Defibrillators

But fallout from 2005 recalls proved very tough to overcome.Guidant had a big role in these troubles.

Problems with its products came to light in 2005, and the company has faced allegations that it concealed flaws.

The last publicly released tally showed more than 1,175 related lawsuits.Guidant's woes damaged its market share and made planned acquirer Johnson & Johnson leery enough to wrestle for a lower purchase price.

That, in turn, opened the door for Boston Scientific to launch a bidding war and eventually win over Guidant's board.The problem, some believe, is that Boston Scientific aggressively bid without a good sense of where ICDs were headed.

"They grossly miscalculated," said Phil Nalbone, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets.

"It leads one to wonder about the level of due diligence" before the deal, he said.As Tobin said, the ICD market is 20 percent smaller at this point than Boston Scientific had anticipated.

But he also noted that market projections were wrong across the industry, and said Boston Scientific believes the arrival of the market size and sales numbers it expected with Guidant has been postponed."I don't think anybody believes that the ICD market will not grow in the future," he said.

"My belief is it will be sooner rather than later."Signs of improvement There are finally some signs of ICD market stabilizat...

Bruzese confirmed that Mercy does offer intervention care as well as a state-of-the-art, 64-slice CT (computed tomography) scanner.

"This is a non-invasive tool for diagnosing coronary arterial blockages," he said.

"It scans the entire heart in a second or two, and provides a brilliant three-dimensional image." San Juan Regional recently ordered a 64-slice CT scanner, and it should arrive by mid-summer, Buffington said.

Farmington's hospital does have a cardiac catheterization lab, something Mercy plans to open in a few months.

The products that are not yet offered here, will be in the future, according to Zaharko.

"We have a strategy to expand the program to include both diagnostic and interventional cardiology," she said.

"Our plan is to actively recruit cardiologists to be a part of the hospital," Buffington added.

Updating the program could help in getting heart doctors here and retaining them.

Mercy Medical Center has five cardiologists on staff and is not experiencing some of the issues Farmington is with recruitment and retention.

Bruzese said that could be because of Durango's high quality of life, as well as its modern hospital services.

Farmington also offers a high quality of life, and visiting physicians are impressed with San Juan Regional, Buffington said.

There, however, are problems with keeping physicians here.

Chuck Redwing,...

The company is trading at about 19 times earnings for the fiscal year ending in April 2008, and about 16 times estimated earnings for fiscal 2009, well below the historical valuations for its peer group.

Yet Muzzey says it should be able to produce double-digit earnings growth.

The biggest risk he associates with Medtronic is the possibility the company might not achieve the kind of earnings growth that differentiates it from the crowd, Muzzey said.

He is still buying these shares for new accounts and says they should be able to provide a better return than the market average over the next few years.

Buy a link here From the April 23, 2007 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Have an opinion on this story?

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