Dr. Litvack

Biography

 Dr. Litvack is currently serving as our Executive Chairman and as a member of our Compensation Committee. Dr. Litvack is a native of Canada. He completed medical school and residency at McGill University in Montreal and a Cardiovascular Fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he subsequently became co-director of the Cardiovascular Intervention Center and Professor of Medicine at UCLA. There he led a prominent clinical and research program known for its excellence in innovation, care and leadership in Translational Medicine. Dr. Litvack was Board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases and Interventional Cardiology. He has published more than one hundred research articles and chapters and is the recipient of several awards, including an American Heart Association Young Investigator Award, the Leon Goldman Medical Excellence Award for contributions to the field of biomedical optics and the United States Space Technology and Space Foundation Hall of Fame for pioneering work with the excimer laser. Dr. Litvack left full time practice and academics in 2000 to concentrate on entrepreneurial activities. Dr. Litvack has founded and operated several healthcare ventures, both as chairman and/or chief executive officer, including Progressive Angioplasty Systems Inc., a medical device company that was acquired by United States Surgical Corp. in 1998; Savacor, Inc., a medical device company that was acquired by St. Jude Medical in 2005; Conor Medsystems, Inc., a publicly traded medical device company that was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2007 and several others; and Entourage Medical Technologies Inc., a medical device company currently in development. He presently sits on the boards of several early-stage healthcare companies. Dr. Litvack was a former director of publicly traded Nile Therapeutics, Inc. from 2009-2012. Dr. Litvack joined the Board of Capricor, Inc. as Executive Chairman in 2012. Dr. Litvack is currently a General Partner in Pura Vida Investment, LLC, a healthcare hedge fund, and is serving as a Director on the Board of Cardiovascular Research Foundation, a non-profit research and education entity.

Research Interest

 healthcare ventures