When one thinks about countries that are hotbeds for medical technology innovation, Israel would not likely be at the top of anyone’s list. But people in the know will tell you that this small country, with a population of just a shade over 7.5 million people, has a reputation for being a tireless innovator in the field, with countries from all over the world flocking there to study their business model. According to the Israeli Life Science Industry, an advocacy group, the med-tech industry is also young and growing. Of the currently operating 702 companies, 56% were founded during the...
Now that the U.S. House of Representatives has voted down a higher debt ceiling for the U.S. government, Congress can go back the drawing board on deciding how many Medicare spending cuts the voters and stakeholders can stomach, but as always, there are pockets of concern within the larger picture. The picture for device makers is somewhat complicated in part because the Medicare Part B “doc fix” is a $30 billion-a-year overhang that will be tough to resolve, not just because of the positions taken up on each side of Capitol Hill. On the Senate side, Kent Conrad (D-North...
Earlier this month my wife and I had a beautiful baby daughter, and as you can imagine, the demands for pictures are flooding in. This can be pretty problematic for us seeing as how we don’t really have a Facebook page, where we can disseminate pictures to all those who are requesting a glimpse of our lovely daughter's visage, in one click of a button. Everything with us, is done by email or text messages. But there’s a reason for that, and a good one. See we don’t really want our message out for the whole world to see. My wife and...
A second look at NIH spending priorities By MARK McCARTY Medical Device Daily Washington Editor A couple of weeks ago, I posted something to this blog about NIH spending and whether it made sense, but there are other ways of doing the accounting. As I mentioned on May 1, the amount said to be allocated for the National Cancer Institute for fiscal 2010 was slightly more than $5 billion whereas the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute took in about $2 billion less. This stands in contrast to the respective burdens of these disease groups, which is roughly $475 billion...
Is the sky falling? Device makers keep saying so By MARK McCARTY Medical Device Daily Washington Editor FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health is certainly on a regulatory tear of late, and industry is understandably rattled by some of the developments. After all, CDRH only recently managed to shed a couple of obvious malcontents in the persons of Robert Smith, MD, and Julian Nichols, MD, who both worked at the Office of Device Evaluation at CDRH and were not exactly happy to get their walking papers. My impression is that you have to be either really obnoxious, noticeably incompetent,...
Dust storms - like this picture my husband sent me today from Iraq - are a regularly occurring nuisance in the Middle East. As this is Andrew’s third tour of Iraq, I've seen many photos like this one over the last five years that illustrate just how thick the dust actually is over there. I can’t help but think this might be the culprit behind the mysterious respiratory illness Andrew has suffered repeatedly from just since his first Iraq deployment. Although the military doctors he has seen have never been able to diagnose the problem, he has complained of breathing...
A couple of weeks ago I interviewed PixelOptics' president/CEO Ron Blum, about a technology called emPower, a device that could eventually replace bifocals. Now there's one thing you need to know about the interview. Blum is one of those people that med-tech journalists just love to talk to. He’s honest, upfront and has a sort of passion about his product that you just don’t see that often. He’s not regurgitating facts, or bedazzling you with technical terms that can sometimes go straight over your head. But rather, Blum is a master of his craft. And if emPower is anything like its...
Top 10 reasons interventional cardiologists should be happy By MARK McCARTY Medical Device Daily Washington Editor Dear Interventional Cardiologist, Worried about Medicare reimbursement for the Next Great Stent? Concerned that FDA's massive regulatory girth will squash your drug-eluting balloon groove? Not to worry. Here are the top 10 reasons you should be thrilled with your choice of specialty. Number 10: PCI numbers are flat of late, but just watch that Baby Boom fill your waiting room in the years to come. Number 9: The transradial (through the wrist) route is gaining acceptance as an approach to coronary intervention. Number 8:...
Politics, economics, and NIH spending priorities By MARK McCARTY Medical Device Daily Washington Editor Government that makes sense. It's what we all dream of, but when it comes to spending priorities at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, we might as well wish to lose weight on the see-food diet. FYI: That's the diet on which when you see food, you eat it. What do I mean? Here's what I mean. NIH's budget for the National Cancer Institute in fiscal 2010 was a bit more than $5.1 billion (click here), but the budget for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood...
A story about DSM Biomedical (Berkeley, California) that appeared in Thursday’s issue of Medical Device Daily drew a comparison between companies like DSM and the film industry’s production crew that works behind the scenes adding invaluable elements to help make the movie a success but are much less recognized and appreciated than the starring cast members. So just for fun let’s imagine what it would be like if the med-tech industry had its own televised version of the Academy Awards. Instead of an Oscar, the coveted trophy would resemble a big gold stent. Before the show CEOs from big players...
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