Archives for September 2008
[AdvaMed 2008] Video Roundup
Our in-house dynamo, Claudia Pinzon and the rest of the the talented team at OneMedTV, have been busy compiling a wealth of valuable video content captured at AdvaMed2008.
Below, some of that footage. To watch the videos, click the thumbnail or visit OneMedPlace.tv.
Veralight: David VanAvermaete from Veralight presents a new approach to non-invasive diabetes screening through earlier detection and complication reduction.
Microtransponder: T. Jordan Curnes from Microtransponder talks about a wireless neurostimulation device for chronic pain management.
BioControl: BioControl speaks about their latest innovations in the pathogen detection space.
Chemica Technologies: Chemica Technologies is a research-oriented, biotechnology-focused company.
Mesynthes: Brian Ward, Mesynthesis’ President and CEO, explains the company’s proprietary extracellular matrix scaffold technology.
PEAK Surgical: PEAK Surgical is developing tissue disection systems based on proprietary plasma technology with distinct advantages over currently used surgical instruments.
Arterial Remodeling Technologies: Arterial Remodeling Technologies
Definiens Collaboration to Add Technological Muscle to Clarient’s Offerings in Personalized Medicine
In a move that could accelerate the growth of the Clarient’s biomarker business, the company announced Friday that, with Definiens, it will develop and commercialize tools to help evaluate quantitative biomarkers that predict cancer treatment response.
Definiens’ platform uses image analysis algorithms to analyze multi-dimensional image data, regardless of file type, complexity or size. The software can be used to automatically identify and quantify regions of interest within breast, prostate and colon cancer tissue samples.
Clarient processes large numbers of tissue samples for both clinical decision-making and drug development. These tissue samples are converted into high-resolution digital images that are managed and analyzed using Clarient’s web-based customer portal, PATHSiTE. Definiens will integrate its image analysis tools into PATHSiTe, allowing Clarient to assess several intracellular processes simultaneously, quantify key markers and increase operational throughput.
“Enhancing our ability to deliver advanced quantitative analysis to tissue based
[Video Profile] Interview with Roger Kolanski, CEO of Critical Care Innovations
Critical Care Innovations (CCI), a biotechnology-driven device company, is developing minimally-invasive, site-specific and image-guided cancer management systems.
By using ultrasound guidance and visualization technologies, along with its proprietary cryothermal and microencapsulation processes, the company has created a unique, site-specific and controlled release cancer management diagnostic and therapeutic system.
The company’s microencapsulated controlled delivery process can deliver, with accuracy, individualized therapeutic and concentrated doses of chemotherapeutics directly into targeted regions of the patient’s cancerous tissue, providing sustained release of drugs. By encapsulating drugs, CCI has improved the effectiveness of chemotherapy, lowering toxicity and virtually eliminating side effects.
GE Healthcare to Surreptitiously Monitor the Elderly through QuietCare Collaboration
GE Healthcare has entered into a distribution and technology collaboration with Living Independently Group (LIG). QuietCare, LIG’s principal product, is a “behavioral remote patient monitoring system” that uses wireless sensors to track the patterns of seniors’ daily activities.
Unlike ReadyResponse or LifeAlert, which require elderly subscribers to physically contact a 24-hour help center in the event of an emergency (users depress an activator button worn around the neck), QuietCare monitors behavioral changes that may signal emergencies or other health issues.
QuietCare programmatically “learns” each individual’s normal behavioral patterns and notes any significant deviations. The system transmits this information to caregivers through a password protected website, or if the user prefers, by telephone.
This strikes me as creepy – its big brother for elderly – but the system could prove useful if a person were to fall in the shower, be rendered unconscious, or worse. In
I-Flow Expands Beyond Drug Delivery
I-Flow Corporation, developer of ambulatory drug delivery systems for pain management and infusion therapy, received FDA 510(k) clearance for its oxygen enriched wound dressing. The company set up a wholly-owned subsidiary, AcryMed, to commercialize the product.
With the clearance, I-Flow can commence clinical studies. If all goes as planned, the product will be available in the second half of ‘09.
The oxygen enriched dressing supplies oxygen and better manages moisture. The product is composed of a material that chemically generates and captures oxygen.
“We are excited about this new product, which we believe will drive a paradigm shift toward the use of oxygen enrichment for wound care,” said Donald Earhart, I-Flow’s CEO.
Supplemental oxygen, delivered by hyperbaric chambers, has been shown to accelerate wound healing. I-Flow’s dressing, indicated for topical application to burns, acute and chronic wounds, could be beneficial to patients that do
[Video Profile] Interview with Mitchell Seyedin, President & CEO of ISTO Technologies
Within the sports medicine and spinal markets, repair of cartilage injuries in the knee and spinal disc represents one of the greatest unmet medical needs. Each year in the U.S., orthopedic surgeons detect approximately 500,000 cartilage lesions in knee joints alone. Cartilage protects joints, including spinal discs, from the wear and tear encountered during motion. Because adult cartilage cells cannot fully regenerate tissue and repair injuries, lesions left untreated worsen over time and can progress to post-traumatic osteoarthritis. Subsequent degeneration of cartilage in joints and spinal discs often leads to irreversible damage, causing pain and disability. Currently, the only FDA-approved biologic product for repairing knee cartilage uses the patient’s own cartilage cells in a two-step surgical process. Similar strategies are also used in Europe. These products are inherently expensive. Furthermore, cells derived from adult patients have poor regenerative capacity.
[Video Profile] Ivivi Technologies: Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy
Ivivi Technologies offers pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) technologies, which, by generating an electrical current in injured soft tissue, stimulates biochemical and physiological healing processes to help repair the injured tissue and reduce related pain and inflammation.
Pulsed electromagnetic fields are a non-invasive means to accelerate and improve the body’s own healing mechanisms. Ivivi has specifically tuned its PEMF signal to target the Calcium/Calmodulin pathway, which lies at the beginning of a growth factor cascade involved in tissue healing.
Research published in a December 2006 issue of The Journal of Hand Surgery demonstrated the effectiveness of Ivivi’s treatment in animals. In the study, the Achilles tendon of 40 rats was surgically transected and repaired. The rats which received PEMF treatments for two 30-minute sessions per day, over a period of three weeks, showed an increase of up to 69% in tensile strength at the repair
Minrad, RxElite Alter Distribution Arrangement
Despite having been awarded an anesthetic gas contract by Premier, Inc. in March, RxElite will no longer be the exclusive distributor of certain Minrad human anesthetic products in the U.S.
Though the split was harmonious (RxElite will continue to distribute Sevoflurane and Isoflurane), I suspect Minrad was disappointed by lower-than-expected sales, especially when considering the minimum purchase requirements needed to remain exclusivity.
Sevoflurane is the most commonly used anesthetic gas in the U.S. and Isoflurane continues to be widely used in anesthesia practices.
“As we discussed in our second quarter conference call on August 14, 2008, we have had ongoing dialogue with the senior management of RxElite to assess and determine how to increase our joint penetration of anesthetic products in the United States market. We believe this action will maximize the expertise of sales forces of both companies as well as the in-house
AdvaMed 2008: Day One Coverage
The OneMedPlace team is busy down in Washington, D.C. at AdvaMed 2008 capturing content from a host of presenting companies. For full coverage, check out OneMedTV. Highlights include:
David VanAvermaete from Veralight presents a new approach to non-invasive diabetes screening through earlier detection and complication reduction.
T. Jordan Curnes from Microtransponder discusses a wireless neurostimulation device for chronic pain management.
BioControl speaks about their latest innovations in treatment of autonomic nervous system dysfunction.
GI Dynamics’ EndoBarrier Could Disrupt Gastric Bypass Surgery Market
According to the American Society for Bariatric Surgery, doctors perform 140,000 gastric bypass surgeries in the United States each year. The most common types are Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding.
About 1% of patients who are candidates for gastric bypass surgery actually have the procedure. Mortality risk is the major deterrent to broader use of the Roux-en-Y; although the estimated 1% rate is far lower than the perceived 10% mortality reported by patients and some physicians.
While all surgeries carry some risks, certain factors put patients in a high risk category for gastric bypass. According to a Duke University study these include: A body mass index of greater than 50, male gender, old age, hypertension and pulmonary embolus risk.
GI Dynamics, a Watertown, MA based company is developing EndoBarrier, a technology designed to modify metabolic pathways by lining a portion
