2009 Headlines
Keyword Search
Kensa Group: Lansing Biotech Company Sterilizes Tissue with Supercritical CO2
11/27/2009
Complete Article
UB leads SUNY in commercializing inventions
11/19/2009
CHARLOTTE HSU
UB is a major player in SUNY when it comes to commercializing inventions, Robert Genco, vice provost and director of the Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach, told the Faculty Senate Executive Committee at its Wednesday meeting.
The university, Genco said, is responsible for about half the start-up companies sprouting from research done in the system.
“For us, the driving force here is that there’s benefit to the public...We do all of this activity so that those things that are discovered by our faculty may benefit the public,” Genco said. “Most of these discoveries do very little good if they’re in publications...They need to be moved out of the university into, usually, the marketplace to be useful. So you’ve got a blend of academics and business here.”
Among other duties, Genco’s office helps faculty, staff and students evaluate and patent inventions, and license intellectual property. Researchers receive 40 percent of revenues their innovations generate.
The first steps in deciding whether to patent a discovery are to determine whether that discovery can yield products with value in the marketplace, and whether that discovery is indeed novel or rather something another party has patented before. Genco explained that commercial opportunity is a major factor influencing an invention’s progression from the laboratory into the world at large. The size and growth potential of the market for an item and the number of competing products available can affect the level of success a new innovation could see.
Genco noted that since 2002, UB research has led to 131 companies, many located in Western New York. Recent inventions range from a diagnostic test for sleep apnea to a “SmartPill” that evaluates motility disorders of the gastrointestinal tract.
As UB continues to grow, so will its efforts to bring new innovations to the marketplace. UB has a technology incubator that provides affordable business services, such as flexible rental terms and coaching, counseling, mentoring and networking for entrepreneurs. Such support greatly increases new companies’ chances of survival. A biosciences incubator planned for UB and Kaleida Health’s new global vascular institute and research building downtown will offer similar services.
Click here for complete article
Doing business with China topic of upcoming talk
11/18/2009
By Nicole Briand
Rochester Business Journal
November 18, 2009
When it comes to doing business in China, George Papageorgiou knows the importance of understanding the intellectual property landscape.
At a program on Nov. 19, Papageorgiou, a global intellectual property lawyer, will discuss the concerns and experiences that technology companies face when doing business with China.
“U.S. medical technology companies may increasingly find themselves as defendants in IP infringement lawsuits in the near future,” Papageorgiou said in a statement.
China is a growing market for medical products, and companies must upgrade their patent strategies to meet the demands of the market, he said. Papageorgiou will talk about intellectual property enforcement and litigation strategies for doing business there.
Even companies with no current interests in the Asian country would do well to learn about the market now because it is a “minefield” of IP rights, he added.
Joining Papageorgiou in his discussion will be a panel of Upstate New York company representatives, including Donna Rankin-Parobek, director of the CTO intellectual property office of Carestream Health Inc.
The discussion will take place at 3:30 p.m. at Carestream Health’s Rochester headquarters. For more info, visit www.medtech.org.
(c) 2009 Rochester Business Journal. To obtain permission to reprint this article, call 585-546-8303 or e-mail service@rbj.net.
View the article
Carestream Health signs contract
11/17/2009
Carestream Health Signs Contract to Provide Healthcare IT Solutions to MedAssets Customers
Robert Salmon
Carestream Health, Inc., has signed a multi-year contract with MedAssets Supply Chain Systems that will provide MedAssets group purchasing association (GPO) members with access to the latest innovations in healthcare IT solutions.
Carestream Health will provide a range of healthcare IT systems for purchase by MedAssets members -including data archiving, RIS/PACS and cardiology PACS--that can be used to view, protect and share medical iamges and information across a facility, an enterprise, a region or even a nation.
MedAssets, headquartered in Alpharretta, Ga., helps healthcare providers improve margin and cash flow through supply chain improvement initiatives, as well as revenue cycle management technology and services. MedAssets also assists organizations in implementing customized solutions for the procurement of medical supplies and capital equipment.
"Through this contract, thousands of MedAssets healthcare provider customers will have access to state of the art technology services at great negotiated prices,'' said Mark Miriani, President of MedAssets Supply Chain Systems. "We are pleased to offer Carestream Health as part of our contract portfolio."
The latest CARESTREAM RIS features a powerful new radiologist reporting module that improves productivity through an intuitive user interface and a rich feature set. Time saving feautures include: structured reporting, standard answers and the ability to copy content from prior reports. CARESTREAM PACS delivers a unified desktop with a native 3D and advanced applications- -- such as PowerViewer-- that accelerate routine reading by providing automatice registration and volumetric matching of 3D studies.
For more information about healthcare IT solutions from Carestream Health, please visit
www. carestreamhealth.com
CONMED Linvatec Announces Launch of Novel Biocomposite Technology and Related Matryx(TM) Biocomposite Interference Screws
11/17/2009
UTICA, NY, Nov 17, 2009 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- CONMED Corporation's (NASDAQ: CNMD) CONMED Linvatec arthroscopy unit today announced the release of new sizes of its Matryx(TM) Biocomposite Interference Screw. These new screws represent the latest advance in biocomposite material technology that allows CONMED Linvatec to produce the smallest Biocomposite Interference screw available on the market today for primary fixation of ACL and PCL grafts. The Company will debut the product at the Fall Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA) meeting in Palm Springs, CA, which takes place November 19-21, 2009.
Interference screw fixation is frequently used to attach replacement ligaments in tunnels drilled for anterior and posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. The placement of the screw in the boney tunnel with the ligament results in compression of the ligament against the boney surface of the tunnel. Such compression allows the tissue to be held in place and provides for the integration of the replacement ligament with the bone via natural healing pathways. The Matryx biocomposite screw encourages bone formation due to the presence of the bone pre-cursor Beta TriCalcium Phosphate, resulting in strong bone reconstruction and integration of the replacement ligament.
Press Release
Jonas to head MedTech board
11/17/2009
Jonas to head MedTech board
Utica Observer-Dispatch
November 17, 2009
Daniel Jonas, vice president of legal affairs and general counsel of ConMed Corp., was appointed chairman of the board of directors of MedTech, a trade association representing the Upstate New York biosciences community. Jonas’ two-year term will run until the fall of 2011.
Jonas has been a MedTech board member since in 2004. He joined ConMed as general counsel in August 1998 and became the vice president of legal affairs in March 1999.
He is on the board of trustees of Manlius Pebble Hill School and is on the advisory board of the SUNYIT School of Business.
Article Online.
Lean manufacturing helps companies survive recession
11/3/2009
Highlight: Two years ago, ConMed, a medical device maker, shortened its assembly line for surgical staplers from 3000 to 1000 feet by putting workers in teams. ...
By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
WILLIAMSPORT, Md. — A couple of years ago, Sealy, the world's top mattress maker, pieced together beds in a sort of stutter step. Today, it's a ballet.
At a plant here recently, two workers place rectangles of foam, fiber and cloth on a springboard with the dexterity of sandwich makers, briskly firing spray guns to glue the layers to each other and staple guns to bolt the cloth to the metal.
As they slide their handiwork onto a table, a "taper" just a few feet away grabs it and places it under the rat-tat-tat of a sewing machine that stitches the top panel to the rest of the unit. Within five minutes, a queen-size mattress is formed.
Previously, workers churned out dozens of unfinished mattresses at a time, loading them onto a conveyor. The taper, about 40 feet away, had to pick through 4-foot-high piles of them. Mattresses, which took up precious floor space, were sometimes damaged from rubbing against one another.
Sealy is among thousands of manufacturers that have remained profitable during the recession by using a practice called lean manufacturing to become more cost-efficient. It entails making each widget in an uninterrupted flow, rather than as part of unfinished batches; producing only what customers order; and ruthlessly chopping billions of dollars in inventory.
Complete article
Medical school, hospital branded as 'Upstate'
11/2/2009
SYRACUSE -- The State University of New York Upstate Medical University is aiming to clear up any confusion about its relationship with University Hospital and its clinical affiliates.
They're all one and the same.
In its 175-year history, the medical college has had several names, including Upstate Medical Center when it joined SUNY in 1950. Since then, the Upstate name has stuck, even with the addition of University Hospital.
But the institution feels it can no longer have an unfocused identity.
That's why the organization is now branding itself the Upstate University Health System.
"Our identity as an academic medical center is muddy," Melanie Rich, director of marketing and university communications, said in an e-mail.
However, the institution doesn't consider it an official name change, but an umbrella term for all it collectively does, the brochure reads.
Reas more about how 'Upstate' is working to solve this identity problem.
Complete article
CEOs Shy Away From Breakthrough Technology
10/30/2009
Although there is much uncertainty surrounding the outcomes of economic recovery and healthcare reform, the CEOs of four bioscience companies must adjust for the future now.
On September 14, the leaders of Bio-Optronics (Rochester, NY), ConMed (Utica, NY), Greatbatch (Buffalo, NY), and Welch Allyn (Syracuse, NY) participated in the discussion, “Just What the Doctor Ordered: CEOs and Their Prescription for Success in a Changing Economy.” The Web conference was hosted by industry organization MedTech.
The financial collapse has had different effects on the four New York companies. ConMed, a company that focuses on technology for minimally invasive surgery, has experienced about a 25% drop in capital sales in the first two quarters of 2009. To combat this loss, CEO Joe Corasanti said that his company has cut costs by consolidating three factories into one and eliminating some of its distribution centers. The company also plans to boost its organic growth by introducing new products.
These measures, Corasanti said, would help ConMed improve its operating margins. “We fully expect over the next 3–4 years, that our operating margins should return to the historic levels of about 14–15%.”
Diagnostic equipment manufacturer Welch Allyn also reported decreased revenues so far in 2009. However, CEO Julie Shimer said that the company was seeing an uptick in Q3 orders, which makes her “optimistic that medical devices are getting out of the doldrums.”
To improve the company’s bottom line, Shimer is working to grow Welch Allyn’s international sales. About 32% of the company’s business is international, Shimer said, but medical device manufacturers at large are about 55% international, so she sees a great opportunity abroad.
Another participant, Bio-Optronics CEO Dan Kerpelman, said that his company is “in a pretty healthy situation.” But he acknowledged that his business was a bit of an anomaly in this economy because it develops relatively modestly priced software applications that enable customers to create efficiencies in healthcare.
Despite its success, Kerpelman says that Bio-Optronics still struggles to maintain the proper balance between cutting costs and investing. “It’s obviously important to manage costs tightly, but not to the extent that it squashes investment and growth.”
|
|
Greatbatch CEO Thomas Hook says it’s challenging to innovate currently because there are so many external variables.
|
Investment is also a key notion for Greatbatch—a company with revenue that has more than doubled over the last four years, according to CEO Thomas Hook. The executive says that Greatbatch continues to invest about 10% of its annual sales revenue into R&D and engineering. It has also built four new facilities over the last 3–4 years.
Although Greatbatch seems to have effectively handled the financial downturn, it’s being tested by the proposed healthcare reform. Hook says that he expects a regulatory environment with higher hurdles, which will make the economics much more difficult for innovation.
In anticipation, Greatbatch has reduced the amount of risk it takes on in product development. “You look for things that are going to provide benefits that are more sure. You’re not going to take on a level of breakthough technical risk that you might have historically done and carried,” Hook said.
Corasanti agrees with Hook’s assessment. ConMed has had a difficult time pioneering a device that measures the cardiac output of patients in a noninvasive way, he said. One problem is that the device adds a cost to the typical procedure. Also, the company said it is hard to change behavior at a clinical level. Going forward, ConMed will probably concentrate on developing improved products for well-developed markets instead of making first-of-its-kind devices, Corasanti said.
The CEOs were able come up with some positives associated with healthcare reform. For example, an increased number of people seeking treatment would result in a higher volume of medical devices. However, reform is still keeping the executives awake at night.
“Whenever there is reform afoot…people get confused and often get into a wait-and-see mode,” Kerpelman said. He worries that the reform will delay healthcare professionals from making new technology acquisitions.
Article online
© 2009 Canon Communications LLC
RIT, RGHS name managing director
10/28/2009
Rochester General Health System and the Rochester Institute of Technology have named an RIT official as managing director of the school's and health system's collaborative alliance.
Cindy Gray, RIT assistant vice president of government and community relations, is the first leader of the 11-month old joint effort. In the newly created post, Gray is to work with the alliance’s steering committee and with a consulting firm hired to help the group develop a strategic plan.
Complete article.