RF Surgical Systems Hires Two New Executives

RF Surgical Systems Inc. has added two new vice presidents to its management team. John Barnhill has joined the firm as vice president of Marketing/Business Development and Matt Heim was hired as vice president of Global Sales.

The addition of Barnhill and Heim follows last year’s appointment of new President/CEO John T. Buhler, who plans to leverage  Barnhill’s and Heim’s experience to focus on emerging opportunities within the patient safety space.

Reporting to Buhler, Barnhill will be responsible for global marketing efforts and business development strategy. Previously, Barnhill was with Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, where he held several positions, including senior global marketing manager for Heart Valve Therapy and group manager for Global Clinical Marketing and Professional Education. In his prior role as global marketing manager for SenoRx, Barnhill successfully grew the company’s breast cancer therapy portfolio, which contributed to the successful exit of the company.

“By adding John to our team, the company has kicked off its efforts to enhance brand awareness and implement marketing strategies to support our growth aspirations,” said Buhler. “John’s marketing and branding expertise will help us reach and educate new customers about how the RF Assure Detection System can enhance patient safety through risk reduction of retained sponges.”

Heim will be responsible for all key aspects of RF Surgical Systems’ worldwide commercial organization. He also will be a member of the company’s strategy & leadership team and will report to Buhler.

Before joining RF Surgical Systems, Heim was area vice president of Sales at Intuitive Surgical Inc., where he was responsible for sales and clinical strategy planning, budgeting, and resource planning, as well as key metric and measures. Prior to Intuitive Surgical, Heim spent six years with Datascope.

“Matt has exceptional sales leadership experiences, a great depth of knowledge in the healthcare arena as well as an excellent record of accomplishment in building and developing commercial organizations,” added Buhler. “We feel these key skills will benefit our efforts as we continue our growth trajectory and new market expansion strategy.”

Based in Carlsbad, Calif., RF Surgical Systems Inc. develops technology to detect and prevent retained surgical items.