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Apria Taps Former CorVel Chief to Run Business Unit

Apria Healthcare Group Inc. has appointed chief executives for business units Apria Healthcare Inc. and Coram Inc., which in the future will operate with more autonomy.

“Given the large size of both of Apria’s operating units now and the distinct opportunities that lie ahead for each, the operating units will work more autonomously in the future,” said Norman Payson, chief executive and executive chairman.

Lake Forest-based Apria Healthcare Group is one of the country’s largest home-healthcare providers, with more than $2 billion in revenue. It offers breathing treatments and other services for patients who wish to remain in their homes.

Apria said Daniel Starck, former chief executive at Irvine-based healthcare services company CorVel Corp., will become chief executive of the Apria Healthcare business unit on April 16. Respiratory therapy and home medical equipment fall under that unit.

Daniel Greenleaf will become chief executive of Coram, which offers specialty infusion services. He had served in a dual role as Apria Healthcare’s chief operating officer and Coram’s president and chief operating officer for the past 16 months.

Both Starck and Greenleaf will report to Payson.

Apria bought Coram, a Denver-based competitor, in 2007 for $350 million. The deal came about a year before Apria was taken private in a $1.4 billion buyout by New York-based private equity investor Blackstone Group LP.

Starck is returning to Apria—he served Apria and one of its predecessors in several positions from 1992 to 2006, when he left to take the chief executive’s job at CorVel.

Starck “has a proven track record of success not only in the homecare industry, but also in his more recent role as CEO of a public company operating in another competitive segment of the healthcare industry,” Payson said.

CorVel, meanwhile, has reappointed founder V. Gordon Clemons Sr. as chief executive. Clemons will continue to serve in his current role as CorVel’s chairman.

Device Industry

Emerging markets and other factors will push the global medical device industry to $302 billion in revenue by 2017, a new study shows.

Lucintel, a Dallas-based management consulting and market research firm, conducted the study and projected a compound annual growth rate of 6.1% over the next five years for the medical device industry, with India and China expected to be the main drivers.

That has already borne out among some Orange County device makers. James Mazzo, president of Santa Ana-based Abbott Medical Optics Inc., recently said that the company has seen strong growth in China and India, along with other emerging markets.

Abbott Medical has tripled the size of its sales force in those countries, and is also looking to make a push in Brazil and other Latin American countries.

It’s even tailoring certain devices to the needs of emerging markets. It’s currently working on a lower-cost replacement intraocular lens used in cataract surgeries called Sensar-1 for use in India and other developing markets.

“We’re really now learning to … start to design products by certain geographies,” Mazzo said.

The Lucintel study looked at surgical, cardiovascular, home healthcare, general medical and other devices.

It found, among other things, that the industry is highly fragmented, and that North America dominates with 46% of the global market.

“High competitive rivalry prevails with low-to-moderate barrier for entry into the industry,” Lucintel said.

The study found that construction of hospitals and clinics, along with urbanization, is expected to drive growth of the industry.

Lucintel also pointed out some challenges for device makers, including increased global competitiveness and government regulations, along with possible shortages of qualified workers.

Bits and Pieces

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently affirmed a decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office holding that Irvine device maker Masimo Corp. was the first company to invent measure-through-motion pulse oximetry technology. The patent office will cancel in its entirety a pulse oximetry patent held by Nellcor Puritan Bennett LLC, a division of Covidien Ltd., and award Masimo its patents, according to a release issued by Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP in Irvine, which represented Masimo in the case. CNS Response Inc., an Aliso Viejo-based company that provides reference data and analytic tools for psychiatric clinicians and researchers, said that it would launch a clinical trial with the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and other sites to examine its Peer Interactive device. The trial will involve military doctors treating 2,000 patients diagnosed with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, mild traumatic brain injury and other disorders.

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