CardioNet hires financial advisor, mulls sale CardioNet hired Lazard Freres & Co. of New York to evaluate its options, CEO Randy Thurman told investors on a conference call. Analysts believe the move means CardioNet may seriously consider a sale. CardioNet previously hinted it would consider a sale, according to the Wall Street Journal; Jefferies & Co. analyst Joshua Jennings told the newspaper that CardioNet’s move to hire Lazard shows that the previous talk wasn’t just hype. 
Digital Health
MassDevice Q&A: GE Healthcare’s David Freeman
It’s no secret that wireless technology is in a growth spurt. From WiFi cars on commuter trains to the omnipresent Bluetooth and iPhone devices, as the saying goes, “There’s an app for that.”
The medical industry is no exception. Wireless medical devices are becoming more and more common, with innovations like pacemakers that can send data directly to physicians. GE Healthcare is looking to push the envelope even further, with a vision for wireless medical monitoring systems that would eliminate the rat’s nest of cables that spring up around hospital patients.
Weekly Wireless Roundup: Wireless health killed the stethoscope
Wireless health killed the stethoscope “Medicine is going to be vastly different,” West Wireless Health Institute CMO Eric Topol told attendees at the TEDMED event in San Diego this week. “As a cardiologist for the past 25 years, I can tell you that the stethoscope is dead.” The stethoscope, which was created in 1816, won’t be used by doctors in 2016, Topol said.
Weekly Wireless Roundup: Boston Scientific’s Latitude goes mobile
Boston Scientific’s Latitude goes mobile Boston Scientific’s concept iPhone app, Latitude Connected, aims to take its Latitude patient monitoring portal mobile.
Cambridge Consultants launches connected health device and portal
Cambridge Consultants wants to make sure your glucose monitor and pulse oximeter are on speaking terms.
The Boston-based design and engineering shop introduced its VenaHub device portal, a small, Bluetooth-enabled device that resembles a USB thumb drive, designed to capture data from wireless medical devices and integrate it into a customizable, online portal that can run on almost any computer.
Weekly Wireless Roundup: Medtronic seeks wireless health partners
Medtronic seeks wireless health partners Medtronic group president for diabetes and other device franchises Christopher O’Connell sees “potential” in partnering with other companies for wireless health and is already in discussions with a number of undisclosed firms.
Closing the loop on connectivity standards
In my last post, I reported on the recent inaugural Medical Device Connectivity Conference and Exhibition. While I mentioned the IEC and ISO efforts at creating connectivity standards, it seems that I left out another group that is working on this as well: ASTM.
Shareholders slap CardioNet with lawsuits
Shareholders of CardioNet Inc. are suing the mobile cardiac monitoring firm and two of its senior managers, alleging that they falsely inflated the company’s prospects ahead of a damaging reimbursement rate cut.
The lawsuits, filed in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania, accuse CardioNet, chairman, president and CEO Randy Thurman and CFO Martin Galvan of issuing too-aggressive earnings forecasts that sent the company’s stock soaring to artificially high levels.
Wireless connectivity and medical devices
Boston recently played host to the first-ever conference dedicated to the integration of medical devices and information systems, the Inaugural Medical Device Connectivity Conference and Exhibition.
The conference, which attracted more than 200 attendees and dealt with the technical and clinical issues associated with acquiring, pooling, and interpreting data from various medical devices, was especially timely considering a key aspect of the latest Obama gold rush (AKA the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (PDF)).
Weekly Wireless Roundup: Qualcomm CEO confirms LifeComm shutdown
Qualcomm CEO confirms LifeComm shutdown: At the recent Qualcomm Smart Services Leadership Summit, CEO Paul Jacobs confirmed Mobihealthnews‘ recent scoop that the company’s healthcare focused MVNO LifeComm had become irrelevant. The website broke the news that LifeComm was shutting down two weeks ago. “After working for a few years to get the venture capital lined up, we were hit with the economic downturn. In the meantime, operators have done these open initiatives,” Jacobs said. “Lifecomm as an MVNO became irrelevant. Events overtook it.
Weekly Wireless Roundup: Physicians Interactive acquires Skyscape
Physicians Interactive buys classic mobile medical publisher Skyscape: Digital sales and health marketing company Physicians Interactive acquired mobile medical content publisher Skyscape late last week for an undisclosed sum. According to a PI press release, the deal gives its partners access to Skyscape’s more than 1 million users. Skyscape’s mobile apps and PDA programs for health practitioners compete with similar offerings from Epocrates, Thomson Reuters and many more.
