John R. Laird, Jr. is chief medical officer for peripheral vascular health at Medtronic, where he leads medical strategy for therapies addressing peripheral and carotid artery disease, venous disease, dialysis access, and embolization. An interventional cardiologist, Dr. Laird is board-certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, and interventional cardiology, and is affiliated with the Adventist Heart and Vascular Institute at Adventist Health St. Helena.
His clinical and research expertise spans coronary, carotid, aortic, renal, venous, dialysis access, and peripheral arterial interventions. He has led investigations of innovative vascular therapies, including drug-coated balloons, covered stents, chronic total occlusion devices, and drug-eluting stents. Dr. Laird has served as national principal investigator for fourteen multicenter device trials and has authored hundreds of peer-reviewed publications, abstracts, and book chapters.
He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, American College of Cardiology, and Society for Cardiac Angiography and Intervention, and a founding board member of VIVA Physicians. He earned degrees from West Point and Albany Medical College and completed military medical training at Madigan and Walter Reed. He shares updates on LinkedIn.
Carotid artery disease remains a major contributor to ischemic stroke, one of the leading causes of death and long-term disability in the United States. While symptomatic carotid stenosis has well-established treatment pathways, the management of asymptomatic carotid artery disease remains an area of ongoing debate. Traditional treatment methods such as intensive medical management have largely functioned as the standard of care for asymptomatic carotid artery disease, with revascularization (carotid endarterectomy …
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