Technology titan Philips Healthcare (NYSE:PHG) launched a new telemedicine initiative through a partnership with Vidyo, a New Jersey-based videoconferencing technology provider with a foot in the door at hospitals around the world.
Remote Patient Monitoring
Medtronic enrolls 1st patient in epileptic brain-stim registry | MassDevice.com On Call
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — As neuromodulation therapy celebrates its 25th year, Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) enrolled the 1st patient into its Medtronic Registry for Epilepsy, a database tracking the safety, efficacy and quality of life of patients receiving deep-brain stimulation for treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy.
iRobot invests $6M into telemedicine company | Funding Roundup
iRobot Corp. (NSDQ: IRBT), famous for their Roomba automated cleaning robots, invested $6 million and launched an extended partnership with InTouch Health, which develops telemedicine systems for providing remote health care.
The venture builds on an existing relationship that the companies announced last summer, under which the companies engaged in a development and licensing agreement.
Top 10 science and clinical innovation trends: Looking forward to 2012
Here once again is Vector’s take on some exciting trends we’ve been watching in the pediatric health arena and what we expect to see more of this year. If you’ve got others to propose, scroll to the bottom and let us know!
U.K. unveils long-term telehealth campaign
By Stewart Eisenhart, Emergo Group
The U.K. Department of Health has undertaken a campaign to expand the use of mobile medical devices and services to cover three million patients over the next five years.
Zimmer’s battles, St. Jude fighting Access Closure, patient tracking, Becton Dickinson’s buyout potential, Stryker’s massive layoffs, two decades of Olympus’ loss concealment and Sapien’s spiked clinical trial made headlines this week | MassDevice.com +7
Say hello to MassDevice +7, a bite-sized view of the top seven med-tech stories of the week. This latest feature of MassDevice.com’s coverage highlights our seven biggest and most influential stories from the week’s news to make sure you’re up to date on the headlines that continue to shape the medical device industry.
If you read nothing else this weekend, make sure you’re still in the know with MassDevice +7.
FDA survey reviews patient tracking
A small, nine-hospital survey on radio frequency identification and real-time location services usage, conducted by the FDA, found that almost all of the institutions polled use the technologies to track patients and medical devices.
The federal watchdog agency found that eight of the nine facilities, all part of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health MedSun network, use RFID or RTLS technologies. The most popular uses were for tracking infusion pumps, portable monitors, wheelchairs, beds and ventilators.
Philips Healthcare lands $9.6 million contract from Uncle Sam
Philips Healthcare (NYSE:PHG) landed a $9.6 million time-and-materials contract from Uncle Sam for its HeartStart MRx monitor and defibrillator.
The portable device received airworthiness certification by the U.S. Army before the contract was awarded.
Real-time ECG monitoring shows greater heart lesions during earthquake | MassDevice.com On Call
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Real-time heart monitoring for the first time showed a massive increase in cardiac events during the February 2010 earthquake in Chile.
Similar research has shown an relationship between reported patient heart problems and tragic events, such as in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center buildings in New York, but the reports came from the days and weeks after the attack. Using ECG telemonitors, researchers were able to gather data in real-time from patients reporting to hospitals during the tragic earthquake in Chile last year.
“Serial killer” T cells obliterate most common type of leukemia | MassDevice.com On Call
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Researchers have reprogrammed the body’s T cells to attack cancerous B cells, the driving force behind chronic lymphoid leukemia, the most common form of leukemia.
A team at Pennsylvania University designed a new gene that can be introduced into T cells, allowing them to identify a molecule that is uniquely found on cancerous B cells.
The white blood cells were extracted from three patients with CLL, reprogrammed with the gene and then reintroduced into the patients.