with other medical devices. However, at the there was little known about cardiac devices from a computer security standpoint. At the time, it was said that these devices had less security onboard than a common credit card.

Device Security Today

Owing to a number of high profile and costly attacks over the last decade, the FDA has taken oversight of this matter. Regulations and standards bodies are putting significant effort into improving security and privacy. The FDA currently requires device manufacturers to perform risk assessments of their devices and correct or remove products that have vulnerabilities. If medical device cyber-security controls are found to be inadequate, the agency forces design changes from manufacturers by delaying the approval of devices.

Questions and Challenges

But what about the systems the devices connect to? If hospitals and practices that tap into the devices to obtain data do not keep their systems updated with the latest security patches, password management, and network redundancy should they be able to access the device data? And, if as a result, a breach occurs, who then is at fault?

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August 21, 2017 by ken@prime-core.com Ken Dropiewski

New scanning fiber endoscope that detects cardiovascular disease tested

For most people, their first indication of cardiovascular disease occurs when they have a heart attack or a stroke. For too many people it is the last thing they ever experience.

However, a group of researchers at the University of Michigan have taken a scanning fiber endoscope, or SFE, which was originally built to provide early detection of cancer and has turned it to a new purpose, the early detection of arteriosclerosis, according to Geek Wire. The SFE, a fiber optic device with a laser scanning camera, was inserted into the blood vessels of rabbits and into harvested arteries to look for signs of disease that could lead to a heart attack or stroke.

As a result the researchers were able to obtain high-resolution images from the insides of arteries that detected the presence of lesions that could later lead to a cardiovascular event. The resulting images are the most detailed yet, picking up potential problems that hitherto had remained hidden.

The technique could be used on people at high risk of developing a heart attack or stroke due to lifestyle choices or family history. It could also be used to find out the cause of a stroke or other event that is not obvious to conventional scans.

As with any other illness, the way to deal with cardiovascular disease is not to have it to start with. If the SFE scan can be developed for a clinical setting, doctors can detect causes of oncoming strokes and heart attacks before they happen and take appropriate action.

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August 18, 2017 by ken@prime-core.com Ken Dropiewski

Four Essential Leadership Traits

Leaders on the silver screen are resolute, skilled, stoic, single-minded – and they always succeed. They often have one drawback, epic failure or accident to overcome, but overcome they do. Scripts are marvelous things. Real life is different, but every leader has planned, tried, failed, tried again, and succeeded. Leaders show certain personality traits that indicate how they formulate the future they want, how they will respond to failure, and how they will stay on track so they ultimately succeed – repeatedly. Those traits carry them – and those they lead – onward. What are the four powerful leadership traits that successful leaders exhibit?

Passion

They feel it so bad, they can taste it. Some people want to build a company, be the best sales professional in the business, create and manage the best marketing campaign, develop the greatest cure, or build the clearest system for analyzing protein structure. The goal does not matter, the leader’s style is less important, but the passion they have for what they do, how they do it, and how they deal with each stage is paramount. Leaders are passionate about succeeding.

Patience

Anger and frustration may be OK when you are alone, but getting angry or showing frustration with team members when things go wrong, does not encourage them to do their best, it encourages them to avoid the anger and frustration they just experienced. Failure is corrected or avoided by attention to detail. Patience is a supportive trait that encourages “trying again to get it right.” Patience is the slow-burning fuel of long-term success.

Stoicism

Stoicism is about self-control and inner fortitude to see beyond the bad present, and to overcome the current problems. Not all problems are self-induced, some are the fall-out from a competitor’s scientific advance or their great new marketing campaign. Stoicism helps leaders stay true to themselves, their goals and their team members. Problems and setbacks come continually, not just once like they do in an action film, and this trait also fuels a leader.

Decisiveness

Leaders make decisions. They make them and act on them. Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote “Well done is better than well said” is as true in the world of medical devices and biotechnology as it was in the Revolutionary War. Leaders know their vision of the future, they have established the standards everyone will work to, they have agreed the goals everyone will work towards. These are the beacon and the guide on their path to greatness. Stoicism keeps them on that path.

The Take-Away

Knowing the right destination and how to get there is critical to success. Passion, patience, stoicism and decisiveness are essential to keeping leaders on the path.

Follow me on Twitter @PrimeCoreSearch.

Balloon Expandable Stents OUT for Treatment of Peripheral Vascular Disease?

Curiosity Makes the Leader

Implanted Cardiac Device: Newest Ransomware Target

New scanning fiber endoscope that detects cardiovascular disease tested

Four Essential Leadership Traits

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