Medtronic Inc. announced Tuesday that its CoreValve System, designed to enable the replacement of a diseased aortic valve without open heart surgery, showed health improvements over a two-year period on patients implanted with the device. The two-year study involved 126 patients at nine centers in Europe and Canada. The Fridley, Minnesota company released the data […]
St. Jude Medical’s partnership with a California-based arrhythmia-diagnostic company seems to be going well enough that it recently poured more money into that startup. In May 2010, the Little Canada, Minnesota-based company signed a co-branding and co-marketing relationship with San Francisco-based iRhythm Technologies Inc. and was the lead investor in iRhythm’s $10 million equity round. […]
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) and Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT) both announced regulatory approvals for new products that will expand their atrial fibrillation treatment offerings. Natick, Mass.-based Boston Scientific won CE Mark approval for its Blazer open-irrigated, a radiofrequency ablation (RFA) catheter for treating atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias. The new open-irrigated catheter integrates the company’s Blazer […]
Medtronic Inc. announced Monday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the Achieve Mapping Catheter, an intra-cardiac electrophysiology diagnostic catheter that can be used to assess pulmonary vein isolation when treating paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF). PAF is an irregular heartbeat that affects people only intermittently and generally stops in less than seven days. […]
Cleveland Clinic spinoff Juventas Therapeutics has successfully completed a phase 1 clinical trial of its regenerative medicine technology in heart failure patients. Cleveland-based Juventas’ technology, JVS-100, works by recruiting stem cells from the bone marrow to create new blood vessels. In addition to heart failure patients, the company is investigating the treatment of patients suffering […]
St.Paul, Minnesota-based St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) announced Wednesday that the Food & Drug Administration has approved a new pericardial aortic stented tissue valve — the Trifecta. In a statement, the company said that the Trifecta valve was designed to optimize the flow of blood through the valve and for long-term durability. To ensure the structural […]
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Just as it’s putting the finishing touches on a private options offering that should net some $3 million in cash, Cambridge Heart Inc. (OTC:CAMH) is warning investors that it will need more money to stay afloat past the end of 2011. “While the proceeds from our December 2010 private placement of common stock and the […]
CardiOx is hoping to close a $3.5 million series C round of investment that would go toward commercializing its noninvasive test for holes in the heart. The Columbus, Ohio-area company is also looking to obtain European and U.S. regulatory clearance by the end of the year, with the European Union’s CE Mark expected to come […]
Medtronic Inc. has started shipments of its newest line of pacemaker systems Consulta and Syncra now that the devices have won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. Fridley, Minnesota-based Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) said Wednesday that both Consulta and Syncra include technology that allows for remote follow-up of heart patients implanted with the stopwatch-sized devices. The […]
What we need is better strategies for managing people with multiple chronic conditions BEFORE they show up on hospitals’ doorsteps gasping for breath. The new Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute funded by the ACA should launch a study that compares the long-term cost of providing patients with congestive heart failure coordinated, hands-on (usually via nurse practitioners) preventive care versus the usual practice of simply releasing them from the hospital with a list of instructions, several prescriptions and a fare thee well. My hypothesis is that these higher upfront costs will pay big dividends for lower Medicare spending down the road.
This eBook, in collaboration with Care Logistics, details how hospitals and health systems can facilitate more effective decision-making by operationalizing elevated awareness.
CardioFocus Inc. pulled in nearly $14 million in a hoped-for $16 million funding round, according to a regulatory filing. The Marlborough, Mass.-based company is developing a visually guided balloon catheter that uses a rotating laser to ablate the tissue surrounding the pulmonary artery's entrance into the heart. The technology is intended to reduce atrial fibrillation.
Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its Revo MRI SureScan. The pacemaker is the first that isn't effected by MRI scans and Medtronic says it will begin shipping the new innovative medical devices immediately. About 200,000 people with pacemakers can't get MRI scans because of potential problems.
Heart disease and February. What relationship could be more cozy? From the scary risks of shoveling snow (yep, you could DIE, so be sure to lift a little at a time!), Mercedes-sponsored red dress parades and government-sponsored National Wear Red Day®, to tips for identifying heart attacks in women (men, you need a different month I guess), February has all the important stories to improve your "awareness."
Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) has acquired Plymouth-based Atritech, a maker of a novel product to treat atrial fibrillation, with an up-front payment of $100 million in a deal worth up to $375 million. Details will be finalized in the first quarter. The device giant headquartered in Natick, Mass., said in a press release that it would pay out of cash on hand, with additional payments of up to $275 million through 2015 for meeting revenue and regulatory goals. Atritech's device, the Watchman, closes the left atrial appendage in patients with atrial fibrillation to prevent blood clots from entering the blood stream. The product thereby reduces their risk of stroke and offers a promising alternative to anticoagulant medication, the standard treatment that increases risk for bleeding.
Cardiac device maker Neograft Technologies is developing new innovative medical devices focused on coronary artery bypass graft surgery, a procedure in which a blood vessel is typically removed from a patient's arm or leg and placed around a blockage in the heart to "bypass" the blockage and restore blood flow. The implanted blood vessel is called a graft. If the Angioshield is proven to be effective, its potential market is very large. About half-a-million coronary artery bypass surgeries are performed annually in the U.S. In addition, there are approximately 80,000 lower extremity bypass graft surgeries performed each year in the country. Revenue generated by products in the procedures totals about $1.6 billion annually, according to the company.