St. Jude Medical Showcases Innovative Technologies and Therapies at Society of Thoracic Surgeons Meeting.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Company Announces Exclusive Marketing Alliance with Raytel Cardiac Services for Mechanical Valve Patient Self-Testing Program

St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ) will showcase its broad range of mechanical and tissue heart valves, repair products, and other cardiac surgery offerings at the 41st annual Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) meeting, January 24-26, in Tampa, Florida.

The Company will also highlight its recently launched exclusive marketing alliance with Raytel Cardiac Services to promote Raytel's new INR@Home(SM) anticoagulation blood monitoring system, which could benefit millions of mechanical heart valve patients using the blood-thinning medication warfarin. St. Jude Medical is the world's leading mechanical heart valve company, and recently implanted its 1.5 millionth mechanical heart valve.

All mechanical heart valve patients must take blood-thinning medication to reduce the risk of thrombosis and, as a result, must regularly monitor their anticoagulation. Raytel's INR@Home system allows patients to self-test their anticoagulation levels at home rather than visiting a clinic or a laboratory.

Studies have demonstrated that patients who self-test on a regular schedule have fewer anticoagulation-related complications and stay within their therapeutic range more frequently than patients who do not self-test. Increased time in therapeutic range may lead to improved clinical outcomes.

"Patient self-testing should become the standard of care for mechanical heart valve patients," said Richard J. Shemin, M.D., Professor and Chairman, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Boston Medical Center. "Self-testing encourages patients to be more active participants in their anticoagulation management, while reducing complications such as hemorrhage and thromboembolism. The Raytel system provides reliable technology and enhanced ease of use, with excellent tracking and reporting - clearly solving many of the logistical problems that hampered previous self-testing efforts."

St. Jude Medical will also host a symposium at STS to celebrate its 1.5 millionth mechanical valve implant, a milestone that occurred in November 2004 in Iwate, Japan, with the SJM Regent(R) Valve. Building on the exceptional durability, reliability, and clinical performance of St. Jude Medical's "gold standard" mechanical valve, the SJM Regent(R) Valve provides unmatched hemodynamic performance.

Speakers at the January 24 symposium will include Heinrich Kortke, M.D., from Bad Oeynhausen, Germany, and Robert W. Emery, M.D., from St. Paul, Minnesota. Dr. Kortke will discuss findings from the ESCAT (Early self-controlled anticoagulation trial) study, a randomized and prospective study that examined the viability of patient self-testing immediately after mechanical heart valve replacement. Dr. Emery will discuss his 25-year experience with the St. Jude Medical(R) mechanical heart valve, which will be published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery in March 2005.

"The STS meeting offers an opportunity to gather feedback from our valued surgeon customers and highlight our newest, most advanced therapies and technologies," said George J. Fazio, President of St. Jude Medical's Cardiac Surgery Division. "We are committed to broadening our Cardiac Surgery portfolio through innovations in our heart valve and repair product lines, as well as developing additional tools to enhance surgeons' clinical practice and their patients' care."

St. Jude Medical, Inc. (www.sjm.com) is dedicated to the design, manufacture and distribution of innovative medical devices of the highest quality, offering physicians, patients and payers unmatched clinical performance and demonstrated economic value.

Raytel Cardiac Services (www.raytel.com) is a wholly owned subsidiary of SHL-Telemedicine Ltd. (www.SHL-Telemedicine.com), world leader in developing and marketing advanced telemedicine systems, and the provider of medical call center services. Raytel Cardiac Services is the leading provider of remote cardiac device monitoring and diagnostic testing in the United States, serving more than 200,000 patients and 15,000 physicians annually.