Stent sellers were allowed inside lab despite hospital ban

Salespeople for stent maker Abbott Laboratories were often allowed inside a cardiac treatment room at St. Joseph Medical Center while patient procedures were being performed, despite hospital rules against it, according to sworn testimony from Dr. Mark G. Midei taken as part of a lawsuit accusing him of implanting stents unnecessarily.

Midei also denied receiving cash compensation and benefits from the Illinois device maker, whose payments for consulting work and dinners at the physician's Monkton home were detailed in a U.S. Senate Finance Committee report released last week. And he claimed to have coached the Abbott sales team on how to pitch their stents to hospital administrators.