Health Industry Today articles from January 1 2000

Health Industry Today archives from January 1 2000

Market Memo : Healtheon/WebMD-News Corp. deal raises e-healthcare stakes.
January 1, 2000... It was, after all, just another billion dollar deal. In December, News Corp., the media giant that owns a warehouse-full of newspapers, magazines, book publishers, film studios and television stations, held a worldwide conference call with...

Other GPOs welcome at 'Net site, say Tenet-Chemdex collaborators.
January 1, 2000... A new corporation formed by a collaboration between Tenet Healthcare Corp., Santa Barbara, Calif., and Chemdex Corp., Mountain View, Calif., has the announced intent of supplying business-to-business e-commerce solutions to the health care...

J&J's Ethicon site promotes products, services to technical end users, end users' customers.
January 1, 2000... A strong corporate brochure Web site can be developed to promote products and services to technical end users, to the end users' customers or both. Johnson & Johnson and its Ethicon Inc. subsidiary are making effective use of both...

Mallinckrodt files countersuit in oximetry claim; Masimo calls reaction to its suit 'predictable'.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Mallinckrodt Inc., St. Louis, and its subsidiary, Nellcor Puritan Bennett, have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Masimo Corp., Irvine Calif., and one of Masimo's manufacturers and distributors, Ivy Biomedical Systems Inc. The suit...

Y2K device problems to be tracked by ECRI.
January 1, 2000... Health care professionals who experience Y2K-related medical device problems can get assistance from ECRI, Plymouth Meeting, Pa., an international health services research agency. ECRI will monitor Y2K-related problems over its worldwide...

Cardiac Pathways Corp.
January 1, 2000... Cardiac Pathways Corp., Sunnyvale, Calif., has completed the first human use of its Tracking System for real-time, non-fluoroscopic imaging of cardiac electrophysiology catheters. The proprietary system developed by the company encompasses...

An endoscopic video recording system developed by the Fiber Imaging Technologies (FIT) subsidiary of Luxtec Corp.
January 1, 2000... An endoscopic video recording system developed by the Fiber Imaging Technologies (FIT) subsidiary of Luxtec Corp., Worcester, Mass., and its German partner, Schoelly Fiberoptic Gmbh, has been given clearance for marketing within the United...

Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, N.J., and Innovasive Devices, Inc., Marlborough, Mass., have reached agreement under which Innovasive will become a wholly owned subsidiary of J&J.
January 1, 2000... Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, N.J., and Innovasive Devices, Inc., Marlborough, Mass., have reached agreement under which Innovasive will become a wholly owned subsidiary of J&J. Under the agreement, Innovasive, a manufacturer of...

Acoustic Imaging Technologies Corp.
January 1, 2000... Acoustic Imaging Technologies Corp. (AITC), Phoenix, has received ISO 9000 certification for the European importation of its ultrasound transducer equipment. The certification includes MDD (Medical Device Directive) status. The...

Medline Industries.
January 1, 2000... Medline Industries, Mundelein, Ill., will list a wide range of its products on Neoforma.com, a provider of business-to-business e-commerce services in the health care marketplace. The company says its relationship with Neoforma will...

PharmaNetics Inc.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... PharmaNetics Inc., Raleigh, N.C., the holding company of Cardiovascular Diagnostics Inc., has applied for Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE) approval from the FDA for its Ecarin Clotting Time (ECT) test card. The card is used for monitoring...

A.L.I. Technologies.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... A.L.I. Technologies, Richmond, British Columbia, and ATL Ultrasound, Bothell, Wash., entered into a non-exclusive agreement to cooperatively market A.L.I.'s ultrasound image management and networking products to ultrasound users worldwide. The...

Life Stream International Inc.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Life Stream International Inc., Haverhill, Mass., signed a letter of intent to acquire Polystan AS, a manufacturer and marketer of a wide range of cardiopulmonary products headquartered in Vaerloese, Denmark. The transactions is expected to...

Abbott Laboratories.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill., acquired Perclose Inc., a manufacturer of arterial closure devices, and signed a multi-year distribution agreement with Biocompatibles International, PLC, for all its current and future vascular products...

New Brunswick Scientific.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... New Brunswick Scientific (NBS), Edison, N.J., acquired the assets and business of DJM Cyro-Research Ltd., a manufacturer of cryogenic equipment located in Tollesbury, England. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. DJM manufacturers...

LaserSight Inc.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... LaserSight Inc., Winter Park, Fla., reached agreement with VISX Inc., to stay patent litigation filed by VISX and continue negotiations toward a U.S. licensing agreement. The parties have been in negotiations and say they have made substantial...

Clinicians using Infinix[ordinal indicator, feminine] cardiovascular imaging products from Toshiba America Medical Systems.
January 1, 2000... Clinicians using Infinix[ordinal indicator, feminine] cardiovascular imaging products from Toshiba America Medical Systems, Tustin, Calif., have new options for managing digital imaging. Toshiba will integrate Heartlab's DICOMview[umlaut]...

New offerings stretching toward $1 million mark following initial on-line bidding by medpool.com.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... New offerings stretching toward $1 million mark following initial on-line bidding by medpool.com For medpool.com, the answer to the rhetorical "Where's the beef?" question it posed before its first online sale of medical devices and...

Embion.com hopes to harvest supply chain profits by eliminating purchasing inefficiencies for M.D.s.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Embion.com hopes to harvest supply chain profits by eliminating purchasing inefficiencies for M.D.s Hoping to cash in on figures it says represent billions in supply chain efficiencies and purchases, Embion Inc. has launched its...

Health Hero comes to the rescue via FDA first.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Health Hero Network Inc. may be coming to the rescue of home care patients but it more importantly signals a new era of online acceptance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Mountain View, Calif. privately held e-health...

FDA clears hemostasis analyzer intended for testing in small labs.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Dade Behring, Deerfield, Ill., received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin marketing its new BFT[ordinal indicator, feminine] II hemostatis analyzer to clinical labs in the U.S. The company says its small,...

Siemens introduces 'breakthrough' anesthesia gas delivery system.
January 1, 2000... Siemens Medical Systems Inc., Danvers, Mass., has received FDA 510(k) for what it calls its "breakthrough" gas delivery system, the KION[ordinal indicator, feminine] Anesthesia Management System. KION integrates data management with...

Bioject, AngioSense form alliance for cardiovascular delivery systems.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Bioject Medical Technologies, Portland, Ore., and AngioSense Inc., Cupertino, Calif., formed a strategic alliance to jointly develop delivery systems to treat cardiovascular disease. Bioject's needle-free drug delivery systems will be modified...

New surgical device said to result in smaller incisions, less trauma.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Smith & Nephew Endoscopy, Worcester, Mass., released its new HandPort[ordinal indicator, feminine] System for hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery (HALS), a device the company says will provide a less invasive alternative to traditional surgery....

First implant procedure completed for anterior cervical fusion device.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Spinal Concepts Inc., Austin, Texas, announced the first implantation of its new multi-segment plating system designed for fusing the anterior cervical spine. The AcuFix Anterior Cervical Plate System addresses clinical indications such...

FDA grants 510(k) clearance for implantable port marketing.
January 1, 2000... Catheter Innovations Inc., Salt Lake City, received clearance from the FDA for marketing its implantable port products line featuring the company's PASV[umlaut] safety valve technology. The new ports will be available with either single or...

Quadripolar Cutting Forceps introduced by Everest Medical.
January 1, 2000... Everest Medical Corp., Minneapolis, announced the introduction of its Quadripolar[ordinal indicator, feminine] Cutting Forceps the company believes represents the next generation of electrosurgery for precise laparoscopic surgery. The...

Hand-carried echocardiography system allows evaluations anytime, anywhere.
January 1, 2000... SonoSite Inc., Bothell, Wash., introduced its 5.4-pound SonoHeart electrocardiography system that the company says will enabled trained physicians to conduct faster and more accurate heart evaluations at more trauma sites, resulting in better...

Real-time Perfusion Imaging added to ATL Ultrasound line.
January 1, 2000... ATL Ultrasound, Bothell, Wash., a Philips Medical Systems company, says standard contrast echocardiography examinations will be faster and easier to perform with its new Real-Time Perfusion Imaging system. ATL says the system has the...

Varian Medical announces SmartBeam cancer therapy system.
January 1, 2000... Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, Calif., calls its SmartBeam[ordinal indicator, feminine] cancer therapy system the most advanced solution available for delivering high-resolution intensity modulated radiotherapy treatments (IMRT), a new...

Safety needle legislation.
January 1, 2000... New safety alert issued by CDC adds emphasis to OSHA mandate for anti-needlestick devices Hot on the heels of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proclamation mandating the use of safety needles around the country, the...

BD blasted as 'unscrupulous competitor' by RTI.
January 1, 2000... Retractable Technologies Inc. (RTI), has lashed out at giant syringe manufacturer and marketer BD (Becton Dickinson), Franklin Lakes, N.J., for what it calls false reports verbalized to health care professionals. RTI said it has been the...

advocacy group report.
January 1, 2000... AMGA lauds congressional efforts at restoring Medicare reimbursement cuts imposed by BBA Congress and the Administration have acted properly in taking action to restore some Medicare reimbursement cuts imposed two years ago by the Balanced...

FDA improperly addressed safety risks of reprocessed devices, says ADDM.
January 1, 2000... An advocacy group that brought allegations of the improper reprocessing of single-use medical devices before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says the agency may not have adequately addressed the risk to patient safety. The...

Kaiser Permanente.
January 1, 2000... Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, Calif., awarded a multi-year, sole source contract to Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N.Y., for its Kodak DryView[ordinal indicator, feminine] Laser Imaging Systems. The multi-year contact will make dry laser imaging...

AmeriNet Inc.
January 1, 2000... AmeriNet Inc., St. Louis, announced a three-year multi-vendor service agreement with Picker International Inc., Cleveland, through its Picker Technology Services (PTS) unit. Picker will provide flexible, multi-vendor service programs from...

Health Services Corporation of America.
January 1, 2000... Health Services Corporation of America (HSCA), St. Louis, and GE Marquette Medical Systems, Milwaukee, signed a three-year agreement to provide advanced patient monitoring and cardiac diagnostic products to more than 2,000 HSCA members...

Regent Medical.
January 1, 2000... Regent Medical, Norcross, Ga., signed a three-year, single source agreement with Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc., the administrative arm of Kaiser Permanente, to supply its full range of Biogel[umlaut] powder-free latex and non-latex...

Cohesion Technologies Inc.
January 1, 2000... Cohesion Technologies Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., signed a five-year deal with U.S. Surgical that allows the company to market and distribute Cohesion's CoStasis[ordinal indicator, feminine] Surgical Hemostat, a liquid hemostat designed to...

PhorMax Corp.(enters multiyear contract with Agfa)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... PhorMax Corp., Palo Alto, Calif., entered into a multi-year contract with Agfa, Ridgefield Park, N.J. Under the agreement, Agfa will supply proprietary photostimulable phosphor imaging plates configured with PhorMax's new compact CR system,...

In a move designed to increase service for health care providers in the Northeast, Luxtec Corp.
January 1, 2000... In a move designed to increase service for health care providers in the Northeast, Luxtec Corp., Worcester, Mass., expanded its surgical vision product distribution agreement with Cardio Medical Products Inc., Rockaway, N.J. Under terms...

Acuson Corp.
January 1, 2000... Acuson Corp., Mountain View, Calif., signed a dual source supply agreement with Novation, Irving, Texas, the supply company of VHA Inc. and the University HealthSystem Consortium. Under the three-year agreement, Acuson will supply ultrasound...

DeRoyal Wound Care, a division of DeRoyal Inc.
January 1, 2000... DeRoyal Wound Care, a division of DeRoyal Inc., Knoxville, Tenn., was selected as one of two advanced wound care vendors by Beverly Enterprises Inc., Ft. Smith, Ark. Beverly Enterprises, the largest U.S. nursing home chain, recently...

Picker International.
January 1, 2000... Picker International, Cleveland, signed a three-year agreement to be the imaging supplier in the Premier Provider Select:Imaging program. The agreement is valued at $10 million. Provider Select is an operations improvement company...

Medline Industries Inc.
January 1, 2000... Medline Industries Inc., Mundelein, Ill., was awarded a $120 million contract by Novation to provide non-sterile kits that will be marketed to VHA Inc. and University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) members as part of the NOVAPLUS[umlaut]...

VHA Inc.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... VHA Inc., Irving, Texas, signed an agreement under which Iron Mountain Records Management Inc., Boston, will provide records management and off-site storage services for its member health care organizations. Under the three-year...

Physician use of Internet doubles in two years, but less than half using a computer, says AMA.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Physician use of the World Wide Web has nearly doubled in the past two years, says the American Medical Assn. (AMA), but the proportion of doctors who use a computer is at a virtual standstill. The AMA, in a follow-up report to the initial...

Major increases seen in sales, use of laser surgical equipment, procedures.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Growing demand for laser vision correction procedures generated patient fees of $2.1 billion in 1999, and in 2000 1.5 million refractive surgical procedures are expected, a 58% increase over 1999 figures. Market Scope, St. Louis, says in...

Diagnostic imaging center numbers show continuous expansion, says SMG.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Diagnostic imaging center (DIC) numbers increased 15% to 3,068 during the first three quarters of the 1999 calendar year, continuing a trend of continuous expansion since 1989's total of 1,502, says SMG Marketing Group Inc., Chicago. ...

$40 million from Columbia/HCA to fund 'Net site.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... A $40 million war chest from Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. will allow empactHealth.com, Nashville, Tenn., to join the Internet e-commerce battles following the company's announcement that it has formed a preferred strategic partner...

Marketing strategy in the new millennium doesn't have to mean letting go of the past.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Given the amount of attention devoted to the state-of-the-business in the medical device and med-surg worlds, marketing and sales executives have been obsessed with surviving both the New Millennium and Internet e-commerce. At this...

New pay-per-procedure plan developed by Kodak yields big PACS facility for small health system.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... An innovative pay-per-procedure marketing program helped Cemax-Icon, Fremont, Calif. a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak Co., gain a broad PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications System) contract with St. Francis Health System in Pittsburgh and...

trade show notes.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Show biz E Editor's Note: If a trade show or expo you are or were involved with increased (or decreased) the number of participants, exhibitors or floor space, let HIT know. We're also interested in your reactions to today's trade shows....

8th annual MMVR conference to highlight infotech revolution.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Claiming that imaging tools enhance diagnosis, treatment and medical education, the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference will be held Jan. 27-30 in Newport Beach, Calif. The eighth annual event will "define the leading edge of...

Electronic commerce conference covers full Internet spectrum.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Data Interchange Standards Assn.'s (DISA) 13th annual conference will provide professionals from around the globe with worldwide e-business and Internet solutions when the event is held April 25-28 in Boston. Attendees and exhibitors of...

Business-to-business forum features e-services information.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... NCI, a supply chain consulting firm and education company, will launch a new business-to-business e-services forum May 22-24 in Atlanta. The meeting will take place in conjunction with the inaugural National HealthCare USA trade show and...

New millennium health care strategies featured at 12th annual NHMCC.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... "What is the future of the health care industry?" is the question attendees and participants will attempt to answer when the 12th annual National Managed Health Care Congress is heldApril 16-19 in Atlanta. Industry experts will...

trade show calendar.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Trading places E Here's Health Industry Today's listing of key health care trade shows for the coming months. To add one, contact John Dalton at 303-967-0170, fax 303-290-9025, or e-mail to HIT@businessword.com Dates Meeting ...