GE Healthcare introduced AirStrip OB, their wireless fetal monitoring surveillance product at HIMSS 2006 in San Diego. Here's a story about the system and some early users in the San Antonio Express News. The 510(k) approved system transmits near real-time waveforms from GE fetal monitors for obstetrician's to use in diagnosis and treatment decisions during […]
Targeting both acute care and alternate care markets, Philips introduced the SureSigns VS3 vital signs monitor today (press release). The new monitor builds on their new line of low acuity patient monitors, the VM 4, 6 and 8.
The SureSigns VS3 provides easy access to patient information
using innovative pop-up screens, fixed keys and […]
According to a story (subscription required) in the Wall Street Journal, a former Medtronic engineer has alleged that the wireless telemetry features of Medtronic's new Concerto cardiac device were not adequately tested.
At issue is the wireless technology by which doctors and nurses can remotely monitor how well the device is working an dhow a patient […]
My story on point of care alarm notification was published in Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare magazine this month - my first story with references! Readers of this blog know this is a pet peeve of mine, and an unmet market requirement that most vendors to date have successfully avoided meeting. I got to interview […]
Smiths announced today that they received 510(k) clearance for their new medication safety software for
programming pain management infusion pumps (press release).
The CADD-Sentry Pro™™
Medication Safety Software reduces the risk of errors by enabling
[…]
Wednesday, January 31, yours truly will be joined by some industry notables in a webinar on the current state of the medical technology industry. The event, produced by MX Magazine and sponsored by medical outsourcing company Avail, will present growth and market size numbers for a variety of hot medical device market segments. You can […]
This conference was a great investment of time. (I would include a link to the event so you could see who presented and the topics, but WRG has taken down the link and does not seem to list any past events.) Without exception, the speakers were knowledgeable and informative, conveying lots of good details and […]
Joe Zebrowitz MD, started the day talking about medical necessity and observation status. A big challenge to observation is the different rules for Medicare, Medicaid, and managed care - keeping all these straight is problematic. He presented that the typical attending physician doesn't really know what “observation status” really means. They care about how observation […]
After lunch, Trevor Lewis, MD, kicked things off with a presentation called, Engineering the Observation Unit. As you might expect from the title, he provided an overview for to create and manage observation units. Starting with unit goals and building support for an obs unit, Lewis detailed many of the issues revolving around staffing these […]
Next up, a panel discussion on educating physicians to ensure compliance. The panel is all physicians. One of the first questions had to do with physician staffing of the ED and obs unit (from the perspective of the physician group that provides ED and obs coverage for the hospital). A pitfall of ED based observation […]
