• Karin Eastham, executive VP/chief operating officer and a member of the board of trustees of Burnham Institute for Medical Research (La Jolla, California), has resigned, effective Sept. 30. The institute is dedicated to discovering the fundamental molecular causes of disease and devising innovative therapies. It has operations in California and Florida.

• Ronald Ahrens and Kirk Gorman have been named to the board of directors of CardioNet (Conshohocken, Pennsylvania), a wireless medical technology company with an initial focus on the diagnosis and monitoring of cardiac arrhythmias. Ahrens most recently served as president of Merck Consumer Healthcare Group Worldwide, while Gorman is senior vice president/CFO of Jefferson Health Systems, the largest hospital system in Philadelphia.

• William Gracey, executive VP/chief operating officer of LifePoint Hospitals (Brentwood, Tennessee), has decided to retire, effective April 30, 2009. He will serve as an executive VP until the planned retirement date. David Dill, executive VP/CFO, will become EVP/COO when his replacement is named. LifePoint operates 48 hospitals in 17 states, 44 in communities where LifePoint is the sole community hospital provider.

• Bill Perry has been named president of Prosurgics (Cupertino, California), a surgical robotics company. Perry was previously senior vice president of business development, marketing and sales at Nanomix.

• WellPoint (Indianapolis) reported the appointments of Lori Beer as executive vice president/chief information officer and Martin Miller as senior vice president/chief accounting officer/controller. Beer has been acting chief information officer since May,. She has more than 20 years of information technology experience, including more than 10 years at WellPoint. Miller is joining WellPoint from Molson Coors Brewing Co. WellPoint is the largest health benefits company in terms of medical membership in the U.S.