The same surgeon-turned-entrepreneur team that built and ultimately sold Vortex Medical (Norwell, Massachusetts) and its AngioVac drainage system are wearing their entrepreneur caps again, this time with a brand new company called Kaleidoscope Medical (Paradise Valley, Arizona). Kaleidoscope plans to develop new solutions for treating venous thromboembolic disease (VTE), including an inferior vena caval (IVC) filter expected to overcome the shortcomings of the IVC filters currently on the market.

Back in January a columnist for The Virginian-Pilot wrote an incredibly insensitive, misinformed, and elitist piece that had my friends with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) losing their poop. Pun intended. The column was written in reaction to a defeated bill that would have required businesses in Virginia to allow patients with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis (collectively...