Guidant Corporation
ORG
Guidant Corporation Guidant
The Guidant Corporation may have gotten more than it bargained for when it appointed a panel last year to look into its practices after it came under scrutiny for its failure to publicize flaws in its heart devices. The 12-member panel not only urged the company to overhaul its disclosure process. At the time, Guidant executives were faced with the choice of recalling potentially defective heart defibrillators or allowing doctors to implant them. The panel appeared to reinforce its central finding that on patient safety issues, Guidant was a company driven by engineers, rather than doctors, and to underline the troubling consequences that can result. Guidant has said that it will adopt some of the measures proposed by the group, including appointing a company doctor charged with patient safety.