Ortho outlook: Device makers gain as Biomet reports 7% increase in U.S. sales

From Medical Design & Outsourcing

• Qosina buys Alpha Industries
  Qosina announced that it has acquired Alpha Industries (Clearwater, Fla.). The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Alpha Industries’ adds its plastic forceps, clamps and bowls as an extension to Qosina’s current OEM components offerings. “With this acquisition, Qosina continues to expand its product line, which reinforces its position as a global leader […]
• Avalign Technologies acquires Thortex and Millennium Surgical
  Avalign Technologies announced that is has acquired Thortex and Millennium Surgical. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Thortex provides precision manufacturing, porous coatings and metal injection solutions to the medical device market. It has porous coating solutions for titanium and cobalt-chrome orthopedic implants and manufacturing and engineering technologies for medical device OEMs. […]
• FDA unveils new policy for accepting medical device consensus standards
  By Stewart Eisenhart, Emergo Group US medical device regulators at the Food and Drug Administration have disclosed a new process for evaluating and accepting voluntary consensus standards. Get the full story here at the Emergo Group’s blog. The opinions expressed in this blog post are the author’s only and do not necessarily reflect those of […]
• Could this algorithm be better at diagnosing arrhythmia than cardiologists?
  A new algorithm that can go through hours of heart data to detect arrhythmia performs better than trained cardiologists, according to new research from Stanford University. The algorithm gathers data from wearable monitors to find life-threatening irregular heartbeats and allows for data to be sorted through in remote areas where there is a scarcity of […]
• How a single drop of blood can detect sepsis
  Sepsis can be identified by a single drop of blood, thanks to a lab-on-a-chip device from the University of Illinois. Researchers at the University of Illinois and the Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, Ill., recently completed a clinical study of the device that provides a fast, point-of-care measurement of the body’s immune system response without […]
• Wearable device gives real-time posture feedback to Parkinson’s patients
  University of Houston researchers have developed a smartphone-based biofeedback rehabilitation system – a wearable device designed to help people with Parkinson’s disease. The research team developed the Smarter Balance System (SBS) to help guide patients through balance exercises while using wearable technology. It is designed to help people regain stable balance and confidence in doing […]
• How the IDSA Patient Safety Task Force wants to tackle U.S. medical errors
  The IDSA Patient Safety Task Force has given itself a critical mission to solve the “medical error crisis” in the United States. The task force proposes to engage in strategic problem solving through creative system design, UX and the visual communication skills of industrial designers. Sean Hägen – who chairs the task force and IDSA’s Medical Special Interest […]
• Tegra Medical announces new general manager
  Tegra Medical announced that it has appointed John Rieth as general manager of its Franklin, Mass. location. Rieth will report to the president and CEO of Tegra, J. Mark King, and will be in charge of its local management team and plant operations. Rieth recently served as director of operations at Pharmasol Corporation, operations/engineering manager […]
• Building a strong FDA workforce to bring scientific advances to patients
  Dr. Scott Gottlieb The key to FDA’s public health mission, and its ability to bring innovative new therapies to patients, is the technical, scientific, and clinical expertise of its people. As the products that we’re asked to review become more complex and specialized, so do the technical demands on our workforce. Our staff must remain […]
• Could this temperature sensor reduce power consumption in medical devices?
  A new temperature sensor that runs at 113 pW could make wearables and even implantable medical devices less power dependent, according to research from the University of California at San Diego. The temperature sensor, developed by electrical engineers at UCSD, uses about 628 times lower power than state-of-the-art power sources and is 10 billion times […]
• How MRI can power mini-robots inside the body for targeted treatment
  Scientists at the University of Houston and Houston Methodist Hospital are harnessing the power of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to drive mini-robots through the body for targeted treatment. The researchers are developing control algorithms, imaging technology, ultrafast computational methods and human-machine immersion methods that could enable the steering of dozens or even thousands of tiny millimeter-sized […]