Boston Scientific launches nerve stimulation trial | MassDevice.com On Call

MASSDEVICE ON CALL —Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) enrolled the first patients into the NECTAR-HF clinical study testing chronic vagal nerve stimulation as a therapy for heart failure patients.

“Stimulating the vagus nerve in the cervical region is commonly used to treat epilepsy and depression," principal investigator Dr. Faiez Zannad said in prepared remarks. "[H]owever, promising pre-clinical data show that this therapy may also help a large population of heart failure patients who are currently not candidates for heart failure device therapy."

The first implants in the 96-patient trial were received by patients at Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, Spain, according to the press release.

Supreme Court to consider health care reform challenges

The individual insurance mandate in president Barack Obama’s health care reform law, which has been the subject of legal volleying since it passed, is on its way to the Supreme Court with a petition by 26 state attorneys who want to see the decision made by the nations’ highest court, Healthwatch reported..

Stanford Hospital may pay $20 million for privacy breach

Stanford University Hospital faces a $20 million class action lawsuit over a data breach that revealed private information for 20,000 emergency room patients online for almost a year, Law360.com reported (paid).

Meanwhile, nearly 5 million patient records were exposed by a data breach at Tricare, a health care program for retired military members.

Earliest stages of tumor development revealed

Scientists gained new insight into the earliest stages of tumor development and are looking for ways to stop them from happening, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Double balloon enteroscopy proves safe and effective

A large-scale Chinese study of double balloon enteroscopy spanning the last decade showed the procedure to be safe and effective for detecting diseases in the small intestine, according to an American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy press release.