• Gene Fleming has been named president and CEO of Cogent Healthcare (Irvine, California), a provider of services that improve the well-being of hospitalized patients. Most recently, Fleming was president and CEO of Surgical Alliance, a venture-funded specialty hospital company. He will be based primarily at the company's headquarters and will maintain a satellite office in Nashville, Tennessee. Bill Hamburg, who served as Cogent's interim CEO until the position was permanently filled, will remain with the company as a member of the board.

• Durect (Cupertino, California) reported the expected departure of co-founder and CEO Thomas Schreck on April 30 to pursue other interests in private ventures in the life sciences sector. He also will be resigning as a director. Jian Li, vice president of finance and corporate controller, will serve as the company's principal financial and accounting officer. Durect is focused on the development of pharmaceutical systems based on its drug delivery platform technologies.

• John Rush, MD, has been named vice president and chief medical officer of Hanger Orthopedic Group (Bethesda, Maryland), a newly created position. Most recently, Rush served as president of Inpatient Physicians Network of America. Hanger Orthopedic Group is a provider of orthotic and prosthetic patient-care services, owning and operating 619 patient-care centers in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

• Linda Oaster has been named director of sales for the disease management and homecare markets of InforMedix Holdings (Rockville, Maryland). She previously was senior director of client management services at CorSolutions, a disease management company, for the past year and a half. InforMedix provides a device and software solution for enhancing medication compliance and safety monitoring of patients in clinical trials and disease management markets.