June 8, 2012 — LifeWatch AG, a wireless cardiac monitoring service and home sleep test provider in the United States, announced the launch of the world’s first-of-its-kind healthcare solution smartphone, allowing consumers self-operation of a wide range of highly valuable embedded medical sensors as well as wellness-related applications and cloud-based services. With this new technology LifeWatch will be able to expand outside its core markets, targeting new customer segments, service offerings and geographies. A comprehensive presentation and live demonstration of the solution will be given in Zurich on June 27, 2012.
June 8, 2012 — At this year’s SNM Annual Meeting, June 9-13, Philips Healthcare is highlighting its portfolio of nuclear medicine (NM) applications for IntelliSpace Portal, adding to its existing portfolio of CT, MR and multimodality applications. The full suite of NM applications will now offer comprehensive processing and review capabilities at a level normally reserved exclusively for dedicated NM workstations. The company will also showcase solutions designed to increase diagnostic confidence, enhance patient comfort, augment physician confidence, simplify clinical workflow and reduce lifecycle costs.
June 8, 2012 — Agfa HealthCare announced that it has selected Dell, of Round Rock, Texas, to host its cloud clinical archive portfolio, including the Imaging Clinical Information System (ICIS) platform. By extending its existing managed-services platform with the new availability of ICIS in the cloud, Agfa HealthCare is providing its U.S. customers simplified image archiving, management and viewing that supports healthcare facilities’ needs to image-enable the EMR. With this cost-effective, innovative cloud solution, Agfa HealthCare addresses the need for a comprehensive patient record. Because Agfa HealthCare provides comprehensive service and support, organizations can now focus their expertise more fully on diagnosis, treatment and care delivery.
Providing exceptional cardiovascular care for patients to achieve the best possible outcomes is the number one goal for ...
June 7, 2012 — GE Healthcare announced the acquisition of XPRO, a Brazilian Interventional X-ray equipment manufacturer company with over 15 years of experience and with more than 120 systems installed at private customer sites. Combining XPRO’s Interventional X-Ray product capabilities with GE Healthcare’s complementary imaging technology and global distribution presence, this acquisition brings a significant enhancement of offerings in Brazil while creating a broader platform that will address access and quality challenges in emerging interventional X-ray segments. Terms of this transaction were not disclosed.
Hansen Medical Inc. received 510(k) market clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Magellan Robotic System, the first robotic navigation system to more precisely guide peripheral artertery disease (PAD) interventions in the cath lab.The company will commence commercialization at selected centers in the United States immediately, with a full launch expected later in the year.
Evaluating the performance of your cath lab is key to developing a strategic plan for improving service offerings, planning growth and expanding market share to compete for revenues. Availability of services and strategic relationships with physicians groups are only part of the story. To gage trends in U.S. cath labs, Springboard HealthCare conducted an industry survey in January of 2012 to benchmark cath lab performance in areas of revenue, expenses, facility outlook and company culture.
Cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) is growing in popularity among cardiologists because it provides the ability ...
Current risk stratification paradigms for sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) are designed to identify high?risk populations based primarily on assessment of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). However, determining the risk for an individual patient remains a significant clinical challenge, particularly since most cardiac arrests occur in those without severe left ventricular dysfunction. Microvolt T-wave alternans (MTWA) testing is a noninvasive tool that may be used to help identify underlying vulnerability to life-threatening arrhythmias. This case presents a patient with hypertensive cardiomyopathy and moderate LV dysfunction who experienced cardiac arrest within 18 months of a positive MTWA test.
Siemens' syngo Aortic ValveGuide software enables transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedural guidance with ...
June 4, 2012 — SentreHeart Inc., a privately held medical device company, announced that it has recently completed a $26 million Series C financing led by Vivo Ventures, with participation by its existing investors US Venture Partners and Prospect Ventures.
When performing radiofrequency (RF) ablation to treat cardiac arrhythmia, medical professionals must balance the safety ...
June 4, 2012 — MitrAssist Medical Ltd., a developer of minimally invasive products for treating heart disease, announced today it received ISO 13485:2003 certification for the design and development of implantable heart valve prostheses.
June 4, 2012 — A jury awarded $6.4 million to the young children of a Philadelphia man after finding that emergency room doctors misdiagnosed a heart condition as pneumonia and discharged him from the hospital, only for him to die months later.
While there are plenty of automated blood pressure (BP) monitors designed to be used for clinical applications, most of these devices will not work in cardiac stress test applications. Only motion-tolerant blood pressure monitors designed specifically for handling the high noise, high motion environment of a stress lab can accurately and reliably collect BP measurements. Ideally, the BP monitor should distinguish Korotkoff sounds (K-sounds) from the large amount of background noise generated during a stress test.
Change Healthcare Cardiology Hemodynamics is an integrated hemodynamic monitoring system for monitoring vital signs and ...
June 4, 2012 — Boston Scientific Corp. has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory approval of 32 mm and 38 mm lengths for the Promus Element Plus everolimus-eluting platinum chromium (PtCr) coronary stent system, the company's next-generation drug-eluting stent (DES) technology.
Several technological advancements occurred in the PICC market in recent years that are changing the competitive landscape and driving growth. Increasingly, medical professionals are using computed tomography (CT) imaging to guide PICCs and confirm proper placement in the vasculature.
June 1, 2012 — Through the rapid growth of multi-slice computer tomography (CT) imaging, radiation protection has become a major issue in the radiological community. In response to this problem, ContextVision has collaborated with Dr. Lars Borgen, Drammen and Buskerud University College, Drammen, Norway, to explore technology solutions that will deliver superior image enhancement in cases of reduced patient image doses. Today Borgen will present his thesis, “Application of Adaptive Non-Linear 2-D and 3-D Post-Processing Filters for Reduced Dose Abdominal CT.”