August 1, 2008 – The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) yesterday issued a final ruling for three new hospital errors or conditions it will no longer pay for, including: surgical site infections following certain elective procedures, including certain orthopedic surgeries, and bariatric surgery for obesity; certain manifestations of poor control of blood sugar levels; and deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism following total knee replacement and hip replacement procedures.

August 1, 2008 - Osmetech said this week at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) 2008 Conference and Exhibition in Washington, D.C., that following receipt of its 510(k) clearance last week from the FDA the company has commenced shipments of its second generation eSensor XT-8 molecular diagnostics platform and Warfarin Sensitivity Test.

August 1, 2008 - Healthcare professionals need an authoritative resource on the Internet designed to quickly provide answers to urgent treatment questions, so Epocrates partnered with BMJ Group, publisher of the British Medical Journal, to create a new online product that delivers practical and up-to-date disease diagnosis and treatment guidelines.

The RADPAD #2214-06 Femoral-Entry Angiography Shield for coronary, RADPAD #2215-04A Peripheral Drape for peripheral procedures and the RADPAD #2217-01A EP Left Subclavian Shield for device implantation procedures are designed to reduce the radiation exposure of interventional cardiologists and electrophysiologists, reducing exposure by up to 95 percent, according to Worldwide Innovations & Technologies.

July 31, 2008 — eHealth Global Technologies released its eHealthConnect online request service designed to streamline the process required for institutions to retrieve outside patient medical records for referred-in patients.

The online request service provides customized forms for each healthcare institution customer of eHealth Global, and automatically generates the appropriate HIPAA release of information forms to allow access to these records under HIPAA guidelines.

July 31, 2008 – No major difference was found in long-term safety or efficacy between sirolimus-eluting stents (SES) and paclitaxel-eluting stents (PES), according to a recent study that found both stent types were efficacious in reducing revascularization, but were limited by a small continual increase in late stent thrombosis.

The study appears in the Aug. 1 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

July 31, 2008 – A survey of cardiovascular catheterization laboratories in the U.S. found obese patients who weigh more than the cath lab’s equipment limits are referred to other facilities at 22 percent of those surveyed, but 70 percent could not answer the question.

The telephone survey results were published this week in the Aug. 1 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

July 31, 2008 - Abiomed Inc. said it recently signed a long-term lease for a manufacturing facility in Athlone, Ireland to produce the Impella 2.5 Cardiac Assist Device, which should be in operational in about 18 months.

Abiomed’s Impella 2.5 capacity expansion is intended to meet anticipated long-term demand for the device and augment capacity from the company’s Aachen, Germany facility. In June 2008, Abiomed said it received FDA 510(k) clearance for the Impella 2.5.

July 31, 2008 - Medtronic Inc. said today it initiated the first investigational sites in the U.S. to participate in PROTECT, the company’s global study comparing the Endeavor and Cypher drug-eluting stents on key safety metrics, including stent thrombosis.

Dr. Carlos Mego and his patient care team at Doctors Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg, TX, enrolled the first U.S. patient in PROTECT last week.

July 30, 2008 - The American Venous Forum’s National Venous Screening Program (NVSP), having finished its second year (November 2006 to the beginning of 2007), reported an increase in participation from 17 to 83 medical centers and 476 to 2,234 individuals screened for blood clots in 40 states.

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