Dr. Maisel is the director of the Medical Device Safety Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston.
This article (10.1056/NEJMp0903763) was published on May 27, 2009, at NEJM.org.
No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.
Dr. Maisel was acting chair of the FDA Circulatory System Medical Device Advisory Panel, which met on April 23, 2009, to review data related to the Watchman Left Atrial Appendage Closure Device and voted 7 to 5 in favor of approval with conditions. As acting panel chair, Dr. Maisel did not vote at the meeting. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the practices, policies, positions, or opinions of the panel or the FDA.
