ML10

Fence sitting or balanced view? Must Medtech always be the evil giant in all of this?

Sensible guidelines from ABHI should help members and clinicians alike in providing a framework for their necessary interactions.

A piece of beautifully crafted PR sees ICD company Biotronik endeavour to benefit by appointing an implantee sporting legend as its brand ambassador. Great initiative, but a shame they chose the second most boring game in the world.

St Jude is quite keen to own the moral high ground as it issues a retort to a Heart Rhythm Journal publication, which it believes relies on data which is “not entirely accurate.”

This looks very smart… the idea of combining a central line with an IVC filter seems to make sense, given the need for both in critically ill VTE patients at risk of pulmonary embolism.

Let’s face facts. Medical device regulation is by definition imperfect, however much we fiddle with it. The world’s toughest regulator is apparently a pussycat allowing devices onto the market without such as a by-your-leave. If you believe the so-well-informed media.

Two studies presented at ACC 2012 suggest that Medtronic’s Symplicity System for renal denervation shows safe, sustained and significant blood pressure reduction in treatment-resistant hypertension patients.

St Jude’s ICD Lead Data will now be collected and analysed by 3rd party specialist researchers, the Population Health Research Institute.

Vaginal Mesh problems are going to land at someone’s door and J&J’s looking like a soft target. It transpires the company decided to launch “Prolift” in 2005 as an “insignificant change” to a previous device, so didn’t feel the need to tell FDA about it.

At the risk of coming over all left wing, but when an esteemed clinical society suggests it’ll accept company support for its educational programmes, it’s a bit rich to suggest that the support isn’t in any way likely to influence the user choices. Otherwise why would they do it?

A plea for sanity in marcomms world. Medical technology news can find its way to a European audience…even in English…but only if companies make a bit more of an effort to communicate. In other words, we’ve got the vehicle, you just need to use it.

Industry body Eucomed fights the corner for the innovative medtech company by proposing that unless procurement gets smarter we’ll be driven to lowest common denominator solutions by short term cost containment and centralisation.

Bravo European Commission for allowing electronic Instructions For Use, but we think you could have gone a bit further.

Christopher Lyles, the first American recipient of a seeded tracheal transplant has passed away this week.

It seems the balance of power lies with the healthcare provider in USA as prices of procedures far outstrip overseas markets despite medical device companies often selling their products for lower prices in USA.

Could advances in biointerface technology mean the blind see, the lame walk, and the deaf hear? A new initiative aims to find out.