Reviews and News on Medical Equipment

Patients who have been diagnosed with severe heart failure will often choose to have a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implanted. These devices work well to keep the heart circulating blood throughout the body. On the other hand, a C-Pulse device can perform much of the same task without coming into contact with the blood. Rather than being an actual pump, the C-Pulse applies pressure to part of the aorta and promotes the circulation of blood without actually coming into contact with it.
Another advantage of the C-Pulse device is its ability to be disconnected by the patient. An LVAD is a permanent “fixture” in the heart and cannot be turned off. However, the C-Pulse is not exempt from its own problems. Because the cuff contracts about 70 times in a minute, this medical equipment could have long-term effects on the aorta or simply wear itself out. Another issue is that since the C-Pulse is only partially implanted, it is able to receive power and compressed air through a tube that is tunneled from the aorta to the abdomen under the skin. There, it connects to another tube that leads to an 8 lb. battery-pack and controller, which can be cumbersome.
LVADs also have an external pack, which means that neither device is very popular with patients, but the tube exposure of the C-Pulse medical equipment means a patient could be vulnerable to infection. What the C-Pulse avoids by not coming into contact with blood, it makes up for in patient infection risk from the tube exposure. As a result, many patients who use the C-Pulse device spend a lot of time swabbing and sterilizing the area where the tube extends from the abdomen. Still, the less invasive nature of the C-Pulse makes it more desirable for most patients than an implanted LVAD, and less intrusive on their lifestyle.

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Heart monitoring medical equipment devices are a great solution for patients who suffer from cardiovascular diseases, but they are only as effective as a patient’s willingness to wear one.

A recent innovation in medical equipment devices allows doctors to use wireless communication and “cloud computing” so patients can wear cordless heart monitors on a regular basis.

New cordless heart monitoring devices from Corventis are able to communicate the activity of a person’s heart via wireless technology. This device, known as the Avivo, utilizes a disposable sensor that sticks directly on the patient’s chest, along with a receiver that is about the size of a mobile phone. In addition to a patient’s heart rate, the Avivo sends other data through the Bluetooth-enabled device, including fluid stats, activity, posture and respiratory rates. This information is sent in real-time through cellular networks to cardiographic technologists at Corventis, where they are analyzed thoroughly. Caregivers can then access reports on a secure web site or have them sent via email, phone or fax in the event of abnormal signals.

With the older, more cumbersome heart monitoring devices being so inconvenient to use, and many patients choosing to abandon them when sleeping, caregivers are pleased to have a way to stay on top of their patient’s cardiovascular health in a more reliable and consistent manner. This is the first time an infrastructure has been developed whereby a signal containing such vital information could be send to through a secure network remotely.

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Medical equipment suppliers have developed another option for heart disease patients who need an aortic valve replacement but are too frail to survive the surgery.  This condition affects thousands of elderly patients who need a safer and more effective option.  By snaking a new aortic valve in through the arteries as opposed to doing open-heart surgery, the chances of survival dramatically increase, especially when a patient’s options are limited.

While still in the early stages of development, it is expected that these implantable devices may become the new standard for younger valve replacement patients who do not want to undergo open heart surgery.

Once this new treatment is approved by the United States FDA, one European company is already poised to begin selling transcatheter aortic valves in the US, but they are already available in Europe.

Like any new medical equipment or technique, these valves are not being billed as “cure-all” and they can be associated with a higher risk of stroke, but they are expected to be a solution for many inoperable patients.  Medical professionals are looking to this type of surgery for other types of heart medicine and they are looked upon as a first step toward transforming geriatric cardiac care.

Nearly 350,000 Americans deal with aortic valve disease, which is essentially a problem with the heart’s main gateway.  It can cause the heart to open and close poorly, which forces the heart to beat faster and harder.  Over 50,000 patients suffering from this disease undergo open-heart surgery for the replacement of this essential artery, yet thousands of others are turned away because they are too fragile to survive an open-heart procedure.

As soon as these new valves are approved for use in the United States, medical equipment manufacturers will undoubtedly be scrambling to win new business.

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Medical equipment costs have been skyrocketing for decades, but as technology continues to advance, hospitals are under pressure to keep up with the latest machines. While a healthcare facility has the option to buy used medical equipment, the general public doesn’t always have that option. As a result, Medicare has made some important changes that will help decrease the cost of medical equipment for consumers.

Nationwide, ten metropolitan areas are rolling out a new Medicare program that requires competitive bidding for leasing durable medical equipment (DME). This equipment can include everything from hospital-style beds to oxygen equipment, diabetes supplies and respiratory devices. The program simply aims to help consumers pay less for the rental of medical equipment than they may have been paying before.

How is Medicare able to reduce the cost of home medical equipment? Medical advances have made it possible to create equipment that is cheaper and more efficient than ever, not more expensive. But since the prices for medical equipment have not been adjusted account for this, the government has been overpaying for several years.

Instead of re-regulating the Medicare prices, high-end suppliers will now have to bid against other companies who make the same equipment for less. This essential prevents these companies from inflating their prices for the government. Since most Medicare plans only cover 80% of the cost of DME, competition among suppliers also benefits patients.

As the new Medicare regulations go into effect, it should be interesting to see how this affects the medical equipment industry, and whether it will cause further consolidation among suppliers.

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As the Chinese economy grows, the nation plans to spend billions of dollars on new hospitals and clinics, making health care accessible to nearly every Chinese citizen. All of this growth is outlined in a three-year healthcare plan that was announced in late 2009, and Western medical equipment manufacturers are anxious to serve these needs with advanced diagnostic imaging systems.

Despite Chinese procurement rules that make it difficult for foreign suppliers to compete for this business, companies like Royal Philips Electronics, General Electric and Siemens AG are setting their sights on China. The need for advanced medical imaging equipment within China’s healthcare infrastructure is expected to fuel robust sales for high-tech scanning devices.

According to industry analysts Frost & Sullivan, China’s medical equipment market is expected to double in size by the year 2015, reaching more than $53 billion. This includes a wide range of patient monitoring devices and durable medical equipment, but much of this increase will likely come from the sale of CT and MRI scanners, which can cost up to $2 million each. This is great news for the beleaguered U.S. medical device industry, which has suffered a great deal during the economic downturn, falling by one-third of its value just last year alone.

Philips Healthcare has projected double-digit increases in its Chinese healthcare operations unit, and General Electric has already generated $1 billion in new revenue from the Chinese market. Siemens expects rapid increases in spending on their medical imaging equipment in China, far exceeding the market’s 10% annual growth percentage. As a result, all three of these companies have expanded their offerings of less expensive imaging gear to meet the needs of rural hospitals and clinics across China.

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A new report, “Medical Devices Outsourcing”, released earlier this month projects the medical device that are  outsourced to reach $42.6 billion within the next five years.  The report was compiled by GIA (Global Industry Analysts) and includes a fully comprehensive guide on the use of outsourcing in the medical devices market, which they say has been driven by increased demand.  OEMs who manufacture medical equipment are looking for ways to improve productivity and simplify their supply chain networks while continuing to cut costs in a touch economic climate.

As manufacturers of medical equipment face increasing pressure to cut costs and improve profit margins, they are still very conscious of the need to deliver cutting edge products and providing customer service that is considered superior.  As a result, they need to modernize the way they do business in this ever-changing marketplace.  Outsourcing provides OEMs the flexibility to utilize off-site facilities to assemble specific portions of their new medical devices, thereby realizing better efficiencies in their existing plants.

Aside from these benefits of efficiency, outsourcing medical equipment manufacturing also allows medical equipment suppliers to focus efforts on other areas, including R&D, technology, and marketing.  Outsourcing lets these OEMs either scale their services upwards or downwards based on customer demand, which makes a lot of sense given current economic conditions.  The easier it is to implement the creation of a new medical device, the more likely these suppliers will be able to keep up with their competitors and add new technologies to their product lines.  Contract manufacturing has gained wider acceptance in the medical equipment community and has allowed for greater efficiencies and the ability to combine many services in one-stop shops.

Some of the key players taking advantage of outsourcing include HCL’s Life Science, Minnetronix, Inc., The MedTech Group, Inc., Symmetry Medical and Heraeus Medical Components, to name a few.

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According to a new study by the Mayo Clinic, transoral robotic surgery can now be safely used to treat certain cancers in the throat. Researchers found that transoral robots offer profound advantages for effective treatment of the tonsils and tongue and allow patients to recover more quickly.

Robotic medical equipment is nothing new, but it seems like medical equipment manufacturers are discovering new applications for this technology every day. In the case of traditional tongue and tonsil cancer surgery, complications during the procedure and the recurrence of tumors have been a challenge for surgeons. However, when using a transoral robot for surgery, patients in this study experienced no major complications, and none of their tumors returned. They were also able to swallow on their own much sooner, resulting in shorter hospital stays.

One of the study authors is Dr. Eric Moore, a head and neck surgeon from the Mayo Clinic. He and his team performed 45 surgeries using this new transoral robotic medical equipment. They were able to cut down the average hospital stay from 10 days to 2.3 days. In addition, they were able to dramatically reduce the amount of time a typical patient must use feeding tubes after surgery. With transoral robotic surgery, feeding tubes were removed in a week to 10 days, where the average patient getting traditional surgery would have needed them for two to three months.

With results like these, transoral robotic surgery is expected to become a more commonly used technique for removing cancerous tumors from the throat. Expect to see many medical equipment suppliers stepping in to serve this need.

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When a stroke occurs, victims are often left with limited mobility in their upper limbs, resulting in the need for regular physical therapy sessions. Traveling to and from a therapists office can be a tremendous burden on elderly patients, especially because successful recovery often requires several sessions per week.

To aid in their recovery, many stroke sufferers are expected to start taking advantage of an innovative breakthrough in medical equipment that uses robotic therapy. This new robot is known as the MIT-Manus and it has the industry buzzing with excitement.

Brown University researchers were able to test the robot as a physical therapy tool over a three month period and monitor its success rate with recovering stroke patients. Even in this relatively short time frame, they could see a measurable improvement in upper limb mobility.

This revolutionary new robotic medical equipment takes hold of a patient’s arm and instructs the patient to perform different tasks. Because it has the ability to sense their movement, it can even help them out when needed. Using robotic therapy in the home will save patients valuable time and speed up their return to an active lifestyle.
According to the recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the MIT-Manus will offer many therapeutic benefits to stroke patients, including a faster return to everyday mobility and function. Considering that strokes have affected over 6 million Americans, this new robotic therapist may soon become standard medical equipment for stroke patients.

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Whether you need an EKG machine, an examination table or a new nuclear imaging camera, buying used medical equipment can save you up to 70% off of retail prices. Buying used medical equipment can make sense for many medical facilities, especially if the technology in the equipment hasn’t changed much over the years. 

If your practice is cutting back on spending (and who isn’t these days?), or if you are just starting out, buying used medical equipment may be just what the doctor ordered.  Typically, slightly used equipment is priced from about 30% below retail, or up to 70% less if the equipment is old or only in fair condition. 

Ultrasound equipment is one of the top selling items because the technology hasn’t changed all that much and will still get the job done.  Most used medical equipment dealers get their items from hospitals that have recently purchased new equipment or through liquidation sales when a practice goes out of business, but sometimes it comes directly from the manufacturer.

So, what are some of the pitfalls when buying used medical equipment?

You probably won’t get the training your staff needs on the used equipment, and may have to rely on old training manuals if you can find them.
It could also be difficult to have very old equipment serviced or buy parts for it, especially if the model has been discontinued. 
The equipment may not arrive in the same condition as described, or there could be lengthy delays in delivery. 
You may need to arrange for your own delivery and installation.
If something is wrong with the equipment, it may be difficult to return it.

Here are some guidelines for avoiding these pitfalls:

Do plenty of research online first, and thoroughly read the terms and conditions before purchasing from an online medical equipment dealer. 
Be sure you are dealing with a reputable company.  Ask for references if necessary, or get recommendations from your colleagues.  Look for solid business records from credible sources.
Check out the directory listings on IAMERS – the International Association of Medical Equipment Remarketers and Servicers.
Do some comparison shopping first, and try to determine the fair market value for the equipment you need. 

Doing some preliminary research and investigating the credentials of the seller will keep you from getting burned, and will ensure that you get the best medical equipment for your money.

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Urine analyzers, as the name suggests, are used for the purpose of analyzing urine samples based on pre specified parameters. The Chemstrip 101 Urine analyzer is one among many that are available in the market but stands out from the crowd owing to its affordability and reliability. It offers visual urinalysis test strip evaluation and has a easy to use interface which is user friendly and basic. It helps keep the entire testing process simple and cost effective.

The test strips that come with the Chemstrip analyzer have more than a year of shelf life and are resistant to ascorbic acid and glucose and hemoglobin interferences which could deteriorate the reliability of readings. It allows for simultaneous reading of the strips with minimal time consumption and also detects other key determinants such as acetoacetic acid and acetone which aid in ketone determination. The wide ranges of parameters that are used include the ph levels, leukocytes, protein, glucose, haemoglobin and specific gravity among others.

Compared to other medical equipment, it ensures reliability and offers a consistently high level of accuracy in the readings. There are error detection indicators which detect human errors and instrument or functional failure. It also comes with patient identification features and has a compatible interface and connectivity features that enable it to be connected via cable to a computer for download of relevant data.

The easy to understand user interface is coupled with function keys that allow for various settings. The readings can be printed using an in built printer in different units of measurement based on the need along with the flagging of abnormal. It also has an inbuilt memory that can store up to a hundred results and offers reprint options. The rapid results that are more than accurate, reliability, ease of use and affordability all combine to give the Chemstrip Urine analyzer a distinct advantage over the competition and hence is a much recommended piece of medical equipment.

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