Industry veteran Jim Mazzo joins Medical Device Manufacturers Association board, along with three others. Insulet, MedLumics, Cardiva and Cardica announce appointments. More people briefs.

Patient safety dominated the discussions at the 2007 annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. Although medtech manufacturers have long focused on improving safety, that movement is being further fueled by a growing number of performance measures and documentation requirements. In addition, pay-for-performance initiatives are gaining in popularity as health care buyers seek ways to drive quality improvements, putting more pressure on hospitals and physicians to provide and document quality care in order to maximize their reimbursements.

The development of medical devices and techniques that enable physicians to perform procedures less invasively has transformed the way medicine is practiced in many fields, including cardiology, radiology, neurology and orthopedics, and giving rise to thriving sub-specialties such as interventional cardiology. Pulmonx, a start-up launched by veteran physician/entrepreneur Rodney Perkins, MD, is looking to repeat that pattern through devices designed to spur the development of a new specialty, interventional pulmonology, while also improving the tools used in anesthesiology, internal and emergency medicine. While the company appears thus far to have the field to itself, Pulmonx faces major challenges in terms of the financing hurdles that come with a start-up's efforts to break new ground, as well as reimbursement issues in one of its primary product areas. Along with those challenges come major opportunities to capitalize on the advantages to patients, providers and payers that interventional procedures have brought to other clinical fields; and to become a market-maker in a new physician specialty.

While many ideas for new devices originate with physicians, the true doctor/entrepreneur is rare. Rodney Perkins is one of the few who's actually been successful at it.