It was the summer of 1995. At the European Congress of Cardiology, Stan Rabinovich had arranged a meeting with Drs. Alain Cribier and Brice Letac from Rouen, France, to meet with Marv Woodall and me. At Johnson & Johnson Interventional Systems (JJIS), Marv, Stan, and I had pioneered the first coronary stents to prevent restenosis, and we were looking for the next big thing. Dr. Alain Cribier had been making early prototypes, drawings, and patent filings. He desperately wanted to develop a follow-on technology to balloon aortic valvuloplasty, which he had pioneered to a modest success, as it was limited by restenosis of the valve.