Health Industry Today articles from April 1993

Health Industry Today archives from April 1993

Prices, new applications propel $3 billion contrast agent market. (Industry Overview)
April 1, 1993... The $3 billion world market for contrast media will climb to a projected $6.5 billion by 1998, driven by the growing importance of diagnostics, a shift to non-ionic X-ray contrast media and an emerging domestic market for ultrasound contrast...

Sysco enters med/surg with a bang. (SYSCO Corp.) (Company Profile)
April 1, 1993... With its state-of-the-art ordering system, a complex system of price incentives and over $9 billion in sales, Houston-based food distribution giant Sysco Corp. could revolutionize the hospital medical/surgical supplies distribution business....

MedEcon Services launches hospital physician GPO. (MedEcon Services Inc.; group purchasing organization)
April 1, 1993... MedEcon Services Inc., Louisville, Ky., is making a major push into the California market with a group purchasing program that targets alternate care sites, particularly physicians and HMOs. Through the program hospitals invite physicians to...

New device group targets FDA, small manufacturers. (Medical Device Manufacturers Association; Food and Drug Administration)
April 1, 1993... A three-month-old association formed to represent small medical device manufacturers has vowed to do "whatever it takes" to cut Food & Drug Administration clearance time and encourage new product development crucial to companies with fewer than...

HIDA to Clinton: encourage home care as viable option. (Health Industry Distributors Association)
April 1, 1993... Home health care will save millions of dollars annually and should be incorporated and encouraged as part of the Clinton administration's managed care legislation, says the three-year-old Home Care Coalition, consisting of 80 organizations led by...

Mediq/PRN out-bids KCI in VHA East pact. (MEDIQ/PRN Life Support Services Inc.; Kinetic Concepts Inc.; Voluntary Hospitals of America East)
April 1, 1993... Mediq/PRN Life Support Services Inc., Moorestown, N.J., underbid Kinetic Concepts Inc. (KCI), San Antonio, Texas, for a three-year medical rental equipment contract with Voluntary Hospitals of America (VHA) East, Berwyn, Penn. Since 1991, VHA...

Cryogenic, Mountain Medical approach final stages of merger. (Cryogenic Associates Inc.; Mountain Medical Equipment Inc.)
April 1, 1993... Cryogenic Assoc., Bloomington, Minn., and Mountain Medical Equipment Inc., Littleton, Colo., aim to merge as a new liquid oxygen systems company in May with offices in Minnesota and Colorado. But the deal will depend on Federal Trade Commission...

Quickie signs 35 distributors, enters new sports market. (Sunrise Medical Inc. Quickie Designs Inc.)
April 1, 1993... Quickie Designs Inc., Fresno, Calif., the U.S. customized wheelchair division of Sunrise Medical Inc., Torrance, Calif., will begin selling this month a line of custom sports equipment for the disabled through 35 dealers. The line will be sold...

HIDA simplifies EDI for vendors, distributors. (Health Industry Distributors Association's Quick Start electronic data interchange program)
April 1, 1993... A user-friendly Quick Start electronic data interchange program, desired to make it easier for compares to place orders electronically and obtain corporate profiles, has been developed by the Health Industry Distributors Assn. operations...

U.S. Surgical not dumping stock as implied in Jenks report. (United States Surgical Corp.; Jenks Healthcare Business Report)
April 1, 1993... A report questioning U.S. Surgical Corp.'s performance because so many insiders sold stock last year has been "blown totally out of proportion," according to a company spokesperson. "When you look at insider trading, you've got to look at what...

HIMA: FDA report useful but information is misleading. (Health Industry Manufacturers Association; Food and Drug Administration report on clinical trials for medical devices)
April 1, 1993... An internal Food & Drug Administration's panel finding "patterns of deficiencies" in clinical trials for medical devices was based on too few applicants and misinterprets standards adopted by Congress for medical device review, according to Alan...

Pyxis inks four major GPOs for supply systems. (Pyxis Corp.; group purchasing organizations)
April 1, 1993... The marketing efforts of the Pyxis Corp., San Diego, Calif., are paying off. Since December, Pyxis has signed five major group purchasing organizations (GPOs) to three-year sole-source contracts for the company's automated point-of-use medication...

Comdisco: high tech equipment is older. (Comdisco Inc. Comdisco Medical Equipment Group)
April 1, 1993... Purchasers of new high technology equipment, except for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems, could begin shifting their attention to refurbished equipment or postpone their buying indefinitely because of new hospital budget constraints,...

Stuart Medical positioned to survive despite loss. (Stuart Medical Inc.)
April 1, 1993... Stuart Medical Inc. is confident that its customer service will help it maintain its position as a top medical/surgical distributor despite the loss of a major contract with 14-hospital Baptist Memorial Healthcare System and the emergence of a...

Gear ad message for the three-second rule. (medical device manufacturers)
April 1, 1993... Why is it that so many of the people I talk to on the client side regard advertising as a necessary evil? Is it because advertising is expensive? Or that it takes up a lot of product management time? Maybe it's because the impact and value of...

Strategy of a Megamerger.
April 1, 1993... An insider's account of the 1985 megamerger between Baxter Travenol Laboratories Inc., Deerfield, Ill., and the Evanston, Ill.-based American Hospital Supply Corp. draws some interesting parallels between the potential impact of health care...

Refurbco thriving in used equipment market. (Refurbco Inc.)
April 1, 1993... A diverse product line recently broadened to include urology equipment, coupled with a beefed-up advertising effort, are helping Refurbco Inc., Sylvan Lake, Mich., make its name in the remanufactured imaging equipment market. The 7-year-old,...

Base rep commission on dollars, not unit volume. (sales representatives)
April 1, 1993... Compensation for both sales reps and executives should be tied even closer to performance in light of a new Securities & Exchange Commission rule designed to make companies more accountable, said William L. MacDonald, president of Compensation...

New glove liners target clinical users. (Lovell-Schenck Inc.)
April 1, 1993... Lovell-Schenck, Inc., Charlotte, N.C., is entering the clinical market by adding a reusable glove liner to the company's ViGARD+ Medical Products line. Designed for clinical use, the new glove liner, called Paraderm Clinical, was released in...

Medtronic's PCD first of its kind on market. (Medtronic Inc.'s implantable pacer-cardioverter-defibrillator)
April 1, 1993... Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn., is targeting physicians, cardiologists and electrophysiologists with the company's new PCD device, an implantable pacer-cardioverter-defibrillator designed to control occurrences of ventricular arrhythmias....

Viro Glove coats hands to kill viruses. (Knight Industries Inc.'s protective liquid antiseptic barrier)
April 1, 1993... Knight Industries, Pompano Beach, Fla., is marketing Viro Glove, a protective liquid antiseptic barrier that coats hands to kill AIDS HIV-1 pathogens as well as other bacterial, fungal and viral diseases. Viro Glove kills elements upon contact,...

ABB puts waste system on wheels. (Asea Brown Boveri Inc.'s Sanitec medical waste disinfection system)
April 1, 1993... Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), Wayne, N.J., is working in conjunction with two companies to market a mobile version of its Sanitec medical waste disinfection system. The first mobile unit was introduced in February. Calumet Coach Co., Calumet City,...

MediClean hits the road with new waste processor. (MediClean Technology Inc.)
April 1, 1993... MediClean Technology, Inc., West Warwick, R.I., is banking on tighter infectious waste disposal regulations and consolidation in the waste hauling market by offering a new mobile infectious waste processor. The mobile version of MediClean's IWP...

Quinton Instrument enters cardiac telemetry market. (Quinton Instrument Co.'s Q-TEL Progressive Care Monitor)
April 1, 1993... Quinton Instrument Co., Seattle, Wash., has entered the $80 million worldwide cardiac telemetry market with its Q-TEL Progressive Care Monitor. Unlike other progressive care monitors, Q-TEL uses icons rather than a menu or controls. Icons are...

New stainless steel corneal marker has dual function. (Katena Products Inc.)
April 1, 1993... Katena Products Inc., Denvillen, N.J., is marketing through two major trade shows for ophthalmologists a corneal marker that can be used for either myopic or astigmatism surgeries, or both. The product differs from others on the market because...

Sterling Scale Co. markets three scales. (Sterling Scale Company Inc.)
April 1, 1993... Sterling Scale Co., Inc., Dayton, Ohio, began marketing two new digital hospital scales via direct mail to 3,000 hospitals in January. The new products, released in January, are pictured with the $2.4 million company's pre-existing Laundry Cart...

Bio Barrier Inc. (receives patent for process to permeate latex products with antimicrobial agent)
April 1, 1993... Bio Barrier Inc., Denver, Colo., received two U.S patents on a process it developed to permeate latex products with an antimicrobial agent. The product is now being tested at the Harvard School of Public Health. The Bio Barrier design...

Medline Industries Inc. (Mark Whitaker named president of operating room division and Kevin Fuller as director of marketing for Medcrest division)
April 1, 1993... Medline Industries Inc., Mundelein, Ill., named Mark Whitaker president of the operating room (O.R.) division and Kevin Fuller as director of marketing for the Medcrest division. Whitaker joined Medline in 1987 as a sales rep. Fuller joined...

Sherwood Medical Co. (Robert G. Tice appointed vice president sales and marketing for patient care division)
April 1, 1993... Sherwood Medical Co., St. Louis, Mo., appointed Robert G. Tice to vice president/sales and marketing for the patient care division. Tice has over 20 years of multi-faceted health care experience in senior level and marketing positions.

PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. (Barbara N. Lubash named president of Pacific Review Services)
April 1, 1993... PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., Cypress, Calif., appointed Barbara N. Lubash president of Pacific Review Services (PRS), a subsidiary of PacifiCare Health Systems. She has more than 17 years experience in health care cost containment, managed...

Medtronic Inc. (Robert L. Ryan named senior vice president and chief financial officer)
April 1, 1993... Medtronic Inc., Minneapolis, Minn., appointed Robert L. Ryan as senior vice president and chief financial officer. He formerly served as vice president and chief financial officer of Union Texas Petroleum Corp., Houston, Texas.

PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. (Alan Hoops named president and CEO)
April 1, 1993... PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., Cypress, Calif., appointed Terry Hartshorn chairman of the board and Alan Hoops president and chief executive officer. Hoops had served as the organization's executive vice president and chief operating officer,...