Versa Capital Sets Their Eyes on SynCardia Systems, Creator of the Only FDA-approved Artificial Heart 

SynCardia Systems

Artificial heart maker SynCardia Systems has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization with plans to sell all of its assets to a Philadelphia-based private-equity firm, according to reports in the Arizona Daily Star . Tucson-based SynCardia, maker of the world’s only U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved artificial heart, will continue operations as an affiliate of…

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2.4 Million People Have a Congenital Heart Defects

Congenital Heart Defects

An estimated 2.4 million people in the U.S. were living with congenital heart defects in 2010, a 40 percent increase from 2000, according to a recent analysis. Of those 2.4 million, 1.4 million were adults and 1 million were children. From 2000 to 2010, the proportion of adults with congenital heart defects rose 63 percent.…

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Have Researchers Figured Out What Causes Migraines?

migraines

A new study suggests that migraines are mostly caused by problems with the blood supply system, and the findings could help inform future research and treatments for the disorder. The research, published by the International Headache Genetics Consortium (IHGC), could help resolve a question doctors have long wrestled with: whether migraines are primarily a vascular…

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My really BAD “How to Get a Job” YouTube Videos from 2009 got 88,031 views. Last chance to learn (& laugh) before they are replaced by shiny new ones. 

Disclaimer: There are a ton of really cringe-worthy photos of me on this page. Oh, how far we have come since 2009 when the iPhone 3 was just being introduced and camcorders were the size of a loaf of bread. I have a great sense of humor – and realized that there is information on here that…

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Cardiovascular Systems to Pay $8 Million to Settle Physician Kickbacks

Cardiovascular Systems, Inc

Cardiovascular Systems agreed to pay $8 million to settle allegations that the company paid kickbacks to physicians to convince them to use its medical devices. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of North Carolina announced the settlement with the Department of Justice on June 29. “The claims resolved by this settlement are allegations…

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Merit Medical Acquires DFINE, Inc. 

SOUTH JORDAN, Utah, July 06, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Merit Medical Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MMSI), a leading manufacturer and marketer of proprietary disposable devices used primarily in cardiology, radiology and endoscopy, today announced that it has acquired DFINE, Inc. headquartered in San Jose, California, in a merger transaction through which DFINE has become a wholly-owned subsidiary…

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Discrepancy Rate Between Residents, Attending Radiologists

radiologists

Academic radiology departments have traditionally asked trainees to provide after-hours interpretations, with an attending radiologists confirming the findings the following morning. But concerns over quality have led some facilities to employ attending radiologists around the clock. According to a study published by the Journal of the American College of Radiology , however, one institution’s overall…

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Tiny Injectable Camera System for Endoscopes

Endoscopes

At the Univesity of Stuttgart in Germany, scientists have created a lens system small enough to be injected through a syringe. It can be attached to the distal end of a fiber optic cable, while at the proximal end a tiny CMOS sensor captures the images. The hope is that the technology will lead to…

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Is Your Doctor’s Advice Objective on Receiving Robotic Surgery?

Robotic Surgery

Patients often rely on physicians for information about their treatment alternatives. Unfortunately, that information is not always objective.  Consider a man with early-stage prostate cancer interested in surgical removal of his tumor, but uncertain whether it is better for the surgery to be performed with the help of robotic technology. He asks his surgeon for…

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Flexible Robotic System, Developed in Pittsburgh is Centerpiece of Medrobotics

Medrobotics

James Jordan half-jokingly said he thought he “might be investing in a sock puppet.” The year was 2005. Mr. Jordan, one of four executives-in-residence at the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse on the South Side at the time, had just volunteered to help Howie Choset, a Carnegie Mellon University robotics professor, and Marco Zenati, then a…

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