Professional physician associations consider certain routine tests before elective surgery to be of low value and high cost, and have sought to discourage their utilization. Nonetheless, a new national study by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center finds that despite these peer-reviewed recommendations, no significant changes have occurred over a 14-year period in the rates of several kinds of these pre-operative tests.

Start-up company GraftWorx was chosen as "Best in Show" at the Mid-Atlantic Bio Angels (MABA) 1st Pitch Life Science event, an investors' conference held in New York in June. Graftworx is a medical device company that has developed a unique peripheral vascular prosthetic bypass graft incorporating a sensor that can alert physicians when blood flow in the graft is blocked due to restenosis.

Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging (SDMI) of Las Vegas has bolstered its capabilities by installing the United States’ first Celesteion PET/CT system from Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc. The Celesteion allows SDMI to provide the highest quality PET/CT (positron emission tomography/computed tomography) images and exams without sacrificing patient comfort.

For years, the radiology industry has focused on reducing, or eliminating patient exposure to radiation. Recently, the industry has shifted attention to the cumulative effect radiation exposure has over the course of a physician’s career.

REVA Medical Inc. announced the initiation of patient enrollment in the FANTOM II clinical trial of its Fantom sirolimus-eluting bioresorbable scaffold in March. The scaffold, made from REVA's advanced proprietary polymer, is designed to allow the restoration of blood flow in patients being treated for coronary artery disease, then resorb from the body over time.