July 2, 2008 - The European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM) has today unveiled its comprehensive research report, “The Counterfeiting Superhighway,” which reveals that a frightening 62 percent of medicines purchased online are fake or substandard.

July 1, 2008 - The FDA is asking healthcare professionals and facilities check all drug and device storage areas, including emergency kits, crash carts and automated drug storage cabinets to make sure all recalled heparin products have been removed and are no longer available for use.

"The investigation of contaminated heparin is still underway. Over the past several months, FDA has been alerting healthcare professionals and the public about medical products that may contain contaminated heparin, which has been associated with a number of serious adverse events.

July 1, 2008 - CryoCath Technologies introduced the Arctic Front in Italy, Belgium and Spain, aiming to provide better treatment of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) with its cryoablation balloon catheter that allows physicians to isolate all four pulmonary veins.

July 1, 2008 - Toshiba Medical Systems Corp. (TMSC), the parent company of Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc., appointed Kenichi Komatsu, M.D., president and CEO.

He will replace Masamichi Katsurada, who will now serve as an adviser to the board of TMSC and the Toshiba Corp.

A graduate of Hokkaido University in Japan, Dr. Komatsu joined the Toshiba in 1978 and most recently served as executive vice president, Toshiba Medical Systems Corp.

For more information: www.medical.toshiba.com

June 30, 2008 - OBS Medical's predictive patient safety technology, Visensia, was the focus of a large study and peer-reviewed paper that was published in the June 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, published by the American Medical Association.