His practice has focused on interventions for coronary artery disease, carotid artery disease, abdominal and thoracic aortic aneurysmal disease, renal artery disease, superficial and deep venous disease, dialysis AV access and peripheral artery disease. Among his areas of leadership and innovation is the investigation of new therapies for carotid and peripheral vascular applications, including drug coated balloons, covered stents, CTO devices and drug eluting stents.
A graduate of the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, Dr. Laird earned his medical degree at Albany Medical College of Union University, Albany, NY. He completed an internal medicine residency at Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, WA, and then completed fellowships in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC. After serving 12 years in the United States Army, he transitioned to civilian practice in 1996 and became Director of Peripheral Vascular Interventions and Co-Director of the Center for Vascular Care at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC. He subsequently moved to California in 2006 and joined the staff of the University of California, Davis Medical Center where he served as Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of the Vascular Center from 2006 to 2017. In 2017 he joined Adventist Health St. Helena, in St. Helena, CA where he served as the Medical Director of the Adventist Heart and Vascular Institute. More recently, Dr. Laird joined Medtronic as the Chief Medical Officer for Peripheral Vascular Health in July 2021.
Dr. Laird has been actively involved in organizing and conducting clinical trials of new therapies for vascular disease. He has served as the National Principal Investigator for 14 multicenter trials of new device therapies. He has published more than 200 articles and abstracts in peer-reviewed medical journals, as well as more than 15 book chapters. He has presented his work at more than 50 regional, national, and international conferences and symposia and has performed live demonstration cases in 14 countries around the world.
A fellow of the American College of Physicians, American College of Cardiology, and Society for Cardiac Angiography and Intervention, Dr. Laird is one of the founding board members of Vascular Interventional Advances (VIVA) Physicians. He also serves as a reviewer for many medical journals. He is a Registered Physician in Vascular Interpretation (RPVI).