Please join us as we highlight some of our leaders, learn about their experiences, and hear how they are talking about the positive changes we’re making to meet our vision of the future at Cook. Follow along for the full Meet Our Leaders series.
Meet DJ Sirota, Senior Vice President, MedSurg Division
Bloomington, Ind. — Cook Medical’s Zilver Vena® Venous Self-Expanding Stent has shown high rates of patency sustained for three years, according to recently published data in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (JVIR).1 The patency results extended across all patient subgroups, and patients experienced improvements in clinical scoring as compared to baseline.
“We strive for predictable results and are committed to long-term clinical evidence,” said Alec Cerchiari, a director of product management for Cook Medical’s Vascular division. “We also gather insights on how to make our products better and create new medical devices for the future. The results we got from the VIVO study confirmed the safety and effectiveness of our stent in a wide variety of patient types that hadn’t been studied in detail like this before.”
Key three-year study outcomes include:
About the VIVO clinical trial
The VIVO clinical study is a prospective, multicenter, nonrandomized, single-arm study designed to assess the safety and effectiveness of the Zilver Vena Venous Stent for the treatment of symptomatic iliofemoral venous outflow obstruction. The study included represented a real-world population, including a total of 243 patients with obstruction originating from obstructive lesions after removal of acute DVT (aDVT; n=58), post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS; n=105), and non-thrombotic iliac vein obstruction (NIVL; n=79).
You can read details about the VIVO data in this JVIR publication. For more resources about Zilver Vena, including a product animation and a reimbursement analysis, visit the product page on our website.
About Cook Medical
Since 1963, Cook Medical has worked closely with physicians to develop technologies that eliminate the need for open surgery. Today we invent, manufacture and deliver a unique portfolio of medical devices to the healthcare systems of the world. Serving patients is a privilege, and we demand the highest standards of quality, ethics and service. We have remained family owned so that we have the freedom to focus on what we care about: patients, our employees and our communities.
Find out more at CookMedical.com and for the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
[1] Comerota, A. J., Gagne, P., Brown, J. A., Segbefia, E., Hofmann, L. V., & VIVO Clinical Study Investigators. (2024). Final 3-Year Study Outcomes from the Evaluation of the Zilver Vena Venous Stent for the Treatment of Symptomatic Iliofemoral Venous Outflow Obstruction (The VIVO Clinical Study). Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, 35(6), 834-845.
Bloomington, Ind. — Cook Medical is now offering the NestVT Vitrification Device in the United States. This device is a secure solution for embryos and oocytes during vitrification, cryo-storage and relocation. Along with the launch of this innovative product, Cook is changing to become a trusted in-vitro fertilization (IVF) partner by offering simulation training and education courses to support the entire IVF process. 
“We designed the NestVT device with helpful features to make the process of oocyte and embryo freezing and storing easier,” said Jeff Lasher, manager of product management for Cook’s IVF and reproductive health specialty. “The NestVT device complements Cook’s other reproductive health products to offer fertility specialists a complete portfolio to support their patients from egg retrieval to implantation. This entire portfolio of products empowers fertility clinicians to do their best work and provide patients with the best service possible.”
The NestVT Vitrification Device includes several unique features that make capping and other processes simple, including:
To support clinicians who use NestVT, Cook offers educational partnerships with leading IVF clinics as well as simulation training on OPU and embryo transfer to advance the standard of care. Since 2020, Cook has hosted more than 35 embryo transfer simulation workshops for more than 280 healthcare professionals. Our global clinical teams are available to support the unique needs of each IVF clinic.
To see how NestVT and Cook’s other supporting services can elevate your clinic’s IVF services, learn more from this product brochure and this procedural guide.
About Cook Medical
Since 1963, Cook Medical has worked closely with physicians to develop technologies that eliminate the need for open surgery. Today we invent, manufacture and deliver a unique portfolio of medical devices to the healthcare systems of the world. Serving patients is a privilege, and we demand the highest standards of quality, ethics and service. We have remained family owned so that we have the freedom to focus on what we care about: patients, our employees and our communities.
Find out more at CookMedical.com and for the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Bloomington, Ind. — Ross Whittaker, a manager of manufacturing engineering at Cook, was named a member of the Conexus Rising 30 Class of 2024 for his exceptional work in advanced manufacturing and logistics (AML) and the changes he and his team have made to help Cook be a more efficient medical device manufacturer.
Ross Whittaker, manager of manufacturing engineering at Cook Medical
By the time Ross graduated from the University of Louisville in 2018, he had already done three co-op terms with Cook. He then joined Cook full-time and has since shown solid work ethic and fast problem-solving skills. This helped him move up to a team lead and subsequently a manager position.
Ross has been relentlessly inventive while leading advanced manufacturing projects. In 2023, he and his team led eight supplier change programs that drove considerable improvements and material cost savings. These innovative improvement efforts are estimated to save the company over $3 million. Most recently, Ross was asked to build and lead a supplier engineering team that evaluates and drives projects to result in better raw material quality, delivery and cost. Because of his work, his leadership enthusiastically nominated Ross for the Conexus Rising 30 Class of 2024.
Conexus is a nonprofit organization that develops Indiana’s advanced manufacturing and logistics industries. Each year, Conexus hosts the Indiana Rising 30 awards. These exclusive awards are given to a group of young professionals who are recognized for their early-in-career accomplishments in Indiana’s largest industry sector. Rising 30 honorees exemplify leadership and innovation in AML and are poised to become Indiana’s future industry leaders.
“Ross is certainly a rising star here at Cook, and we’re excited the Conexus team recognized what we already knew,” said John Enneking, vice president of global manufacturing at Cook Medical. “In his relatively short career here, he’s made a substantial impact on how the organization operates. Ultimately, he’s supporting Cook’s long-term goal of being a reliable supplier for healthcare systems around the world.”
“The dynamic professionals named to this year’s Rising 30 cohort are defining what it means to be a young leader in Indiana’s AML sector,” said Fred Cartwright, president and CEO of Conexus Indiana. “I’m more optimistic than ever about the future of industry in Indiana after meeting this year’s honorees and learning about their accomplishments and plans for the future.”
About Cook Medical
Since 1963, Cook Medical has worked closely with physicians to develop technologies that eliminate the need for open surgery. Today we invent, manufacture and deliver a unique portfolio of medical devices to the healthcare systems of the world. Serving patients is a privilege, and we demand the highest standards of quality, ethics and service. We have remained family owned so that we have the freedom to focus on what we care about: patients, our employees and our communities.
Find out more at CookMedical.com and for the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
At Cook, our goal has always been to provide devices and services to support minimally invasive procedures for patients. That hasn’t changed. However, what has changed is the way we work toward that goal.
In November 2023, we announced an updated vision for the company. As we focus on the future, we’ve been adapting to industry changes, incorporating feedback from physicians, and finding ways to reliably deliver new products and services to customers. Here are three of the ways Cook is changing to treat more patients.
Distribution agreements are a keyway Cook is evolving to accelerate our product pipeline and deliver a continuous stream of innovative products to treat more patients. As Cook continues to change in line with our vision, an integral part of the plan is fostering partnerships to diversify product offerings. So far in 2024, Cook has entered into three major distributed-by agreements.
We also entered into an agreement with Getinge, a company based in Sweden, to distribute their iCast® covered stent system, which recently received premarket approval for treatment of symptomatic iliac arterial occlusive disease. This product fills the need of a covered stent in Cook’s Vascular portfolio. As Cook distributes iCast, Cook and Getinge continue to collaborate on the PRESERVE-Zenith® Branch Endovascular Graft-Iliac Bifurcation IDE study, which is studying the safety and effectiveness of Cook’s Zenith Branch Endovascular Graft-Iliac Bifurcation in combination with the iCast covered stent.
No need to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes an existing product can be used in a new way, opening up more possibilities without starting from scratch. In fact, this is how minimally invasive medicine usually starts and how the Cook catalog of products originally grew: with products being used in different ways or in different specialties. 
Cook’s Liver Access and Biopsy Set (LABS) product has been available for years,—but it was only intended for use in adults. However, in an ongoing commitment to helping underserved patient populations, Cook Medical obtained FDA approval for a new pediatric indication for the shorter LABS.
“Our pediatric LABS has shorter versions of the original medical devices to more appropriately fit pediatric patients’ smaller bodies,” explained Remco van der Meel, director of product management for Cook’s Interventional specialty. “Now, LABS will help physicians diagnose an array of conditions in a wider variety of patients. It’s an extremely versatile set of products that can now treat even the smallest patients.”
We launched the first-ever Supply Chain Fellowship program in 2023. This fellowship was a collaborative effort to enhance the transparency and efficiency of healthcare supply chains, and it also helped to funnel in new supply chain talent.
Cook determined that BJC Healthcare was an ideal partner for the first Supply Chain Fellowship. BJC Healthcare is a provider network with 14 hospitals and numerous clinics in the St. Louis area. Like Cook, BJC focuses on innovation and collaboration. Together, Cook and BJC Healthcare created the ideal project for the inaugural Supply Chain Fellow: a comprehensive supplier-provider supply chain study. As a result, the study identified seven ways other healthcare companies’ supply chains can benefit from what Cook learned. The results of the supply chain study were published in Healthcare Purchasing News.
One of Cook’s values is Continuous Improvement. We’re proud to share these concrete ways we’re changing so we can better meet the needs of our customers. We’re connecting with physicians to understand what matters most to them and how we can rise to industry demands. To watch how we keep delivering on our promises and changing to become a trusted supplier, check our newsroom or follow us on social media on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Bloomington, Ind. — In her more than 15 years of experience at Cook Medical, Amy Tyrrell has always prioritized relationships—both inside and outside the company. Her hard work over the years was recognized when she earned the Captis Medical Device Supplier Representative of the Year award at this year’s annual Captis meeting.
Amy Tyrrell, a strategic account executive at Cook, won the Captis Medical Device Supplier Representative of the Year Award
As part of her role as a strategic account executive with Cook’s BusinessCare Integration (BCI) team, Amy develops strong relationships with customers at every level. Throughout her 15-year career at Cook Medical, she has worked with hundreds of physicians, residents, nurses, surgical technicians, purchasing managers, materials management specialists and supply chain managers at dozens of facilities in the greater Chicago area. Additionally, because she has worked across several areas of the business, she has been a relationship-building communicator within Cook, working across both the company’s Vascular and MedSurg divisions and covering all specialties.
Her years of hard work and genuine care for the people she worked with did not go unnoticed. Recently, medical device companies across the United States attended the annual meeting for Captis, a member-owned collaborative healthcare organization supported by Vizient and Mayo Clinic. Their members are hospitals and hospital systems across the United States, and they work together to create supply chain efficiencies and reduce expenses. At the Captis annual meeting, Amy earned the Captis Medical Device Supplier Representative of the Year award.
This prestigious award often reflects the development of a highly functional professional relationship. The award recognizes the countless hours that the rep invested to build trust, rapport and mutual understanding between many different people and organizations. That description fits Amy perfectly.
The award was given by Nathan Mueller, principal category manager on the medical device team at Captis. As he announced the winner, he said, “In addition to our previous interventional urology contract, this person has delivered mutual value in the categories of endovascular AAA, thoracic GI lab and biliary, peripheral vascular diagnostics, coils, drug-eluting stents and IVC filters–all areas that I personally had the opportunity and joy to work with this person on. This person, with their incredible collaboration, has grown on-contract spend with Captis from less than $10 million to well over $55 million annually. So with that, it gives me great pleasure to present the 2024 Medical Device Supplier Representative of the Year Award to Amy Tyrell of Cook Medical.”
Amy is the embodiment of many of the modernizations Cook is making. She has been at the forefront of the changes our company is making to be deeply connected with customers, enable teams to work more closely together and improve patient care. Thank you for all your hard work, Amy, and congratulations on the well-deserved award!
About Cook Medical
Since 1963, Cook Medical has worked closely with physicians to develop technologies that eliminate the need for open surgery. Today we invent, manufacture and deliver a unique portfolio of medical devices to the healthcare systems of the world. Serving patients is a privilege, and we demand the highest standards of quality, ethics and service. We have remained family owned so that we have the freedom to focus on what we care about: patients, our employees and our communities.
Find out more at CookMedical.com and for the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Cook Medical has released its Social Impact & Sustainability Report for 2023,
highlighting the company’s commitment to working sustainably and responsibly across all of its businesses while fulfilling its purpose to improve the lives of everyone it serves.
The report covers activities accomplished by Cook’s teams around the world to positively impact the communities where they live and work, promote social justice, protect and enhance local environments, and reduce the company’s carbon footprint.
The activities may vary by location, but together they enhance the health and quality of life for the people they work with and serve, protect the environment, and enable social development.
Cook’s social impact and sustainability efforts will continue to go beyond philanthropy, volunteerism, and measuring environmental performance. It will use its core skills and resources as a way of doing good business and making a positive impact in the world.
Previous reports from Cook Medical in this space were titled Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports.
2023 Social Impact & Sustainability highlights:
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Cook Medical’s Beacon® Tip Sizing Catheters are now available in the US and Canada. The Beacon Tip Sizing Catheter is available in a variety of lengths and tip configurations, empowering physicians to treat patients with the best fitting devices for their unique anatomy and condition.
Cook Medical’s Beacon Tip Sizing Catheter
The Beacon Tip Sizing Catheter is used in angiographic procedures, diagnostic procedures and vascular interventions to make sure medical devices are sized correctly. These catheters are uniquely designed to help physicians correctly size devices, such as grafts, stents and balloons, to identify the best size of product to use for an individual patient’s situation. Sizing Catheters also help measure lesions accurately under fluoroscopy. With Sizing Catheter, as with all products, Cook collaborated with physicians to understand their needs. An accurate sizing tool is instrumental in aortic and other interventional procedures. With the re-introduction of Beacon Tip Sizing Catheters, this need is now fulfilled again.
Cook is offering the Beacon Tip Sizing Catheter in 14 RPNs so physicians have sizing catheters for a wide variety of procedures. The Beacon Tip Sizing Catheter is available in centimeter, Cava and White Sizing configurations, as well as in Pigtail, VCF and straight tip shapes. All tip configurations are radiopaque for high visibility under fluoroscopy.
“This catheter complements and enhances our portfolio of vessel sizing products. Cook’s portfolio is uniquely positioned to support interventional procedures from initial access throughout the intervention,” said Remco Van der Meel, director of product management for Cook’s Interventional specialty. “This sizing tool is an instrumental device during aortic interventions, a space where Cook is dedicated to. By offering our premium, accurate, gold-banded Sizing Catheters again, we are continuing to expand our ‘Access and Target’ portfolio to support complex interventions.”
Each Beacon Tip Sizing Catheter is packaged in a foil sachet. This durable packaging is designed to protect the catheter and help the device withstand environmental factors, such as mechanical damage and aerosolized chemicals in operating rooms.
To see how Cook’s versatile Beacon Tip Sizing Catheter can help you treat patients with correctly sized devices, visit the product page here.
About Cook Medical
Since 1963, Cook Medical has worked closely with physicians to develop technologies that eliminate the need for open surgery. Today we invent, manufacture and deliver a unique portfolio of medical devices to the healthcare systems of the world. Serving patients is a privilege, and we demand the highest standards of quality, ethics and service. We have remained family owned so that we have the freedom to focus on what we care about: patients, our employees and our communities.
Find out more at CookMedical.com and for the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Endovascular Today—Cook’s Beacon Tip Sizing Catheter Available in United States and Canada
Vascular News—Cook Medical announces Beacon sizing tip catheter availability in USA and Canada
Interventional News—Cook Medical announces Beacon sizing tip catheter availability in USA and Canada
Cath Lab Digest—Beacon Tip Sizing Catheter Available in U.S. and Canada