Avinger (AVGR) Announces Tamara Elias MD to Board

Avinger, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGR), a commercial-stage medical device company marketing the first and only intravascular image-guided, catheter-based system for diagnosis and treatment of Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD), is pleased to announce that Tamara Elias, MD, has been appointed to the Company's Board of Directors, effective December 12, 2019. Dr. Elias has been actively involved with healthcare for more than 20 years in strategic consulting, private equity investing, corporate strategy, business development and product innovation.

Dr. Elias most recently served as Vice President of Clinical Product Development at Aetna, focused on optimizing and rationalizing the clinical product portfolio for all lines of business as well as aligning future product and service design with the Aetna digital roadmap and customer needs within each business segment. From 2015 to 2017, Dr. Elias was Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Development for the $8 billion medical segment at Becton Dickinson and was a member of the leadership team involved in the $24 billion acquisition of C.R. Bard.

From 2007-2015, Dr. Elias was a Partner with Essex Woodlands Healthcare Partners, a healthcare only growth equity firm founded in 1985 and currently with over $3 billion in funds raised to date. There she focused on medical device, healthcare services and healthcare IT investments and served on several boards, including Millennium Pharmacy Systems (sold to Pharmerica), BreatheAmerica, Influence Health (sold to Healthgrades) and ATS Medical (sold to Medtronic). Earlier in her career, Dr. Elias was a management consultant at McKinsey, advising pharmaceutical, diagnostic and device companies in R&D, product commercialization and M&A.

Dr. Elias holds degrees in Biology and Anthropology from Yale University, and an M.D. from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She trained as a general surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"We are thrilled to have Dr. Elias join our Board, bringing the benefit of her expertise as a clinician and surgeon as well as extensive work in corporate strategy and the medical technology marketplace," said Jeff Soinski, Avinger's President and CEO. "Her experience at world class organizations like McKinsey, Becton Dickinson, Essex Woodlands, and Aetna will provide valuable perspective as we continue to expand our clinical network, bring additional devices to market and drive operating efficiencies through the growth of our commercial business."

"I look forward to working with the team at Avinger to advance the company's mission of radically improving the way vascular disease is treated," said Dr. Elias. "With a highly differentiated technology platform, growing product portfolio and emphasis on market expansion, I believe the company can make important contributions to improving the standard of care for patients with PAD, while building a compelling business."

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