John Taylor III has joined Abbott (Abbott Park, Illinois) as divisional vice president, federal government affairs. Previously, Taylor was associate commissioner at the FDA, where he was responsible for managing the Office of Regulatory Affairs and advising on regulatory and compliance matters. Abbott is a broad-based healthcare company developing pharmaceuticals and medical products, including devices, diagnostics and nutritionals.

Dr. Ronald Mink has been promoted by Calypte Biomedical (Pleasanton, California) to the position of chief science officer, replacing Dr. Toby Gottfried who retired in June. Gottfried was with Calypte since its inception in the late 1980s. Mink most recently served as director of R&D at Calypte. Calypte is focused on the development of diagnostic products for the detection of sexually transmitted diseases.

Cancer-based molecular diagnostics firm CombiMatrix Molecular Diagnostics (CMD; Irvine, California), a subsidiary of CombiMatrix, an Acacia Research company, appointed Matthew Moore, PhD, director of research and development; Robert Embree, director of laboratory operations; and John Besser, CFO. Moore, most recently of US Labs, joined CMD in June. Embree served as managing director of global immunohistochemistry and virtual image analysis for US Labs prior to joining CMD. Besser most recently served as controller for Quest Diagnostics' Nichols Institute. CMD is a cancer-based molecular diagnostics company.

Mark Karsch has been appointed CFO of Escalon Medical (Wayne, Pennsylvania). Karsch previously served as CFO of Multimedia Marketing Training Solutions, and from 1991 to 2003, he served as senior vice president and CFO for both private and publicly-traded companies. Escalon develops ophthalmic diagnostic, surgical and pharmaceutical products as well as vascular access devices

Tom McLaughlin has been promoted to vice president-North America imaging sales for E-Z-EM (Lake Success, New York), a manufacturer of contrast agents for gastrointestinal radiology. He previously served as senior director-North America sales. McLaughlin has served the company in a series of positions since 1989, beginning as a territory sales manager for Philadelphia and later as Eastern district sales manager. He also served as product manager for CT injectors, helping bring the EmpowerCT injector system to market. He also holds a patent for the company's Fast Find Grid Product, a CT biopsy localization device.

Steven Durnil has been named president and CEO of Fischer Imaging (Denver), succeeding Harris Ravine, who resigned from the company as an officer and member of the board effective immediately. Ravine will continue to serve in a consulting capacity. Durnil previously was Fischer's chief operating officer. He joined the company as vice president of manufacturing and supply chain in July 2004. The company said that it is in the process of transitioning its business in connection with the previously announced decision to sell the intellectual property associated with its mammography business to Hologic. Fischer Imaging manufactures imaging systems for the screening and diagnosis of disease, particularly the diagnosis and screening of breast cancer. The company also produces equipment designed for emergency, radiology, surgical and certain cardiovascular needs.

Donald Broomfield has been appointed president and CEO of Hitachi Medical Systems America (HMSA; Twinsburg, Ohio). Broomfield replaces Richard Ernst, who is retiring after serving as president and CEO of HMSA since 1989, when the company was established as the sales and service organization of Hitachi Medical under a joint venture with Summit World Trade. Upon his retirement, Ernst will become a member of the HMSA board of directors and serve as an ongoing strategic advisor to the company. As a member of the board of directors and president of Summit World Trade, Broomfield is familiar with all aspects of HMSA operations, the company said. HMSA markets the high-performance MRI systems, CT systems, PET and PET/CT systems, ultrasound systems and ConeBeam digital X-ray systems of Hitachi Medical (Tokyo).

PrognostiX (Cleveland), a start-up company established by The Cleveland Clinic, has named Mark Willig as its new CEO. Willig assumes his post July 18. Willig most recently was senior vice president of sales and marketing for Specialty Labs. He joins PrognostiX a month after the company received approval from the FDA to begin selling a diagnostic test capable of identifying patients in imminent danger of heart attack or death. PrognostiX specializes in the development of technologies used in the diagnosis of inflammatory diseases.

Carol Gleber has been named senior vice president and chief operating officer of Radiologix (Dallas), a provider of diagnostic imaging services. Gleber previously was president and chief operating officer of Care Support of America. From 2001 to 2004, she served as senior vice president of West Group Operations for Renal Care Group. Radiologix owns and operates multi-modality diagnostic imaging centers that use advanced imaging technologies such as positron emission tomography, MRI, computed tomography and nuclear medicine, as well as X-ray, general radiography, mammography, ultrasound and fluoroscopy.

Rob Ngungu has joined Xillix Technologies (Richmond, British Columbia) as vice president, quality, clinical and regulatory affairs. Ngungu has healthcare industry experience with J&J Ultrasound, Mesa Laboratories, Zimmer Arthroscopy, Baxter Diagnostics, Informedics, Inamed/McGhan Medical, OraSure and NeoRx. Xillix is developing fluorescence endoscopy for cancer detection. Xillix's latest device, Onco-LIFE, incorporates fluorescence and white-light endoscopy in a device developed to detect and localize lung and gastrointestinal cancers.