Say hello to MassDevice +5, a bite-sized view of the top five medtech stories of the day. This feature of MassDevice.com’s coverage highlights our 5 biggest and most influential stories from the day’s news to make sure you’re up to date on the headlines that continue to shape the medical device industry.
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5. What it’s like to be a woman in the corner office: A DeviceTalks podcast
There’s an old saying that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except she did it backwards and in high heels.
For Nancy Briefs, Deborah DiSanzo and Martha Shadan, that’s a reality they know all too well, having each made the journey from the entry-level ranks of the medtech industry to the corner office of some of the most recognizable names in medicine. Read more
4. Slippery coating aims to stop biofilm infection on implants
Researchers from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University created a slippery surface coating that can prevent bacterial infection from developing on medical implants, according to a study published in Biomaterials.
Implants can act as scaffolding for bacterial infections to form, developing biofilms that sometimes require surgery. Following implantation, patients are traditionally required to stay on antibiotics to stave off infection. Read more
3. Report: St. Jude sold off older CRM devices after learning of battery issue
St. Jude Medical continued to distribute outdated pacemaker devices that were indicated in a recall due to battery faults, even after correcting the flaw and producing new units, according to a StarTribune report.
The devices were recalled in 2015 over issues with batteries failing with little to no warning, an issue which resulted in 2 deaths, according to the report. Despite fixing the problem and producing new, updated units, St. Jude continued to distribute the older devices indicated in the recall for 17 months. Read more
2. TCT 2016: Structural heart, drug-coated balloons take their turn on Day 3
After stents took center stage Day 1, with a raft of studies covering the latest on the bioresorbable front, transcatheter valve replacements were the focus on Day 2. Day 3 saw a wider variety of topics, featuring big-name devices for structural heart repair and peripheral artery disease at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapies conference. Read more
1. More deaths tied to Medtronic’s SynchroMed II drug pump
The SynchroMed II implantable drug pump was linked to more than 100 adverse events including 2 previously unreported deaths, Medtronic said last month.
In a letter to doctors published yesterday by the U.K.’s Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, Fridley, Minn.-based Medtronic said the SynchroMed II pump can delivery too much medicine but that the exact case of the overinfusion isn’t clear. Read more
