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PROTEX: Cardiac Innovation From West Virginia

By Bob Coffield

Today's Charleston Gazette features an article on a Charleston based medical technology company, Nexeon MedSystems.

Mark Bates, M.D., CEO and interventional cardiologist at CAMC has developed a "pro-healing" stent that is lined with protein. The device called PROTEX system may also eliminate the need for heart patients to take blood thinning medications for a year or more after the procedure. Clinical trials on the device are currently underway in Germany. More information can be found on Nexeon MedSystems' website.

Quote from the article:

"It's a protein-lined metal stent that the body thinks is normal artery," Bates said. "Instead of the body thinking it's a foreign body, it lines it with normal cells real quickly. It allows the body and arteries to function normally."

We're not stopping nature from doing its thing," said Bates, who heads Nexeon's offices in Charleston and Carlsbad, Calif. "We're helping nature. The body doesn't recognize [the stent] as something that's not supposed to be there."

About 65 percent of patients across the country now receive drug-releasing stents during cardiac catheterization procedures to open arteries. The remainder have bare-metal stents placed in their vessels.

Congratulations to Dr. Bates on his creativity and forward thinking to bring better heart care to West Virginians and others around the globe.

Full post as published by Health Care Law Blog on October 13, 2008 (boomark / email).