by
Thomas Dworetzky, Contributing Reporter | June 12, 2018
And in January,
Stryker teamed with 3D Systems to provide greater access to personalized surgical planning and techniques for healthcare professionals.
The partnership focuses on the development and distribution of virtual surgical planning and anatomical models for the craniomaxillofacial specialty, to reduce hours that surgeons and patients spend in the operating room.
“For the first time you can pre-plan surgery for patients before going to the operating room. This enables real surgical planning,” Katie Weimer, vice president of medical devices at 3D Systems, told HCB News. “Once in surgery, surgeons are better prepared. In fact, prior to operation, the surgeon is able to try multiple techniques on the computer. That way they're making the best plan for the patient ahead of time.”
In October, 2017, Stryker's Sustainability Solutions division cut a deal with Philips to offer customers the option to purchase new and reprocessed Philips ECG leads for one low price.
"SUD reprocessing diverts millions of pounds of medical waste from U.S. landfills every year," White told HCB News at the time. "It’s among the most impactful hospital waste reduction initiatives."
In April, Boston Scientific
showed its acquisition chops when it acquired nVision Medical Corporation, a privately-held company focused on women's health. nVision developed the first and only device cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to collect cells from the fallopian tubes, offering a potential platform for earlier diagnosis of ovarian cancer.
"We estimate the near-term market opportunity to be $500 million with the potential to grow to $2 billion as this device is used by more gynecologists to help even more women," said Dave Pierce, executive vice president and president, MedSurg, Boston Scientific.
Also in April, the firm
acquired Securus Medical Group, a privately-held company that has developed a thermal monitoring system for the continuous measurement of esophageal temperature.
The thermal monitoring system developed by Securus Medical Group is an integrated catheter-based probe and imaging system that generates real-time images of the temperature of the esophagus.
"In contrast to current standards of care for esophageal temperature monitoring that measure temperature at one or a few fixed locations and have a slow temporal response, this system continuously reads the temperature of the esophagus from thousands of points and provides physicians with an intuitive 360 degree view that refreshes every second," said Steven Girouard, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer, Securus Medical Group. "Further, the system does not require tissue contact for accurate temperature readings, allowing for simplified, one-time positioning of the probe."
