AtriCure Appoints Senior VP of Clinical, Regulatory, and Scientific Affairs

AtriCure Inc., a developer of surgical treatments for atrial fibrillation (Afib) and left atrial appendage management, today announced it has hired Vinayak (Vini) Doraiswamy, PhD as its senior vice president of clinical, regulatory, and scientific affairs.
 
Most recently, Dr. Doraiswamy served as vice president of global clinical operations at St. Jude Medical. In his role he oversaw clinical operations for over 100 clinical trials across the world, and managed a team of over 300 people. During his time at St. Jude Medical, he led the integration of several teams into a unified global clinical operations organization and also helped design and execute one of the largest pivotal IDE catheter ablation trials in the Afib space. Prior to his most recent role, he spent a large portion of his career in the Afib market and served in various leadership capacities in program management, clinical affairs, strategic planning, and portfolio management. Prior to joining St. Jude Medical, Dr. Doraiswamy held several positions of increasing responsibility in marketing, field clinical engineering, IDE and post market clinical studies at Boston Scientific.
 
“We are excited to have Vini join AtriCure,” said Mike Carrel, president and CEO. “His deep knowledge of the Afib space, and his vast array of experiences, will be of substantial benefit to the company. With our intense focus on clinical science, and the importance of our clinical and scientific initiatives over the next several years, now is a great time to enhance our leadership with this critical hire.”
 
“I am thrilled to be joining AtriCure, and am ready to get to work by helping achieve the company’s mission,” said Dr. Doraiswamy. “There were many factors that attracted me to the opportunity, but at the forefront is the company’s scope of initiatives from a clinical and a scientific perspective. The volume of activity currently underway is impressive, and many of the trials, including the CONVERGE IDE trial, are groundbreaking in nature.”
 
The CONVERGE IDE trial is a landmark prospective, randomized trial underway in the United States comparing the Convergent approach to endocardial catheter ablation for patients with persistent or long-standing persistent Afib. The Convergent approach is a multi-disciplinary therapy in which a closed-chest epicardial ablation is performed by a surgeon, and then complemented by an endocardial catheter ablation performed by an electrophysiologist. The 153 patient trial currently has 54 patients enrolled at multiple centers. In addition to the ongoing IDE trial, individual center results have been published in numerous peer reviewed papers.
 
“In addition to CONVERGE, there are many other important projects across the globe that are bringing new products and new evidence that will serve as the foundation for AtriCure for years to come,” continued Dr. Doraiswamy. “There are millions of patients worldwide who can benefit from the therapies we have invested in and will continue to develop in the coming years. This is an incredible opportunity and I am humbled to be part of the team.”