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Echo Therapeutics makes significant advance in designing Symphony tCGM device

Echo Therapeutics, Inc., a company developing the needle-free Symphony™ tCGM System as a non-invasive, wireless, transdermal continuous glucose monitoring (tCGM) system and the Prelude™ SkinPrep System for transdermal drug delivery, announced today that the Company has made a significant advance in the product design of its Symphony tCGM device and that it has developed its next generation electronic component package.

19 Feb 2010

Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital gearing up for National Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford is gearing up for National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Feb. 21 – 27. The hospital's Comprehensive Eating Disorders Program is reaching out to Bay Area families to enhance knowledge of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and related diagnoses.

19 Feb 2010

Blood transfusions based on single low hematocrit measurement questioned

A comparison study of nearly 1,900 patients published in Perfusion, a peer-reviewed academic journal, questions the long-standing practice of basing blood transfusion decisions on a single low hematocrit measurement result. In the study, titled Is it the Patient or the Physician who Cannot Tolerate Anemia?, researchers showed that a single measure of hematocrit is not a reliable indicator of transfusion need and that lower-than-normal hemoglobin levels have no adverse impact on patients.

19 Feb 2010

Training birth attendants in essential newborn-care techniques reduce stillbirths by 30%: Study

New findings in a study led by the director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Division of Neonatology show that that training birth attendants in essential newborn-care techniques reduced stillbirths by more than 30 percent - and potentially could save as many as 1 million lives worldwide each year.

19 Feb 2010

States struggle to find solutions as Medicaid programs swell budget gaps

The (Louisville) Courier-Journal: "Passport Health Plan, often praised for its efficiency as Kentucky's only Medicaid managed care venture, costs the state far more per person than the state's regular Medicaid program.

19 Feb 2010

Standard checklist for home palliative sedation

Can patients near death safely receive sedation at home, fully respecting their own and their families' wishes? This practice, which is on the rise, is coming under increasing scrutiny and debate by palliative care researchers and practitioners.

19 Feb 2010

Report: Green tea catechins may protect against glaucoma and other common eye diseases

Scientists have confirmed that the healthful substances found in green tea - renowned for their powerful antioxidant and disease-fighting properties - do penetrate into tissues of the eye. Their new report, the first documenting how the lens, retina, and other eye tissues absorb these substances, raises the possibility that green tea may protect against glaucoma and other common eye diseases.

19 Feb 2010

Physicians look toward profitable Medicare services; Former Virginia official tapped for a position at CMS

A study finds physicians veer toward more profitable services amid lower Medicare fees. Meanwhile, Humana tests a patient-centered medical home program in Florida and a former Virginia official is chosen to take on a top position at the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.

19 Feb 2010

University of Missouri to offer health literacy courses for health professionals

The cost of low health literacy - the difference between patients' abilities to understand health information and providers' abilities to effectively communicate complex medical information - is $106 billion to $238 billion annually, according to Pfizer, a leading biopharmaceutical company. To improve the health literacy of professionals and patients, the University of Missouri will offer a health literacy study emphasis beginning this fall.

19 Feb 2010

Study shows prevalence of depression among low-income urban mothers

More than half of low-income urban mothers met the criteria for a diagnosis of depression at some point between two weeks and 14 months after giving birth, according to a study led by University of Rochester Medical Center researchers and published online by the journal Pediatrics.

19 Feb 2010

The Methodist Hospital Research Institute awarded $11.5M NIH grant for research into methods of targeting cancer stem cells

The Methodist Hospital Research Institute was awarded an $11.5 million Center Grant by the National Institutes for Health (NIH) today to study the best way to attack deadly cancer stem cells to enhance treatments for breast cancer. Other members of the team include Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

19 Feb 2010

Lower dose of avosentan drug may provide more favorable results in diabetes patients

The drug avosentan substantially reduces urinary protein loss in people with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, but the drug causes serious side effects, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN).

18 Feb 2010

Dartmouth Atlas analyses of hospital spending called 'flawed'

The New York Times reports that certain hospitals, including the Mayo Clinic, are lauded "for delivering high-quality care at low costs" based on "a widely cited analysis called the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care."

18 Feb 2010

BIOGUARD wound dressings with Quick-Med’s NIMBUS antimicrobial technology to be sold by Medline Industries

Quick-Med Technologies, Inc. announced today that its licensee, Derma Sciences, Inc., has entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with Medline Industries whereby Medline will market and sell BIOGUARD™ wound dressings with Quick-Med’s proprietary NIMBUS antimicrobial technology. The agreement covers the acute care segment of the health care market, which includes nearly 6,000 hospitals in the United States plus surgery centers, wound care centers, and other associated health care facilities. Sales under this new agreement are expected to start later this month.

18 Feb 2010

Emtec to demonstrate thin client solution at HIMSS 2010 Conference and Exhibition

Emtec, Inc., a systems integrator, announced today that it will demonstrate its thin client solution for healthcare in the Avnet booth #7467 at the HIMSS 2010 Conference and Exhibition. This solution integrates the ThinIdentity™ virtual desktop infrastructure solution, smart card technology and stateless thin-client computing based on the Sun Microsystems™ Sun Ray virtual display client.

18 Feb 2010

Ventas reports 7.8% increase in normalized FFO for year ended December 31, 2009

Ventas, Inc. said today that normalized Funds From Operations (“FFO”) for the year ended December 31, 2009 increased 7.8 percent to $409.0 million, from $379.5 million for the comparable 2008 period.

18 Feb 2010

Medline Industries signs exclusive distribution agreement with Derma Sciences for BIOGUARD Barrier Dressings

Derma Sciences, Inc., a specialty medical device and pharmaceutical company focused on advanced wound care, today announced that it has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Medline Industries for sales of one of its key products – BIOGUARD™ Barrier Dressing – into the acute care market. Medline is the 2nd leading provider of traditional wound care products into Acute Care facilities, with over 800 sales representatives. Sales will begin this month.

18 Feb 2010

Cardiac ablation procedure performed with Stereotaxis System featured on recent BBC documentary

Stereotaxis announced that the recent BBC documentary "From the Heart" included a cardiac ablation procedure performed with the Stereotaxis System by Dr. Muchtiar Khan of OLVG Hospital in Amsterdam. The program's second half, beginning at 10:30 of the 25-minute run time, features extensive scenes from the Stereotaxis procedure.

18 Feb 2010

Dartmouth Atlas hospital ratings could be misleading, says former CMS Senior Policy Advisor

A "Perspective" piece in today's New England Journal of Medicine by Peter B. Bach, MD, MAPP, points out that policy makers are relying on hospital ratings from the Dartmouth Atlas that could be misleading.

18 Feb 2010

First Edition: February 18, 2010

Today's headlines focus on continuing hopes for health reform as well as various health industry developments.

18 Feb 2010

Hospital News and Research

Echo Therapeutics makes significant advance in designing Symphony tCGM device

Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital gearing up for National Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Blood transfusions based on single low hematocrit measurement questioned

Training birth attendants in essential newborn-care techniques reduce stillbirths by 30%: Study

States struggle to find solutions as Medicaid programs swell budget gaps

Standard checklist for home palliative sedation

Report: Green tea catechins may protect against glaucoma and other common eye diseases

Physicians look toward profitable Medicare services; Former Virginia official tapped for a position at CMS

University of Missouri to offer health literacy courses for health professionals

Study shows prevalence of depression among low-income urban mothers

The Methodist Hospital Research Institute awarded $11.5M NIH grant for research into methods of targeting cancer stem cells

Lower dose of avosentan drug may provide more favorable results in diabetes patients

Dartmouth Atlas analyses of hospital spending called 'flawed'

BIOGUARD wound dressings with Quick-Med’s NIMBUS antimicrobial technology to be sold by Medline Industries

Emtec to demonstrate thin client solution at HIMSS 2010 Conference and Exhibition

Ventas reports 7.8% increase in normalized FFO for year ended December 31, 2009

Medline Industries signs exclusive distribution agreement with Derma Sciences for BIOGUARD Barrier Dressings

Cardiac ablation procedure performed with Stereotaxis System featured on recent BBC documentary

Dartmouth Atlas hospital ratings could be misleading, says former CMS Senior Policy Advisor

First Edition: February 18, 2010

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

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