MassDevice staff's blog
Our friends over at MedGadget.com got an inside look at Philips Respironics' new plant in New Kensington, Pa.; a project to test RFID interaction with medical devices; getting a grip on glucose monitoring; and the RAY portable X-ray device.
An inside look at a Philips Respironics plant: Our friends over at MedGadget.com got an inside look at Philips Respironics' new plant in New Kensington, Pa. 
An Ohio cardiologist on why he and other physicians are the "log jam" between medical reports and electronic medical records.
A large part of the savings President Barack Obama aims to wring from the healthcare system are predicated on widespread adoption of electronic medical records.
In fact, the initiative is so important that the Obama administration set aside $20 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and appointed an EMR czar to push doctors' offices and hospitals to start using the systems.
But as an Ohio cardiologist and blogger, Dr. Westby Fisher, writes at MedCity.com, physicians themselves could prove to be the initiative's biggest hurdle.
Natick, Mass.-based devices giant completes trial of clean room bootie dispenser.
Here's one that must have escaped the earnings call transcript.
News reports out of Valencia, Calif., say Natick, Mass.-based Boston Scientific Corp. successfully completed a clean room trial of an automatic bootie dispenser.
An automatic bootie dispenser is really just a fun way to say a machine that easily puts sterile shoe covers onto your feet without your icky hands getting germs all over everything. But who wouldn't want to say automatic bootie dispenser as many times as possible?
Pharma giant Roche Diagnostics makes its first foray into wireless health; Sequoia Capital injects cash into arrhythmia monitoring company; Apple exec departs to focus on wireless medicine and mobile marketing startups.
Brian Dolan, mobihealthnews.com
Roche tests the wireless health waters: MYLEstone Health, developer of the Glucose Buddy iPhone app, is working with Roche Diagnostics’ Accu-Chek to add its educational program to the Glucose Buddy diabetes management app. Even though the addition of Accu-Chek’s educational program to the iPhone app is a far cry from meter integration, MYLEstone co-founder Matthew Tendler told mobihealthnews, it's a step in the right direction and will bring substantial value to iPhone users with diabetes. More
President Barack Obama labels charges that a government-run health plan would bankrupt private insurers "not logical," but signals flexibility on the final shape of his healthcare reform initiative.
President Barack Obama channeled Star Trek's Mr. Spock during a wide-ranging June 23 press conference, calling claims by private insurers that a government-run health plan would drive them out of business "not logical:"
"Why would [a government-run plan] drive private insurance out of business? If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care; if they tell us that they're offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can't run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That's not logical."
Roundup: More details on GE Healthcare's HIT investment, device makers gird for lowered healthcare spending, New England service providers expand and more.
More details on GE Healthcare's EHR adoption scheme
GE Healthcare could wind up spending more than the $100 million it said it would drop to get doctors to use its digital medical records software.
In an interview with GE Healthcare IT president Vishal Wanchoo, Health Business Blog reports that the company's planned $100 million loan program to accelerate adoption of its electronic health records products could actually exceed that number:
Coffee prices at the trade show scald attendees.
Christian Holland, MassDevice staff
We drink a lot of coffee at MassDevice, so we were steamed to learn the price of a medium cup of joe here at the BioMEDevice 2009 conference: $2.75.
That's a steep price to pay for Starbucks-branded java that tastes "burnt," Domenic Federici of Interplex Engineered Products tells us. But faced with a long hike through the 2.1 million-square-foot Convention & Exhibition Center here in Boston, it's certainly the fastest option.
"It pales against the cost of the booth and it beats the inconvenience of going elsewhere," as Federici says.
