News Archive

In a financially stretched healthcare market, medical technology is sometimes seen as an expensive luxury. But use of the RIGHT technology can actually cut the overall cost of medical treatment and improve patient outcomes. You might be wondering how…

We live longer now, and we are more sedentary, so chronic diseases such as diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and Alzheimer’s are on the rise. These long-term degenerative diseases place a high cost burden on our healthcare systems. The sooner doctors can detect, treat, and/or prevent these conditions in patients, the more they can reduce this burden. This presents exciting opportunities for medtech companies to demonstrate R&D ingenuity.

Moore’s Law predicts that every two years the cost of computing will fall by half. That is why we can be sure that tomorrow’s gadgets will be better, and cheaper, too. But in American hospitals and doctors’ offices, a very different law seems to hold sway: every 13 years, spending on U.S. health care doubles.

Health care accounts for one in five dollars spent in the United States. It’s 17.9 percent of the gross domestic product, up from 4 percent in 1950. And technology has been the main driver of this spending: new drugs that cost more, new tests that find more diseases to treat, new surgical implants and techniques. “Computers make things better and cheaper. In health care, new technology makes things better, but more expensive,” says Jonathan Gruber, an economist at MIT who leads a heath-care group at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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Date & time: October 1, 2013 at 16:00 Central European Time (US: 10:00 EST, 7:00 PST)

In this live IM Channel One Ask the Expert Q&A hosted by NineSigma we will share hands-on experiences on how open Innovation can be applied to mitigate operator bias. By formulating business cases that address global healthcare needs, the pharmaceutical industry can open new avenues of innovation that are built on existing solid assets, developing accessory devices and services, creating user communities (medical and/or patient) and strategies to defend against the generic erosion of revenue.

Once the healthcare innovator’s guide to must-know tech terms for the next decade of medicine hit on Monday, the feedback started coming in. It’s continued to trickle in via email, Twitter and LinkedIn all week. (Thank you!)

MedCity News readers had some interesting ideas about technologies they think everyone in the healthcare space needs to know about. A few ideas came up more than once, warranting an amended list. So here you have it: five additions from readers who think these trends are about to break through in healthcare.

NIH announces the availability of a Niche Assessment Program for its SBIR/STTR Phase I awardees funded in fiscal years (FY) 2013 and 2014. All active NIH SBIR/STTR Phase I awardees (by grant or contract) as well as those small businesses selected to receive a Phase I award in the first three months of the upcoming fiscal year will be eligible to participate. This program can help “jump-start” a company’s commercialization efforts by providing the market insight and data that can be used to strategically position its technology in the marketplace, by assisting companies with their development of commercialization plans for Phase II applications, and by introducing small businesses to potential partners.

A third party, unbiased assessment of appropriate market niches for products/services that are being developed by NIH’s SBIR/STTR Phase I awardees will be performed by Foresight Science & Technology. Using its Technology Niche Analysis® (TNA®), Foresight will perform the due diligence on markets appropriate for each SBIR technology and develop an in-depth report for each SBIR/STTR awardee that addresses:

• needs and concerns of end-users 
• competing technologies and competing products 
• competitive advantage of the SBIR/STTR-developed technology 
• market size and potential market share (may include national and/or global markets) 
• barriers to market entry (may include, but is not limited to pricing, competition, government 
• regulations, manufacturing challenges, capital requirements, etc.) 
• market drivers 
• status of market and industry trends 
• potential customers, licensees, investors, or other commercialization partners 
• price customers are likely to pay

Ten of Maryland’s nineteen fastest-growing companies are located in Montgomery County – including the state’s highest-ranking company and two of our incubator companies! Ten is also two more than made the list from well-publicized, regional rival Fairfax County, Virginia – supporting what local businesses and economic development professionals have known for years: Montgomery County is a GREAT place to grow a business.

A team of researchers led by Andrew Coop, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (PSC) at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (UMSOP), has developed a new opioid drug that shows great potential to advance treatment and improve quality of life for individuals living with chronic pain. Spotlighted in a recent issue of ACS Chemical Neuroscience, the compound, known as UMB 425, is as strong as morphine, but displays diminished tolerance over time with no obvious toxic effects.

“UMB 425 is a breakthrough in the development of therapeutics to treat chronic pain,” says Coop (on the left in the photo). “Unlike other drugs developed to act on only one biological target, UMB 425 acts on two different opioid receptors in the body. When activated at the same time, these receptors work together to provide pain relief and slow the body’s development of tolerance to the drug. This diminished tolerance allows a lower dose of the opioid to be administered for a longer time period, while still achieving the same level of pain relief.”

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett will visit China next month, leading a delegation of business and civic leaders looking for partnership opportunities in areas such as education and biotechnology.

While final details are still being worked out, Leggett’s group is scheduled to visit Beijing, Shanghai, Benxi and Xi’an, the county’s newest “sister city.” The trip, set for Sept. 15-25, has been jointly organized by the county, the Maryland China Business Council and the state of Maryland’s trade and investment office in Shanghai, which will help with roundtables and other contacts.

BD Diagnostics, a segment of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE: BDX), a leading global medical technology company, announced today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance and launch of the BD ProbeTec™ Trichomonas vaginalis Qx Amplified DNA Assay for the direct qualitative detection of T. vaginalis DNA in endocervical and vaginal samples as well as neat urine specimens to aid in the diagnosis of trichomoniasis on the BD Viper™ System with XTR™ Technology. This assay has been CE-marked to the In Vitro Diagnostic Directive (98/79/EC).

Trichomoniasis is the most common curable sexually transmitted infection (STI). Worldwide, more than 180 million cases are estimated to occur annually.[i] Genital inflammation caused by trichomoniasis can increase a woman’s susceptibility to HIV infection. In HIV-infected women, trichomoniasis may increase the likelihood of HIV transmission to sex partners. Furthermore, trichomoniasis is often asymptomatic. For these reasons, experts recommend screening for T. vaginalis in women considered to be at high risk for infection (i.e., women who have new or multiple partners, have a history of STIs, exchange sex for payment, or use injection drugs).  

One of the first tenants to lease at Emerging Technology Center’s new Highlandtown location is SameGrain, developer of a social discovery platform that helps people anonymously locate, connect with, and grow new friendships with people who share similar demographics, beliefs, and interests.

One of SameGrain’s goals is making it easier for people who share common interests to find each other, says SameGrain co-founder Anne A. Balduzzi.