SafeOp Surgical Names Gene Cattarina CEO

SafeOp Surgical Inc., a privately held medical device company, has announced that industry veteran Gene Cattarina will join SafeOp as chief executive officer. Cattarina, who will also serve as a board member, brings over 40 years of experience in numerous senior executive positions at companies in healthcare information systems, products, medical devices and professional services.
 
Most recently, Cattarina was president and CEO of Capsule Tech Inc., a global provider of medical device integration solutions to hospitals and healthcare systems. Capsule was recently sold to Qualcomm, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM). Prior to Capsule, Cattarina served as president and CEO of Impulse Monitoring, Inc., a provider of intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring solutions. He has also held executive leadership positions at Lynx Medical Systems, Inc., now a part of Optum; Landacorp, Inc.; Medicode, Inc., also now a part of Optum; and TDS Healthcare Systems, now a part of Allscripts.
 
“With the full management team onboard, SafeOp is now well positioned to aggressively bring the EPAD system to market,” said Cattarina. “I’m looking forward to being reunited with members of our Impulse Monitoring team who have developed the EPAD system. It’s a truly unique product that I believe will make a major contribution towards improving surgical outcomes.”
 
SafeOp’s goal is to enable simplified neurological monitoring in a wide array of surgical procedures where more complex and expensive monitoring may not be indicated, cost-effective or feasible. The EPAD system was developed particularly for the rapid detection of Positioning Effect (PE). PE is a frequent complication of some surgeries (e.g., orthopedic, general, cardiac, or urological surgery), whereby peripheral nerves may be damaged due to unrecognized extended compression or stretching, or compromise of their blood supply. Additionally, the EPAD system allows easy-to-use monitoring of the neuromuscular junction to aid in detection of residual paralysis, which may occur when paralyzing agents have not sufficiently worn off at the end of surgery. It offers real-time feedback, allowing caregivers to adjust the patient’s position in time to avoid nerve injury or intervene when residual paralysis is present.