SAN FRANCISCO– Element Science, an innovative health technology company pioneering a digital wearable platform for high-risk cardiovascular patients transitioning from hospital to home, announced that Trish Howell has been appointed as the Company’s new Chief Operating Officer, effective October 17, 2022.
“Ms. Howell is a transformational leader who has excelled in her positions prior to joining Element Science. As an innovative and seasoned executive, she expands the capabilities of our leadership team at an inflection point of our growth. Her experience in building successful commercial operations at medical device companies gives her a critically valuable perspective that will be an indispensable asset as we look forward to commercializing our technology and expanding our pipeline of products,” said Uday N. Kumar, MD, Founder, President and CEO.
“After meeting the outstanding team at Element Science and learning of the recent life-saving events that occurred during the Company’s ongoing Jewel IDE study of its patch wearable cardioverter defibrillator, the commitment of the team and the game-changing impact the technology offers for both patients and physicians, it was immediately obvious that Element Science is an organization of whose journey I wanted to be a part,” said Ms. Howell.
Ms. Howell is a life sciences veteran with nearly 30 years of experience leading operations, including extensive experience building scalable commercial operations for start-up medical devices. Over the course of her career, she has been responsible for engineering, supply chain, production, logistics and distribution, as well as quality assurance and regulatory affairs activities. Prior to joining Element Science, she was Vice President of Operations at Avail Medsystems, a company pioneering technology in surgical telemedicine with the goal of more connected healthcare. Previously, Ms. Howell was VP of Operations at Stryker via the acquisition of ZipLine Medical, where she focused on commercializing non-invasive wound closure solutions. Before this, Ms. Howell was VP of Operations at Pulmonx Corporation where she led global activities in support of international sales, clinical trials, and FDA pre-market approval (PMA) module development for the company’s diagnostic and therapeutic products for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Earlier, she served as VP of Materials Management at ArthroCare, scaling the logistics infrastructure worldwide and helping to launch a greenfield factory in Costa Rica. She also currently serves as a Director of Knightscope, Inc. and CVR Medical Corporation.
As Element Science’s Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Howell is leading business operations, including engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and quality and reporting directly to Dr. Kumar as part of the executive leadership team.
“I am excited to join the Element Science team as COO and look forward to leveraging my experience to help lead the Company’s transformation from a clinical-stage health technology start-up to a scalable, commercial entity. My goal is to drive growth through operational excellence across the organization while also efficiently integrating the continued innovation that will be spinning out from our pipeline,” said Ms. Howell.
“Ms. Howell has demonstrated her ability to grow and manage a medical technology company, develop talented leaders, and consistently deliver strong financial results. Our entire Board is looking forward to working with her and the other leaders at Element Science to accelerate the execution of our growth,” said Element Science Board Member Hank Kucheman, former CEO of Boston Scientific Corporation.
