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Inspire Sleep Apnea Implant Gets FDA Approval To Begin Pivotal Clinical Trial
The trial will be carried out at several locations and Inspire is a spinoff of Medtronic. The constant interruption of sleep can lead to cardiac issues. On each breath the nerve in your neck restores muscle tone to the tongue and it does not collapse. I have seen some of the sleep at home units w…
Malpractice Insurers Getting Nervous as Better Documented Records from Providers and Empowered Patients Emerge
This is a bit of a switch but it is the market that is being created with better documentation and there are fears now that lawsuits could grow and if you read further down one of the items listed as a fear factor is the easier access to electronic medical records from the patient. Wait a minute, i…
Wolters Kluwer Subsidiary to Acquire Pharmacy OneSource–Hospital Software as a Service
This is a good sign with some consolidation. We have more software available for sale and if we could cut down on all the systems available out there today and get some better collaboration it would certainly help. We need this type of software but we sure have way too much of it in US healthcare …
Thomson Reuters Buys GeneGo Biology Solutions
GeneGo’s customers are Pharmaceutical and Biotech companies as well as academic and government institutions such as FDA, NIH and EPA. The company sells software and their data solutions as well as offering outsourced services on a contracted basis for various types of genetic reports. The Meta Cor…
Healthcare Reform Survey Finds That 74% of Physicians Will Retire, Work Part-time, Or Seek Other Alternatives
Only a little over a quarter of the doctors surveyed (2400) said they would run business as usual. Cash only practices could be established and of course the very good reasons for that move would be to get rid of the awful insurance and Medicare billing, they hate it and for good reason. The only …
X-spine Announces New FDA Product Approval for Spinal Fusion–Minimally Invasive
Everybody knows someone with back problems and/or injuries and now technology has so many different solutions from implants to devices that also reduce pain. With some of the systems with X-Spine the procedure is done with a very small incision of an inch and can re-attach. In addition the compa…
China Slashes Roche, Bristol-Myers, Pfizer, Lilly, Novartis, Takeda and More Pharma Companies to Save Money
What novel idea and wonder why we haven’t tried something like that here in the US . China is set to be the second largest world consumer of pharmaceuticals in the upcoming years. The reductions in pricing are stated to be between 19 and 25 percent. 40% of healthcare in China is currently spent o…
Goldman Code-Theft Trial Begins–Did The Stolen Code Have The Potential to Create Algorithms for High Frequency Trading
If you read here at the Medical Quack often enough you have to see that word, “algorithms” stare you in the face every time you visit here and it is there for good reason. My efforts here are to simply acquaint the layman with a bit of what happens behind the scenes on servers on Wall Street and wi…
SEEDIE Begins Process of Certifying EHR Vendor Salespeople (Humor)
I like these folks and their satire is getting closer to the truth all the time! I do agree with a lot of this though with the complicated and unfriendly systems we have built and I can say that as I created an EMR years ago, code from the ground up so you get some different perspectives here at th…
SoCal Hospital Workers Plan to Stage a 24 Hour Walk Out Later This Week–Breakdown of Negotiations With HCA For Profit Owner- Its Not Money But Rather Working Conditions
As I am reading the content here, this breakdown and potential strike issue is about “working conditions” and not benefits and money. Hospital Corporation of America is the one of the largest “for profit” hospital chains in the US. This has been an interesting year in the for profit business as co…
Lenovo Touch Screen M90Z Computer Give-A-Way-Enter At the Medical Quack On December 5th-9th
This will be your chance to to win a brand new Lenovo Touch Screen M90Z touch screen computer. The contest comes in 2 parts, one for an individual to win and secondly a nomination for a charity or non profit company to win a set of 5 Lenovo touch screen computers. I have been working with one to…
Cardinal Health Acquires Zuellig Pharma in China–Their Largest Pharmaceutical Importer
This is a major acquisition and just less than a couple weeks ago Cardinal purchased Kinray in New York for 1.3 billion who is a leading pharmaceutical distributor that services over 2000 independent drug stores. The press release continues to state that by 2015 that China will be the second larges…
Along With the Clouds Comes Water Cooled Servers- They are Green and Coming Back
This is a little off the normal topics here but I found it interesting that the example here, Citibank is “bringing the plumber back” as the title states with moving back to water cooled servers instead of air. Virtualization and use of internal clouds is somewhat driving this as now the servers ar…
California Fines Health Insurance Carriers for Underpayment and Delay of Claims-Should Fine Congress for the Medicare Delay In June-Having to Resubmit Claims There Too
Pay and continue to pass go certainly seems to be the rules of the game today. All the major health insurers in California took at hit it seems and it all comes back to getting the data system aligned. They get stuck in cyber space when they do not fall in accordance with the algorithmic formulas …
Spray On Stem Cells for Treating Burns and Open Wounds–Regenerative Medicine
This is a neat story and technology. According to the video the mixture looks like Jello and is sprayed on. The woman patient is a diabetic with a foot wound that will not heal and with using her own stem cells, it’s fix and and win. The patient’s first skin graft failed and the patient also had …
UnitedHealthcare Begins Pharmacy Saver for Medicare Plan Members January 1st-Better Record Tracking for Compliance at $2.00 For Generic Drugs or Existing Co-Pay
Here we go again, half off of the $4.00 prescriptions already offered by Kroger, Walmart and others. This may not sound like a big deal if you are already paying $4.00 but your data and prescription refill information is like gold and part of the reason for new programs emerging all the time to ent…
