ABSTRACT
Thomas J. Fogarty, MD, is a legend in the medical device community. He is a retired vascular surgeon, a highly regarded winemaker,* a venture capitalist, and a leading medical technology innovator (Figure 20.1). He has founded or cofounded more than 30 companies in the medical device or services eld, holds more than 100 patents, and is author of more than 170 scientic and medical articles. Dr. Fogarty invented the Fogarty embolectomy catheter while still a medical student and also developed the stent graft that replaced highly invasive open AAA (abdominal aortic aneurysm) surgery.† Dr. Fogarty is one of the most successful medical device innovators of all time. He is a recipient of the Laufman-Greatbatch Prize‡ for advances in medical instrumentation and received the MIT-Lemelson Prize for Innovation in 2000.§ He was inducted into the Inventor’s Hall of Fame in December 2001.¶
MDR&D: You have been a successful practicing physician as well as a pioneering medical device innovator. Could you tell me about some of the innovations and the companies you’ve founded?
