If I had to describe Jamar Rogers in just one word it would be life. More than anyone else I have ever met or spoken with, Jamar Rogers is full of life. It was evident from the first time I saw him on the second season of NBC’s The Voice and it was reconfirmed last week when I spoke with him on the phone, that this is a guy who is truly living his best life. Jamar’s spirit and energy and courage shines through everything he does, on stage and off. One of the things that have allowed him to...
OK, I admit it, I love to sleep! If I need any more reminders that I am getting old – thinning hairline, constant aches and pains, the imminent arrival of reading glasses – the fact that I really enjoy going to bed early should be a sign. To me, nothing is more relaxing than a good book and some peace and quiet before nodding off; 10:00 is usually about right. Accompanying me on the bedside table is a sound machine which creates soothing background noise to help drown out the...
Remember when expectant parents would go around showing off their ultrasound pictures to 350 or more of their family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and old classmates? Neither do I. Yet on any given day I can see 3-D ultrasound pictures posted by Facebook friends I only vaguely remember from school. Awe, it’s a picture of your uterus, you shouldn't have. No, really, you shouldn't have! Socially speaking, this trend is downright disturbing, especially when the mother-to-be makes it her profile picture. Now her fetus is available for the entire world to...
If someone would have asked me three years ago what Necrotizing enterocolitis (or NEC for short) meant, then my response would probably be a blank stare, followed by I'll have to get back to you on that. That's often the reply I give to people when I'm not sure of an answer. But if someone were to ask me today what NEC means, the answer would probably be a bit different. I think the first thing I'd say is, "Well how much time do you have for me to answer that question honestly?" For simplicity's sake, we can just say...
It’s doubtful that Britney Spears’ 12-year-old hit single, Oops! . . . I did it again, entered into Roche’s mind when the firm disclosed a hostile takeover bid to acquire Illumina late last month for $44.50 a share in cash, or about $5.7 billion. Okay, maybe doubtful isn’t the right word. Maybe I should say that there was no chance in the world that Roche even considered this song when describing its takeover bid. But to those who have followed Roche closely throughout the past few years, the song seems to fit Roche’s attempts to acquire the DNA sequencing company...
Screening for various diseases is controversial these days thanks to the U.S. Public Services Task Force and similar agencies in other nations, which have suggested a more cautious approach to screening. These suggestions have been blasted by doctors and patient groups for obvious reasons. Former Medical Device Daily executive editor Jim Stommen took up prostate cancer screening in a posting at this blog a few weeks back, and while I agree with Jim on a lot of things, I felt one perspective was missing; that of the federal budget. The problem is that no national economy can support indiscriminate...
Ah, modern medical imaging. You can bet your car payment that I get a lot of mileage out of medical imaging as the Washington editor for Medical Device Daily. All those cuts under the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 have just littered the Washington roundup practically since the day I took this job. What's not to like? Still, imaging is not just another pretty face or another bunch of pretty pictures, as the doctors like to say. There's some real substance to modern imaging technology beyond providing the occasional nutcase at...
Earlier this year GE Healthcare established its first global Pathology Imaging Centre of Excellence (PICE) in Toronto, Ontario. GE and its digital pathology joint venture, Omnyx, will invest $7.75 million along with a $2.25 million grant from the Health Technology Commercialization Program created by Ontario’s Health Technology Exchange and funded by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. Planned collaborative R&D partnerships are expected to bring an additional $7.2 million, for a total investment of $17.2 million over the next three years. Considering GE is a massive global corporation with locations all over the world and its JV Omnyx is...
By JIM STOMMEN, Medical Device Daily Contributing Writer The arguments going on these days over the prostate cancer screening test known as prostate-specific antigen (PSA for short) might make one think that there’s something wrong with the test itself. Not so. The argument by what we will refer to as the “anti” side of the issue is with what happens after the routine blood test comes back with a positive finding. Those folks, who go by the name U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, maintain that the PSA test leads to demonstrative levels of over-treatment, doing so to such an extent...
Those in the business of therapeutic or diagnostic devices know how quickly things can change, so let's take a quick look at a few stories that appeared in Medical Device Daily in August 2009. After all, two years are less than the average time needed to get a patent through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which is another story. Aug. 12, 2009: Schultz out at CDRH; Shuren to serve as interim director On Aug. 11, 2009, the Internet was abuzz with reports that Dan Schultz, MD, had stepped...