Health Industry Today articles from December 1999

Health Industry Today archives from December 1999

Internet marketers must look to supply chain management.
December 1, 1999... You're a medical device or med-surg supply manufacturer or distributor, and unless you've been living in a padded room, you've been busy formulating Internet sales and marketing and e-commerce strategy. Your Web site is up and running,...

National accounts training session says bigger isn't necessarily better.
December 1, 1999... On the surface, national accounts with group purchasing organizations (GPOs) or integrated delivery networks (IDNs) don't have much of a downside. Conventional marketing wisdom insists that bigger is better, and that volume equals success....

Agilent Technologies Web site set for business as $8 billion Hewlett-Packard spinoff goes public.
December 1, 1999... Agilent Technologies, the $8 billion Hewlett-Packard spinoff, went public Nov. 17 and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange Nov. 18, and its Web site was almost ready for business. The attractive and professionally designed site,...

Separating e-business and e-commerce necessary to successfully compete on the `Net, says HEDIC.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... While e-commerce continues through the evolutionary period that is reshaping the health care marketplace, businesses are finding that in order to participate the nature of the e-commerce itself must be defined. Healthcare Electronic...

HT Medical Systems, Inc.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... HT Medical Systems, Inc., Gaithersburg, Md., announced that Medtronic Inc., Minneapolis, has made a significant capital investment in the company. The agreement allows Medtronic to make additional investments in HT Medical Systems in the...

Ansell.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Ansell, Massillon, Ohio, a division of Pacific Dunlop Limited, entered into an agreement to acquire the worldwide medical glove business of Johnson & Johnson Medical for $98 million. The acquisition is subject to approval by the U.S. Federal...

Varian Medical Systems, Inc.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Varian Medical Systems, Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., entered into an agreement with Cordis Corp., a Johnson & Johnson company, to develop, supply and service radiotherapy components and equipment for a new Gamma brachytherapy treatment to help...

Meridian Medical Technologies, Inc.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Meridian Medical Technologies, Inc., Columbia, Md., opened its new $5 million research and manufacturing center and European headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The 28,000 square foot facility is designed to develop and produce...

Sporicidin International.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Sporicidin International, Rockville, Md., received U.S. Food and Drug Administration 501(k) market clearance for its Sporicidin Sterilizing Solution for use on medical instruments and equipment. The company says its solution contains the...

Cimtek Commerce.
December 1, 1999... Cimtek Commerce, Johnson City, Tenn., a provider of vertically integrated e-commerce solutions for the medical supply industry, was named "Investor's Choice" at the first annual Technologic Partners' Healthcare Outlook Conference in San...

Strategic Health Resources.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Medical device, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies are being unfairly criticized for rising health care costs, says Nancy Reaven, president of Strategic Health Resources (SHR), La Canada, Calif. But companies can mount a stout...

Healthcare Intelligence Network offers full-text search capabilities for market, info professionals.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Health market researchers and information professionals can research managed care companies, health care organizations, pharmaceutical companies, health care supplierd, hospitals and health systems through the full-text search feature of the...

NCI Executive Forum attendees say e-commerce traffic will increase.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Buyers at the Ninth Annual Health Care Executive Forum sponsored by NCI were more aggressive than sellers in forecasting strong inroads by the Internet and e-commerce in the coming year. Attendees at the Scottsdale, Ariz., event were...

M&A activity in health care at lowest level since 1995.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Merger and acquisition during the third quarter of 1999 was down 42% compared to the third quarter of 1998 and represents the lowest activity since 1995, says Irvin Levin Associates, Inc., New Canaan, Conn. The Health Care Merger &...

Hospitals in the process of reinventing themselves.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Competition and cost containment pressure continue to push hospitals down the re-engineering path, says SMG Marketing Group, Inc., Chicago. While the number of short-term (average length of stay fewer than 30 days) acute care and...

NRC, drkoop.com name top hospitals for 1999.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... National Research Corp. (NRC), Lincoln, Neb., in conjunction with dr.koop.com, has named 126 hospitals as 1999 Consumer Choice Award winners following consumer response in 101 markets throughout the U.S. NRC says it expanded its criteria...

Abbott Labs, GPO customers seeking alternatives after FDA ruling against distribution of products.
December 1, 1999... In the wake of a federal ruling under which Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill., will pay a $100 million fine and take about 175 diagnostic products off the market, the company and its major GPO customers have been busy compiling lists of...

ArgoMed gets FDA approval for new Thermoflex System.
December 1, 1999... ArgoMed, Inc., Research Triangle Park, N.C., received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Thermoflex System for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasis (BPH). ArgoMed says its Thermoflex System represents a new,...

Spinal Concepts announces first implant of spinal fixation system in Japan.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Spinal Concepts, Inc., Austin, Texas, implanted its first BacFix Thoracolumbar Spinal Fixation System in Japan following clearance by the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare in June, 1999. The titanium BacFix system features a...

FDA clearance received by Metrika for hand-held monitoring system.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Metrika Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., a developer and manufacturer of hand-held patient monitoring systems, received U.S. Food and Drug Administration marketing clearance for its DRxa Quantitative hCG patient monitor -- a single-use, physician...

Somanetics displays oximeter at anesthesiologists meeting.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Somanetics Corp., Troy, Mich., displayed its new INVOS Cerebral Oximeter for the first time in the U.S. at the American Society of Pediatric Anesthesia in Dallas. The company says the adult INVOS device is the only commercially...

Medtronic Physio-Control launches aid to heart attack diagnoses, treatment.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Medtronic Physio-Control, Redmond, Wash., announced the availability of its LIFENET RS receiving stations with enhanced transmission and ECG data integration capabilities. The company says the RS is a critical link between paramedics in the...

Optimize introduces imaging system at College of Surgeons Congress.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Optimize Inc., Los Gatos, Calif., previewed its OptiVu HDVD wireless imaging and communication system for videoscopic procedures at the 85th annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons in San Francisco. The company says...

Medtronic begins U.S. clinical evaluations of implantable cardioverter defibrillator.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, completed the first human implant in the U.S. of its InSync ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) designed to treat patients with heart failure and who are at risk of sudden cardiac death from too-fast...

Filmless X-ray system receives FDA clearance.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... GE Medical Systems, Waukesha, Wis., received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance to market a general purpose X-ray table that makes images without film. The digital X-ray system enables physicians to review patient images...

Gene therapy-spinal fusion partnership announced.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Selective Genetics, Inc., San Diego, and Spinal Concepts, Inc., Austin, Texas, entered into a joint development program that will combine Selective Genetics' gene- activated matrices (GAM) with Spinal Concepts' InFixa and other interbody...

Deloitte, Cyber Dialogue identify five key forces accelerating evolution of new e-health consumers.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... The proliferation of health care products and services available on the Internet has prompted Deloitte Research, a division of Deloitte & Touche and Deloitte Consulting, and Cyber Dialogue, an Internet database-marketing company, to isolate...

Marketer says Internet `disrupting" U.S. business.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Beyond the obvious impact of the Internet on business, says John R. Graham, president of Graham Communications, Quincy, Mass., and author of The New Magnet Marketing, is the fact that Internet marketing is disrupting American business....

Varian Medical Systems, Inc.
December 1, 1999... Varian Medical Systems, Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., signed a five-year contract to provide US Oncology, Inc., with radiotherapy equipment. The contract is said to be worth between $50 and $75 million. US Oncology, a cancer management...

Chronimed Inc.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Chronimed Inc., Minneapolis, received a sole source contract from Fort Smith, Ark.-based Beverly Enterprises, Inc., the nation's largest nursing home operator, for the distribution of blood glucose test strips, meters and related supplies....

Agfa Corp.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Agfa Corp., Ridgefield Park, N.J., was awarded contracts with two U.S. Air Force bases, the first Air Force orders for its PACS (picture archiving and communications systems) technology. The contracts were issued by the U.S Defense...

Dornier Medical Systems.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Dornier Medical Systems, Kennesaw, Ga., received a two-year contract from MAGNET (Mid Atlantic Group Network of Shared Services, Inc.), Mechanicsburg, Pa. The agreement with Dornier will cover urological tables and lithotripsy systems. ...

AmeriNet and GE Medical Systems.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... AmeriNet, St. Louis, and GE Medical Systems, signed a three-year agreement to supply radiologic and cardiac ultrasound systems to AmeriNet members. The contract, projected at $30 million in purchases over the course of the agreement, makes...

Getinge/Castle, Inc.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Getinge/Castle, Inc., Rochester, N.Y., signed a three-year agreement with Novation to supply steam sterilization, washing/disinfection equipment and blanket/solution warming cabinets as part of the multi-million dollar contract. The...

Owens & Minor.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Owens & Minor, Richmond, Va., signed a three-year contract with Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, Houston, Texas, that represents $60 million in sales over the term of the contract. The contract complements an existing agreement O&M...

LaserSight Inc.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... LaserSight Inc., Winter Park, Fla., entered into an agreement with BD Ophthalmic Systems that will make BD the exclusive distributor for LaserSight's MicroShape Keratome System products in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland and...

Cogent Light Technologies.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Cogent Light Technologies, Santa Clarita, Calif., entered into an agreement with Genzyme Surgical Products to supply its Cogent Light SolarTec 270 light source to power Genzyme's line of lighted surgical tools. Genzyme will also develop...

Association Purchasing Services Corp.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Association Purchasing Services Corp. (APS), Cape Girardeau, Mo., the group purchasing subsidiary of the Kansas and Missouri Hospital Assns. through The Health Alliance of MidAmerica, signed a three-year affiliation agreement with HSCA...

Instrumentation Laboratory S.p.A.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Instrumentation Laboratory S.p.A. (IL), Milan, Italy, was awarded a five-year agreement with Health Services Corp. of America (HSCA) covering IL's line of critical care testing instruments, consumables, and service and information management...

Abbott Laboratories.(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill., signed a sole-source, eight-year agreement for infusions pump with Consorta, Inc., Rolling Meadows, Ill. The contract is valued at nearly $100 million. Under terms of the agreement Abbott will be...

OSHA expands accidental needlestick guidelines; Med-Design looks to cash in on safety syringes.
December 1, 1999... Safety needle legislation that began in California in late 1998 and by mid-1999 had spread to 20 states around the country has now mandated the use of safety needles in virtually every health care facility in the United States. The...

Former BD executive added to Med-Design team as race to market safety syringes picks up pace.
December 1, 1999... Less than a week after OSHA's announcement of Compliance Directives mandating anti-needlestick devices across the country, Med-Design Corp. hired a new executive vice president and COO and found him at BD (Becton Dickinson), the company said...

MDMA calls for withdrawal of proposed Medicare reimbursement cuts, supports single-use rules.
December 1, 1999... Medical Device Manufacturers Assn. (MDMA), Washington, D.C., has called for the withdrawal of proposed cuts in Medicare reimbursement for durable medical equipment (DME), urged the House of Representatives to refine the Balanced Budget Act...

TradeOut.com attracting attention from eBay.
December 1, 1999... An Internet firm that specializes in the sale of unwanted assets and surplus inventory may sound suspiciously like competitors medibuy.com, Neoforma.com and a number of others on the `Net, but the Ardsley, N.Y., firm is attracting big...

Bypassing usual provider, supply chain choices may be the key to success in med-surg business.
December 1, 1999... Attendees at the Strategic Source and E-Commerce Solutions for the Med-Surg Supply Chain symposium held in Philadelphia heard a decidedly unusual message from presenters. Hospital materials managers, they were told, might be better off...

Medical Electronics Pavilion to headline MD&M West 2000.
December 1, 1999... Driven by the growing importance of medical electronics, the Medical Design & Manufacturing West 2000 (MD&M West) show to be held January 18-20, 2000, at the Anaheim, Calif., Convention Center will feature an expanded Medical Electronics...

Emerging online health care to be focus of HCIS2000 conference.
December 1, 1999... The fifth annual Investing in Health Care Information Systems (HCIS2000) conference to be held January 24-25, 2000, in San Diego will present an in-depth look at the opportunities, high stakes and pitfalls of the emerging online health care...

Workshops, exhibits planned for 18th annual EMS conference.
December 1, 1999... EMS Today 2000, the 18th edition of one of the industry's preeminent educational conferences for emergency medical service personnel, will be held March 22-26, 2000, in Orlando, Fla. The EMS conference is billed by sponsor JEMS (Journal...

First tandem meeting planned for attendees of SAGES, IPEG.
December 1, 1999... Next year, for the first time, members of SAGES (Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons) and IPEG (International Pediatric Endo-Surgery Group) will hold their meetings in tandem when the groups convene in Atlanta. ...

Cancer researchers to hold April conference and exhibition.
December 1, 1999... The annual meeting of the American Assn. for Cancer Research (AACR) will be held April 1-5, 2000, at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. More than 9,000 cancer researchers and related specialists are expected to attend. The...