| Ascension Orthopedics Closes $21 Million Financing and Recruits an ...
AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascension Orthopedics, Inc., an emerging medical device company that develops, manufactures and markets joint replacement, trauma and tissue regeneration surgical implants for use in upper and lower extremities, announced today that it has secured $21 million in a Series D financing. This new round of funding will be used primarily to expand the current product line and enhance the Company's product marketing and distribution network. Leading this Series D financing as the majority investor is Frazier Healthcare Ventures, one of the nation's leading providers of venture and growth equity capital to emerging healthcare companies. Alan Frazier, General Partner and Founder of Frazier Healthcare Ventures will join Trevor Moody, General Partner of Frazier Healthcare, and Steven Tallman, Venture Partner of Frazier Healthcare on Ascension's Board of Directors.
GE Healthcare and iCAD enter into Developmental Agreement
NASHUA, N.H. and WAUKESHA, Wis., Nov. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- iCAD(R), Inc. (NASDAQ: ICAD) , an industry-leading provider of Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) solutions and GE Healthcare, a division of GE (NYSE: GE) , a manufacturer of Senographe(R) Full-Field Digital Mammography (FFDM) systems, today announced an agreement to develop a customized version of iCAD's SecondLook(R) Digital specific to GE's Senographe and Seno Advantage family of systems. This next generation CAD system is designed to enhance the overall clinical performance with Senographe and Seno Advantage systems, specifically improving sensitivity to breast cancer imaging, enhancing usability and workflow as well as providing diagnostic support tools. "In an effort to provide leading solutions for our customers, GE has selected iCAD as our development partner for digital mammography CAD solutions," said David Caumartin, general manager of global mammography for GE Healthcare.
GE Healthcare Acquires Image Diagnost International GMBH
GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), announced it has acquired Image Diagnost International GmbH, a provider of information technology (IT) systems used in the diagnosis of breast cancer. Image Diagnost's software offering will expand GE Healthcare's capabilities in breast cancer detection, offering clinicians and national screening services one of the most comprehensive ranges of systems available.
Image Diagnost develops integrated software solutions for mammography workflow and image processing. Digital mammography, first commercialized by GE Healthcare in 1999, brings significant benefits to the diagnosis of breast cancer such as improved cancer detection rates for women with dense breast tissue and ease of use. As the number of hospitals, clinics and screening services using digital mammography increases, there is a significant and growing demand for integrated software solutions to facilitate reporting, storage, sharing and transmission of mammography data.
Business column: Reverse mortgage puts cash in owner's hands
A reverse mortgage has the potential to make retirement more pleasant and financially secure than it otherwise might be. An increasing number of seniors find themselves "house rich, cash poor." While seniors have enjoyed rapidly appreciating home values, their incomes may have failed to keep pace with healthcare costs and general living expenses. A reverse mortgage may solve this problem and also provide many other benefits. So, what is a reverse mortgage? A reverse mortgage enables homeowners, age 62 and over, to convert the equity in their homes to cash, without selling the property. The homeowners retain title and all the responsibilities of home ownership, such as taxes, insurance and maintenance. Of course, the homeowners or their heirs do have to repay the loan, plus interest and fees, but that usually doesn't happen until death, sale of the home or if they stop living there permanently (perhaps to live in a nursing home).
A slippery slope for health?
Most European countries operate an insurance-based health care scheme. Citizens are obliged to pay into state-operated or state-recognised insurance funds. Hospitals and general practitioners (and specialists who offer primary consultations) claim back all or part of the costs of treatment from the relevant insurance providers. There have long been difficulties in citizens getting costs covered by their state-recognised schemes when they seek treatment in a neighbouring country whose facilities are more convenient to travel to (e.g. the German-Dutch border area around Aachen). Regulation 1408/71 was supposed to deal with this but clearly doesn't. That Regulation, insofar as it covers healthcare, is designed essentially to allow the government of one country to get back from other governments the money spent on treating their citizens.
|
