Donald Berwick will step into the lion’s den on Capitol Hill this week, when the new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid chief is slated to testify before a U.S. House panel on what impact last year’s landmark Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act will have on Medicare.
News Well
Search the FDA’s medical device database with FDAzilla on MassDevice
Quickly search the Food & Drug Administration’s medical device database on MassDevice, thanks to a new partnership with our friends at FDAZilla.
They’re developing an exciting new web-based business intelligence tool that quickly and easily mines the FDA’s labyrinth of data without having to navigate the watchdog agency’s often confusing and cavernous website. FDAzilla has millions of pages of FDA data (MAUDE, devices, drugs, 483s listing, FDA employees), all of which can be easily searched and sorted with just a few keystrokes.
FDA’s “Innovation Pathway” proposal débuts with military bionic arm project
The Food & Drug Administration, aiming to blaze trail on a so-called "Innovation Pathway" designed to speed innovative medical technology to market, tapped a military project to create a prosthetic arm controlled by a brain-implanted microchip as its first speedy review candidate.
GOP govs want control over state insurance exchanges
A group of Republican governors who are opposed to the healthcare reform law are asking Dept. of Health & Human Services chief Kathleen Sebelius to give them more control over the health insurance exchanges the law requires.
Twenty GOP governors, including prominent Obamacare opponent Mitch Daniels of Indiana, sent the letter yesterday asking for more say in how the exchanges are set up and run.
Sun exposure linked to lower multiple sclerosis risk
Highlights of the important and interesting in the world of healthcare.
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Sun exposure linked to lower multiple sclerosis risk. Sun lovers may (and people with higher vitamin D levels) may be less likely to develop MS, according to a study conducted at Australian National University that was published in the journal Neurology, reports Reuters. Those who’d like to experiment with the study’s findings are reminded to wear sunblock.
The MassDevice Weekly Checkup: February 8, 2010
Our Weekly Checkup takes the temperature of the medical device industry’s three largest U.S. clusters: Massachusetts, California and Minnesota.
The MassDevice Indices are weighted according to market capitalization, based on the number of shares outstanding for each company and each Friday’s closing share price.
The Massachusetts index for the week ended Feb. 4 closed at 6.08, down 1.5 percent compared with the prior week. Since Jan. 1, 2009, when we began tracking these companies, the index has risen 37.1 percent.
Clinical-decision support: The next “disruptive innovation” for healthcare?
By Keeley Wray
The term disruptive innovation – introduced by Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen in a 1995 article — has been used by technology-development stakeholders to describe radical innovations and their implications for market entry strategies. Christensen describes the term on his website:
“An innovation that is disruptive allows a whole new population of consumers access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill.”
LabCorp expands XDx blood diagnostics deal | Distribution roundup
Here’s a roundup of companies announcing new distribution deals.
SironRX reels in $500,000 investment from Cleveland Clinic, JumpStart
Cleveland Clinic and economic development group JumpStart Inc. invested $500,000 in SironRX Therapeutics, a newly created company developing a wound-healing therapy.
The investment will be part of a larger, $2.5 million fundraise for the company, CEO Rahul Aras said.
Neoprobe promoted to NYSE
Neoprobe Corp. (OTC:NEOP) shares are slated to begin trading on the NYSE Amex this week.
The stock exchange’s officials cleared company’s common stock to be listed on the market beginning Feb. 10, according to the company.
Neoprobe shares are currently traded on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB) system. The company began the application process last August.
BD hits 52-week high on strong Q1 results
Shares of Becton, Dickinson & Co. (NYSE:BDX) hit a one-year high on Wall Street today as the device and diagnostics firm beat analyst’s expectations for its first quarter and announced another merger.
The uptick came despite the fact that the Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based medical device and diagnostics giant said sales and earnings were off from the same period last year.