TransMed7 Appoints Strategic Advisor to its Board of Directors

TransMed7 LLC has appointef John B. Simpson, Ph.D., M.D., as strategic advisor to its Board of Directors.

“Dr. Simpson’s history of clinical excellence, innovation, scientific achievement, and entrepreneurial expertise immediately expands TransMed7’s strategic options for rapid development and deployment of our cardiovascular intervention technologies, including our Corsair and Mustang CV/PAD devices, into the market,” said Eugene H. Vetter, TransMed7’s co-founder and CEO. “In addition to the obvious business and clinical advantages he brings to TransMed7, we value even more his deep caring nature as a human being. His outlook and guidance will push us even harder to make all of our new technologies available as soon as possible.”
 
Dr. Simpson received his bachelor of science degree in agriculture from Ohio State University and his master’s of science degree and doctorate in biomedical science from the University of Texas at Houston. He received his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine and completed a fellowship in interventional cardiology at Stanford University. A noted clinician, scientist, and serial entrepreneur, Dr. Simpson is widely recognized as developing the over-the-wire balloon angioplasty catheter. This invention was one of the landmark events leading to the broader application of a percutaneous approach for interventional cardiology techniques in the area of coronary and peripheral revascularization. This device was the foundation of a company called Advanced Cardiovascular Systems Inc., in 1978 and was the first of a series of inventions by Dr. Simpson.
 
Dr. Simpson is a professor of clinical medicine at Stanford University. He has served as a staff cardiologist at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, Calif., since 1981. He has published extensively on a wide variety of topics pertaining to interventional cardiology and has been an invited speaker throughout the world. He has been honored with the Andreas Greuntzig Award from the European Cardiology Society, the Duke University Alumni Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Trans-Catheter Therapeutics Conference, and the Distinguished Alumnus for the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston.
 
Over the course of his career, Dr. Simpson has founded and successfully handed off several companies including Advanced Cardiovascular Systems and Devices for Vascular Intervention, both acquired by Eli Lilly; Cardiovascular Imaging Systems, acquired by Boston Scientific; Perclose, sold to Abbott; Lumend, acquired by Cordis; and Fox Hollow, acquired by ev3 and which is now part of Medtronic.
 
Most recently, he founded Avinger Inc. in 2007 and served as its CEO through 2014 and as executive chairman from December, 2014 through 2017.

According to Dr. James W. Vetter, TransMed7 co-founder and chairman, “Dr. Simpson is universally recognized as a true pioneer and visionary in the field of interventional cardiology including percutaneous coronary and peripheral vascular treatments. His innovations continue to be responsible for saving the lives of literally millions of patients around the world each year. While he is clearly one of the most successful serial entrepreneurs in the medical device industry, his primary motivation continues first and foremost to be, to make a positive difference in patient’s lives. All of this is consistent with TransMed7’s prime objective of improving each patient’s treatment, care, and quality of life through practical translation of new capabilities and concepts into our pipeline of transformational devices.”
 
TransMed7 LLC is a medical and technology-based organization developing minimally invasive medical devices aimed at providing new solutions for doctors and their patients. With particular expertise in oncologic, regenerative, and cardiovascular disease, TransMed7 and its team of clinicians, scientists, and engineers have developed a portfolio of next-generation platform devices.