News
ClearCount Medical Solutions Closes Series B Financing Round
October 22, 2009 1:52 pm | CommentsClearCount Medical Solutions, an innovator of patient safety solutions for the operating room, announced today the close of its $3.4M Series B financing round. The company plans to use the funds to drive sales and product development of its RFID-based solutions designed to prevent retained surgical sponges.
Med School Enrollment Up For 11th Straight Year
October 21, 2009 5:56 am | CommentsU.S. medical school enrollment is up for the 11th consecutive year as colleges seek to meet a growing demand for physicians. According to an American Medical Colleges report: First-year enrollment climbed 2 percent over 2008, and now totals nearly 18,400 students. The number of applicants remained mostly stable at around 42,000.
Your Voice Tells Me You Have 17 Minutes To Live
October 21, 2009 5:49 am | CommentsJapanese researchers have developed a computer program which may be able tell from an emergency call if you are about to die. Research published in the open access journal BMC Emergency Medicine shows that a computer algorithm is able to predict the patient's risk of dying at the time of the emergency call.
Gore Implant Sees First Use
October 21, 2009 5:36 am | CommentsW. L. Gore & Associates recently announced the first human implants of their next generation Conformable GORE TAG® Thoracic Endoprosthesis for the treatment of thoracic aortic aneurysms(TAAs). The devices were used to treat patients with a TAA, which is an enlargement that develops in weakened areas of the thoracic aorta.
Seguro Acquires Johns Hopkins Abdominal Surgery Device
October 21, 2009 5:08 am | CommentsSeguro Surgical, Inc., a medical device development company specializing in the commercialization of surgical instrumentation, today announced that it has acquired, from The Johns Hopkins University, the global marketing rights to a new abdominal surgery product. Over two million abdominal surgeries are performed annually in the United States, with the current practice of using cotton towels or sponges to reposition the bowel in order to access the surgical area.
Tech Spending, Including Medical Device Development, Will Rebound
October 20, 2009 6:05 am | CommentsThe research group Gartner, Inc. says the information technology industry is closing its worst year on record, with worldwide tech spending on track to decline 5.2 percent in 2009. But the tech industry is expected to return to a growth pattern next year. Gartner is forecasting a 3.3 percent year-over-year increase in 2010, to $3.
Medical Miracle: Toddler Survives 30' Fall
October 20, 2009 5:55 am | CommentsTalk about a tough kid – a California toddler is alive after falling 30’ from an apartment window and landing on concrete and rocks. Contra Costa County Fire Captain Charles Thomas said the 22-month-old boy was alert and crying after a three-story plunge that left him with just a cut on his abdomen, a bruised lung and a bump on his head.
Nurse Investigated For Cheerleading Suicide
October 20, 2009 5:47 am | CommentsChris Williams, AP Investigators said William Melchert-Dinkel, 47, feigned compassion for those he chatted with, while offering step-by-step instructions on how to take their lives. “Most important is the placement of the noose on the neck ... knot behind the left ear and rope across the carotid is very important for instant unconciousness and death,” he allegedly wrote in one web chat.
Celebrity Targets Conventional Cancer Treatments
October 20, 2009 5:17 am | CommentsAlthough nearly $2.5 billion in research over the past 10 years has found no proof of cures from alternative medicine, these mostly unproven treatments are now used by as many as one-third of all Americans. And a new ally brings some quasi-celebrity status to the topic. Less than a year after former sitcom actress Suzanne Somers began touting bioidentical hormones on The Oprah Winfrey Show , she's back with a new book.
Targeting Pot Shops
October 19, 2009 6:58 am | CommentsGreg Risling, AP Still, he wasn't expecting the phone call one August day when a voice said the police were outside and he needed to open up or they would bust down the door. Heavily armed officers in helmets, bulletproof vests and, oddly enough, Bermuda shorts stormed his store, handcuffed him, disabled security cameras and seized his drugs before taking him to jail.
Obama Waits Finished Health Care Bill
October 19, 2009 6:42 am | CommentsSteven R. Hurst, AP The White House is waiting for Congress to settle on a final health care bill, even though President Barack Obama has a clear preference in favor of at least one specific — the much-debated public option. President Obama, however, will not demand that legislation include a government-run insurance plan intended to drive down costs through competition with private insurers, they said.
Swine Flu Claims 11 More U.S. Kids
October 19, 2009 6:30 am | CommentsLauran Neergaard, AP Medical Writer As the swine flu outbreak strikes the U.S. early and hard, health officials note a worrisome number of child deaths, and warn that supplies of vaccine will remain scarce for at least the next couple of weeks. Delays in producing the vaccine mean 28 million to 30 million doses, at most, will be divided around the country by the end of the month, not the 40 million-plus that states had been expecting.
New Index Combines Nutrition With Affordability
October 19, 2009 6:18 am | CommentsContact: Emily Jane Watt; ejwatt@webershandwick.com A new food rating system could make it easier to find budget-friendly, nutritious foods in today’s tough economy. The Affordable Nutrition Index (ANI), unveiled recently at the American Dietetic Association’s Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo, assesses food’s nutritional profile and cost value to create a nutrition-value-per-dollar score.
Surgeons Discover Common Anti-Clotting Drug May Cause Problems for Some Trauma Patients
October 16, 2009 6:04 am | CommentsNational Trauma Databank researchers find elderly patients more vulnerable to problems CHICAGO, Oct. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A common drug used for preventing heart attacks and blood clots may also cause problems for individuals who suffer some form of trauma, particularly elderly patients, according to a study presented at the 2009 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons.
Hospital Executive Awarded For Infection Control Efforts
October 16, 2009 6:03 am | CommentsExecutive is honored at APIC ceremony commemorating International Infection Prevention Week (IIPW), which takes place October 18-24 this year WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Deborah Friberg, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of WakeMed Health and Hospitals, Raleigh, North Carolina, has been named the recipient of the first annual Healthcare Administrator Award, presented by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).
