An Atlanta, Georgia company developing surgical imaging technology for image-guided cancer surgery is looking to add $6 million in anticipation of its European product launch.Spectropath Inc.’s technology is a disposable, handheld, pen-like device used with an agent to make cancerous tissue turn a fluorescent color during tumor removal surgery, said President and CEO Ralph Gaskins [...]

Medical education company Simbionix is looking to become the industry leader in what could be the next generation of surgical simulation technology: patient-specific simulation.Patient-specific simulation refers to importing scans of a particular patient’s body, such as CTAs, into a simulator to allow a doctor to rehearse a near-exact replica of the operation he’ll conduct the [...]

Digital health incubator Rock Health hosted the 2012 Health Innovation Summit last week in San Francisco. In a series of posts, I’ll be profiling some of the interesting new health companies represented at the summit. You can browse all of the startups I liked from the Rock Health summit here.Hospital discharge papers aren’t enough to [...]

A medical device company that has developed a surgical implant to create fistulas for hemodialysis patients is gearing up for a series B financing round that seeks to raise $8 million to $10 million.Bioconnect Systems CEO Adam Dakin told MedCity News in a phone interview that the fresh capital would take the company through clinical [...]

A mother’s blog post alleging that a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia physician explained that her daughter was turned down for a kidney transplant because she is intellectually disabled has sparked an online campaign that transformed the hospital’s Facebook page into a forum for an impassioned transplant ethics debate.Chrissy Rivera’s post described a meeting last week [...]

An open-heart surgery is an invasive procedure that calls for the rib cage to be spread open — even under the best circumstances, that process can damage nerves, tear ligaments and fracture ribs. But medical device developer Physcient aims to improve on such open-chest procedures with a new approach to old surgical techniques that date [...]

An early stage, Midwest biotech startup with a unique approach to treating damaged nervous system tissue is looking for its first round of capital.Axonia Medical has raised $1 million of the $3 million it hopes to secure in a series A financing that would carry the Kalamazoo, Michigan-based biotech through large animal trials of its [...]

A Minnesota medical device company has raised $2.5 million in its second round of financing, according to a Form D filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. KSpine’s spinal implant to treat scoliosis requires a less invasive surgical procedure, the company says.Ross Longhini, KSpine’s board chairman, told MedCity News that KSpine will use the investment [...]

European regulators have approved the delivery of Medtronic‘s CoreValve System using a new direct aortic approach in patients with severe aortic stenosis.Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is a less-invasive alternative to open-heart surgery for aortic valve replacement, but some patients are unsuited for the procedure because they have small vessels. The newly CE Marked direct [...]

Medtronic today introduced a new approach to minimally invasive spinal fusion surgery that the company says allows the procedure to be performed through smaller incisions in the middle lower back.The MIDLF system is the latest in a series of procedural solutions in the medical device maker’s MAST portfolio for minimally invasive treatment of spinal conditions. [...]