Health Industry Today articles from October 1993

Health Industry Today archives from October 1993

Industry facing lap sponge shortage following Medical Action recall. (includes related article) (laparotomy; Medical Action Industries Inc.)
October 1, 1993... Sterile, X-ray detectable laparotomy sponge manufacturers were selling sponges faster than they could manufacture them in September as a result of a product recall by lap sponge industry leader Medical Action Industries, Farmingdale, N.Y....

Baxter, losing business opportunities, responds with corporate restructuring. (Baxter International Inc.)
October 1, 1993... Baxter International Inc., Deerfield, Ill., is losing millions of dollars in business from group purchasing organizations and is responding by a corporate restructuring designed to appease current and future customers. A laboratory...

Consumer group urges FDA to press criminal charges against Physio-Control. (Ralph Nader's Public Citizen's health Research Group; Physio-Control Corp.)
October 1, 1993... A consumer group is pushing the Food & Drug Admin. to press ahead with criminal charges against troubled Physio-Control Corp., Redmond, Wash., a subsidiary of Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis. The group alleges that Physio-Control remains in...

FDA enforcing device tracking for life-supporting implants.
October 1, 1993... The Food & Drug Admin. is beginning to enforce a mandate requiring critical patient implant and life-supporting device manufacturers to keep track of patients who receive their products. The requirement, which took effect in August, was...

Midmark sponsors information card at HIDA convention. (Midmark Corp; Health Industry Distributors Association)
October 1, 1993... Midmark Corp., Versailles, Ohio, found a unique method for promoting the company during the Health Industry Distributors Assn. convention in Kansas City, Mo. The company sponsored the Galaxy Expocard, a credit card-like identification system that...

Johnson & Johnson signs two deals with Purchase Connection, AmeriNet. (Johnson and Johnson Medical Inc.; Purchase Connection Inc.)
October 1, 1993... Johnson & Johnson Medical, Inc., Arlington, Tex., signed agreements with Los Angeles-based Purchase Connection and St. Louis-based AmeriNet to supply their members with surgical dressings, adhesives and other wound-care products. The...

Aequitron discontinues unprofitable concentrator line. (Aequitron Medical Inc.; oxygen concentrators)
October 1, 1993... Aequitron Medical, Inc., Minneapolis, discontinued the sale of its unprofitable Silent Partner oxygen concentrators because the company had difficulties differentiating the product from the many concentrators on the market made by more than 40...

Distributors propose improvements in vendor and hospital relationships.
October 1, 1993... Hospital distributors came up with an 11-point plan to help prime vendors better address the changing needs of hospitals, stressing "total value" pricing, inventory control and use of electronic data interchange. The Health Industry Distributor's...

Bristol Myers-Squibb using Baxter to market Moisturel Lotion. (Bristol Myers-Squibb Co.; Baxter HealthCare Corp.)
October 1, 1993... Westwood Squibb, a division of Bristol Myers-Squibb, New York, is experiencing significant sales increases since signing an exclusive agreement to have the company's Moisturel Lotion used in pre-packed patient kits assembled by Baxter Healthcare...

Kimberly-Clark using award to increase VHA member sales. (Kimberly-Clark Corp.; Partnership and Service Excellence Award; Voluntary Hospitals of America)
October 1, 1993... Kimberly-Clark Corp., Roswell, Ga., is using the Partnership and Service Excellence Award it won from Dallas-based Voluntary Hospitals of America (VHA), Inc., to increase VHA members' use of Kimberly-Clark products. Kimberly-Clark officials...

MedSonic working with Meadox to develop new angioplasty system. (MedSonic Inc.; Meadox Medicals Inc.)
October 1, 1993... MedSonic, Inc., Farmingdale, N.Y., entered into a letter of intent with Meadox Medicals, Inc., Oakland, N.J., to develop, manufacture and market MedSonic's patented STAR angioplasty system, which is designed to remove blood clots and plaque in...

Fischer Imaging restructuring to better position itself for reform. (Fischer Imaging Corp.)
October 1, 1993... Denver-based Fischer Imaging Corp. will lay off 30 employees as part of a major restructuring effort designed to position the radiology equipment manufacturer to better react to federal health care reforms. Fischer will cut the jobs from its...

Medex consolidating hospital and home health sales and marketing forces. (Medex Inc.)
October 1, 1993... Medex Inc., Hilliard, Ohio, will consolidate two of its three marketing and sales forces as part of the company's ongoing restructuring process. The consolidation is to begin in Jan. 1994, after the company has completed consolidating its...

Marquest suing two executives, trying to put problems in past. (Marquest Medical Products Inc.)
October 1, 1993... Marquest Medical Products, Inc., Englewood, Colo., sued two of its former top officials for negligence, claiming their mismanagement cost Marquest $28 million and nearly bankrupted the company. The suits are not expected to directly affect the...

Diagnostics market's size and intensity sets stage for best and worst in medical advertising.
October 1, 1993... Diagnostics, as it has been for the last twenty years, is one of the biggest and most heated markets in today's hospital industry. Despite all of the uncertainty and anxiety pervading the health care industry from the hallowed halls of...

Abbott markets administration set as multi-use, cost-saving device. (Abbott Laboratories. Hospital Products Div.)
October 1, 1993... Abbott Critical Care Systems, Mountain View, Calif., is marketing its new administration set with in-line burette reservoir as a cost-saving device that can be used for many applications. The set was released in May, and is used to control the...

Becton Dickinson targeting nurses with new stickless blood collection set. (Becton Dickinson and Co.)
October 1, 1993... Becton Dickinson & Co., Franklin Lakes, N.J., is targeting nurses performing difficult phlebotomy procedures, such as those involving old, infant or traumatized patients, to use its new stickless device: the Vacutainer Brand Safety-Lok Blood...

BFD launches NIOSH-approved single-use respirator. (BFD Industries Inc.; National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health)
October 1, 1993... BFD Industries Inc., Atlanta, is targeting health care professionals working in infectious environments to use the company's single-use respirator masks, which are approved by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The...

Successful Derma Sciences dressing moves to podiatry market. (Derma Sciences Inc.)
October 1, 1993... Old Forge, Pa.-based Derma Sciences is breaking into the podiatry market with the company's zinc-saline wet dressing, a product now being used in the treatment of leg ulcers. Derma Sciences will continue to promote the dressing as an improvement...

Katena promotes new diamond knife through company newsletter. (Katena Products Inc.)
October 1, 1993... Katena Products Inc., Denville, N.J., is targeting cataract surgeons who do not perform radial keratotomy surgery, but would like to correct astigmatism during cataract surgery, with the company's new A-K Diamond Knife, which is specifically...

Lumex introduces multi-sized wheelchair cushions. (Lumex Inc.)
October 1, 1993... Lumex, Inc., Bay Shore, N.Y., introduced wider and narrower additions to its Akros line of wheelchair cushions to take advantage of a market trend toward different sizes of wheelchairs. The new cushions were released in May. Lumex officials...

Med Inc. markets alternative to suction canisters. (Medical and Environmental Designs Inc.)
October 1, 1993... Medical & Environmental Designs Inc. (Med Inc.), St. Louis, is marketing its new Medic Suction System as the only alternative to using suction canisters in operating rooms. Med Inc. expects the system, which was released in August, to gradually...

Phoenix Medical offers glove with anti-microbial agent. (Phoenix Medical Technology Inc.)
October 1, 1993... Phoenix Medical Technology, Inc., Andrews, S.C., is marketing its new line of Microban gloves as the only gloves on the market with an anti-microbial agent built into the gloves' material. The gloves were released in August. The company is...

New Smiths laryngoscope features disposable blades. (Smiths Industries Medical Systems)
October 1, 1993... Smiths Industries Medical Systems (SIMS), Keene, N.H., introduced its Disposable Laryngoscope System designed with interchangeable handles that can be fully immersed for cleaning. The system was released in June. The company is marketing the...

PyMaH promoting ease of use with new axillary thermometer. (PyMaH Corp.)
October 1, 1993... PyMaH Corp., Somerville, N.J., is targeting pediatric physicians with its new Tempa-DOT AX Single-Use Clinical Thermometer, which is designed for axillary use. The thermometer was released in August. Company officials are promoting the...

Cardioline unveils new monitoring technology at HIDA convention. (Cardioline USA Inc.; Healthcare Industry Distributors Association)
October 1, 1993... Cardioline USA, Inc., Portland, Ore., is emphasizing the use of new technology in the company's marketing of two new monitoring systems. The systems were introduced in September. The company unveiled the AD 35 Holter System and the ECT WS 2000...

Vision Sciences introduces disposable endosheath system. (Vision Sciences Inc.)
October 1, 1993... Vision Sciences Inc., Natick, Mass., is promoting its new Disposable EndoSheath System as the best way to protect patients and hospital staff from infection related to bronchoscopy and gastrointestinal endoscopy. The system was released May 15....

Owens & Minor becomes prime vendor with DPSC region. (Owens and Minor Inc.; Defense Personnel Support Center)
October 1, 1993... Owens & Minor, Inc., Glen Allen, Va., signed a prime vendor agreement to supply the 11 facilities of the National Capital region, Washington, D.C., of the Defense Personnel Support Center (DPSC) that's expected to be worth $20 million during the...

Datascope Corp. (seeks approval for VasoSeal)
October 1, 1993... Datascope Corp., Montvale, N.J., is seeking Food & Drug Admin. approval for VasoSeal, the company's first percutaneous device for vascular homeostasis in angiography. Datascope will seek approval for its use in angioplasty at a later date. The...

Quidel Corp. (markets QuickVue One Step Strep A Test)
October 1, 1993... Quidel Corp., San Diego, filed with the Food & Drug Admin. for clearance to market its QuickVue One-Step Strep A Test to laboratories and doctors' offices. U.S. sales of rapid diagnostic Strep A tests are between $50 million to $100 million a...

Advanced Surgical, Inc. (seeks license for valved catheter)
October 1, 1993... Advanced Surgical, Inc., Princeton, N.J., signed a license agreement granting the company exclusive worldwide manufacturing and marketing rights for a valved catheter used in the treatment of female urinary incontinence. Advanced Surgical will...

Nightingale Medical Equipment Services.
October 1, 1993... Nightingale Medical Equipment Services, Cincinnati, hired Steven L. Steigelman as vice president of finance and chief financial officer, and promoted John B. Dumas to director of professional services. Prior to joining Nightingale, Steigelman...

Aequitron Medical, Inc.
October 1, 1993... Aequitron Medical, Inc., Minneapolis, named Jeffrey A. Blair senior vice president of sales and marketing. Blair will be responsible for the development, implementation and performance of all sales and marketing functions at Aequitron. Before...