Industry News

STEDMED MEDICAL ANNOUNCES NEW CONTRACT WITH MEDASSETS

  SteadMed® Medical, LLC (Fort Worth, TX), a healthcare company providing medical devices and products announced that it has recently signed a contract with MedAssets (Atlanta, GA), a leading group purchasing organization for healthcare providers.

  This contact gives MedAssets access to Drawtex®, a patented hydroconductive, nonadherent wound dressing with LevaFiber™ technology. LevaFiber technology is a combination of two types of absorbent, cross-action structure that creates the ability to move large volumes of fluid and other debris from the wound through the dressing. This hydroconductive action allows the dressing to lift, hold, and transfer the wound exudate both horizontally and vertically into the dressing, where it can absorb 500% of its own weight.

New size dressings for cavity wounds

ConvaTec Supports Development of Guidelines for Appropriate Use of Negative Pressure Wound Therapy in Spectrum of Wound Healing

  ConvaTec (Skillman, NJ) recently announced that it has provided support for the development of guidelines for the appropriate use of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) in the spectrum of wound healing. Unique to these guidelines are recommendations for integrating NPWT into a comprehensive plan of care that includes moist wound healing dressings and other treatment modalities.

Net Health Partners with KCI to Provide V.A.C.^® Therapy Integration

  Net Health Systems Inc (Pittsburgh, PA) announced the release of new functionality in the WoundExpert software enabling physicians to pre-populate V.A.C.^® Therapy authorization forms, electronically sign, and transmit by means of a secure link directly to Kinetic Concepts Inc ([KCI] San Antonio, Tex). The inclusion of this functionality is another step forward in Net Health’s continuing to provide new efficiencies, improve ease of use, and reduce errors in wound care. The inclu

Prospera® Announces New NPWT Scientific Research Measuring Signals of Pain Associated with Dressing Changes

     Prospera Technologies LLC (Fort Worth, TX) announced at the John A. Boswick, MD, Burn and Wound Care Symposium in Maui, Hawaii (February 22–26, 2010) that Malin Malmsjö, MD, PhD of Lund, Sweden, presented the results of an innovative immunohistochemistry study, the first of its kind to examine tissue trauma and pain markers associated with the removal of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) wound fillers. The study represents the latest in a long ser

Healthpoint Provides Grants for Research to Evaluate Healing Markers in chronic wounds

     Healthpoint (Fort Worth, Tex) has provided research grants to the University of Florida, Gainesville (Gainesville, Fla) and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (Nashville, Tenn) to support a joint study evaluating bioburden and potential healing markers in chronic wounds. This research initiative will explore the hypothesis that bacterial biofilms are associated with the breakdown of key components on cells and in the extracellular matrix (ECM) that regulate wound healing

Healthpoint Expands Regenerative Medicine Portfolio with New Acquisition

     Healthpoint (Fort Worth, Tex) recently announced its acquisition of two cell-based technologies from Intercytex Limited (Woburn, Mass) along with corresponding intellectual property (including patents), validated fibroblast and keratinocyte cell banks, and related production and testing equipment. The therapeutic candidates acquired include Cyzact™, human dermal fibroblasts delivered by means of a fibrin sheet and produced utilizing a streamlined manufacturing process as compared to simi

Smith & Nephew Completes asset Acquisition from Nucryst Pharmaceuticals

     The Advanced Wound Management division of Smith & Nephew (Hull, England) has completed the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Nucryst Pharmaceuticals Corp. The acquisition includes the manufacturing and assets from Nucryst’s Fort Saskatchewan, Canada operations and the intellectual property estate. Since 2001, Smith & Nephew has held exclusive license for the sale of the Acticoat™ dressing portfolio, manufactured at the Fort Saskatchewan site. This acquisition gives Advanc

Advanced BioHealing Commences Efficacy Trial for Dermagraft

     Advanced BioHealing Inc (Westport, Conn) has initiated a pivotal trial of Dermagraft® in subjects with venous leg ulcers (DEVO-Trial) to assess the product’s safety and efficacy in the promotion of healing venous leg ulcers (VLUs). Dermagraft is a bio-engineered skin substitute that assists in restoring damaged tissue and supports the body’s natural healing process. It is FDA-approved for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) and used in more than 1000 wound care and outpatient clinics in t

Gauze-based NPWT Achieves Same Treatment Goals as Foam-based NPWT

     The Advanced Wound Management Division of Smith & Nephew Inc, a subsidiary of Smith & Nephew Plc (St. Petersburg, FL) highlighted the results of a multi-center study that demonstrated that gauze-based negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) achieves many of the common treatment goals defined for foam-based NPWT systems. These goals include a reduction in wound dimension, exudate, and improvement in granulation tissue. The results of this study were presented in a poster session at the 24th Annual C