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College Misericordia
Weis Markets supports College of Health Sciences building
College Misericordia
... state-of-the-art learning facility for students majoring in physical therapy, occupational therapy, nursing, speech-language pathology and pre-medicine. ...

FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif.----Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc. today announced that it is seeking to refinance its existing senior secured credit facility, which currently consists of a $260.0 million term loan and a $135.0 million revolving loan facility.

Tender loving care for special boy Kyle
Mayo News
“Kyle received speech, language, physio and occupational therapy every day at the centre. It was in a classroom environment where there was mainstream and ...

M.L. v. BOURBONNAIS SCHOOL DISTRICT 53
Leagle.com
During her summary of the evidence presented, the hearing officer noted that Tamara Deschand, an occupational therapist, had testified that "a handwriting ...

Children's hospice appeal launch
The Lowestoft Journal
The acclaimed children's author is backing the bid to create a new six-bedroom unit with hydro, physio and occupational therapy areas as well as a music ...

Children's hospice appeal launch
Beccles and Bungay Journal
The acclaimed children's author is backing the bid to create a new six-bedroom unit with hydro, physio and occupational therapy areas as well as a music ...

and more »

Third-grader exceeding expectations after brain surgery
Montgomery County Courier
Lisa takes Alexandra to occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy and water therapy each three times a week for hour-long sessions, ...

Palisades Medical Center opens pediatric rehabilitation facility
NorthJersey.com
The program will offer physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and audiology services. For more information, call 201-854-5000 or visit ...

and more »

'She amazes me every day'
Montgomery County Courier
Lisa takes Alexandra to occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy and water therapy each three times a week for hour-long sessions, ...

Cherokee Elder Care names new physician, staff
Muskogee Daily Phoenix
... the new primary care physician, along with Lori Enlow and Ashley Couch, nurse practitioners, and Jan Griffith, occupational therapist. ...

and more »

Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Therapy Ahead For Double Hand Transplant Patient
KDKA
"Then they'd come in, do occupational therapy to keep all the joints loose." While the doctors are pleased with his progress and attitude, there was also an ...
Harrisburg-area man gets rare double hand transplant PennLive.com

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Plain Dealer
Regaining movement and passion, a cyclist hopes motion-boosting device will ...
Plain Dealer
Thomas Ondrey, The Plain DealerKathy Heydorn, left, concentrates on her grip while her occupational therapist, ...

An FDA advisory panel has voted 7 to 5 in favor of approval of Medtronic's deep brain stimulation (DBS) device, probably the Soletra, as a treatment option for medically refractory epilepsy in certain patients. The device, already approved for Parkinson's, was only days earlier reported to have failed an important study goal. Now it is seeing new life, and potential approval, due to a kink in the latest study.

Jennifer Corbett Dooren at the Wall Street Journal explains:

A study of the device was conducted in 110 patients, but it failed to meet a study goal that looked at a reduction in the seizure rate over a three-month period.

However, the FDA said that when looking at just the third month of treatment, patients being treated with the deep-brain-stimulation device had a greater reduction in seizures compared with patients whose device was not activated.

The missed study goal was influenced by one patient who developed a different type of seizure after the device was turned on, both the FDA and Medtronic said. When the device's power was lowered, the seizures stopped.

Medtronic asked the FDA and the panel to consider the data without the one patient, which would result in the study meeting the three-month goal, or to consider the last month of the three-month period. But the panel was divided on whether the patient should be removed from the analysis of the study.

Wall Street Journal from March 10: Medtronic Brain Stimulator Missed Study Goal

Wall Street Journal from March 12: FDA Panel Backs Device For Epilepsy

Medtronic press release: FDA Panel Recommends Approval with Conditions of Medtronic Deep Brain Stimulation Therapy for Patients with Refractory Epilepsy ...

Flashback: Medtronic's Deep Brain Stimulation Devices Approved for Parkinson's and Essential Tremor

Rex Medical of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania won regulatory approval from the FDA to sell its Cleaner Rotational Thrombectomy System. The atherectomy system is based around a battery powered Cleaner device that rotates a tip at 4,000 RPM for drilling through arterial plaque.

6Fr ergonomically designed, hand-held, battery operated drive unit

6Fr introducer sheath compatibility

Atraumatic, effective wall contact and thrombus maceration with particulate aspiration through an introducer sheath

Superior trackability and steerability through tortuosity

Decreased procedural time and cost

Single use, disposable

Cleaner Device Specifications:

Wire:

0.035 inch diameter

Radiopaque tip

Catheter:

6Fr shaft outer diameter

65cm & 135cm length

Drive Unit:

Battery operated

4,000 rpm

Press release: Rex Medical Cleaner™ Rotational Thrombectomy System Receives 510(k) Clearance ...

Product page: Cleaner ...

Flashbacks: Diamond Tipped 200,000 RPM Artery Drill ; Pathway Medical's Peripheral Plaque Drill Gets 510(k) Classification

ATLANTA----Edge Healthcare Partners, LLC is pleased to announce that Gentiva Health Services, Inc. has sold its respiratory therapy, home medical equipment and infusion therapy businesses to Lincare Holdings Inc., a leading national provider of respiratory therapy and other services to patients in the home.

Mendor, a new company out of Helsinki, Finland, is preparing to launch a new blood glucose meter that is promised to be easier and more discreet to use than currently available models. The device, soon to be available in Europe, has a built in mechanical lancer and test strips. This makes it a convenient, self contained package, about the size of a cell phone, that doesn't require additional components to be brought along. Details about the device are still slim, but we'll be providing those once they become available.

More from Amy Tenderich at DiabetesMine: New Cellphone-Like All-in-One Glucose Meter from Finland...

Link: Mendor Blog...

At the annual scientific meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology in Tampa Bay, Florida this week, Cook Medical is launching a version of its NavAlign inferior vena cava (IVC) filter placement system. Already on the market since the fall of 2009, the NavAlign system is now available with femoral access option to complement the jugular access model.

From the press release:

NavAlign, available for Cook Celect® and Günther Tulip® filters, incorporates a hemostasis valve to minimize blood loss. With an accompanying multipurpose dilator, radiopaque sizing marker bands and flushing sideports designed to decrease fluoroscopy time and contrast medium amounts, the NavAlign system is ideal for physicians using image guidance to place IVC filters to help protect patients from DVT and pulmonary embolism (PE), a life-threatening condition that can kill one out of three individuals if left untreated.

Press release: Cook Medical Expands Next-Generation NavAlign™ System for IVC Filter Placement with Femoral Access Option ...

Scientists from Cornell and Tel Aviv universities have created a nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) that can be used to sense the presence of very small concentrations of chemicals and microorganisms. Using an oscillating cantilever that wobbles at predictable frequencies depending on what is placed on it, the researchers are able to detect the nature of the object in the sensor. By generalizing the process and grouping large numbers of these cantilever systems together, they should be able to create a multipurpose sensor that can detect a wide range of pathogens and varying chemicals.

In past research, the team has demonstrated that by treating the cantilever with different substances, they can tell what other substances are present. For example, E. coli antibodies attached to the cantilever can detect the presence of E. coli in water.

The researchers have perfected the oscillators' design, Ilic [Rob Ilic, research associate at the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility] said, by laying their device on top of a layer of silicon dioxide, all of which rest on a silicon substrate. A pad with holes connects pegs of silicon dioxide, lined up like telephone poles, which eventually end at the cantilever.

A laser beam, switched on at the far end from the cantilever, travels down the device and causes the oscillator to wobble. The frequency is then measured by shining another laser on the oscillator and noting patterns in the reflected light.

The "telephone poles" allow the energy to move efficiently across the device by preventing it from buckling or sagging. The design makes it easy to read the resonant frequency of the cantilever.

In this process, the researchers discovered that over short distances, the energy from the laser came in the form of heat, which quickly dissipates. But when the laser was parked hundreds of microns away from the cantilever, the energy came in the form of acoustical waves that traveled through the device, dissipated more slowly, and allowed them to make their device longer.

Image: The nanoelectromechanical oscillator with the cantilever on the far right. The inset is a tilted 3-D profile of the structure, which shows the silicon dioxide posts.

Abstract in Journal of Applied Physics: Theoretical and experimental investigation of optically driven nanoelectromechanical oscillators

Press release: Nanoelectromechanical oscillators could lead to detection of harmful molecules, bacteria ...

German scientists from Max Planck Institute for Brain Research and Brain Imaging Center Frankfurt have shown that the primary visual cortex of our brains has a much easier time recognizing expected objects than ones it didn't predict to be seeing. The study involved human subjects that were shown a pattern of dots that was regularly interrupted by white boxes. A functional magnetic resonance machine was used to monitor brain activity inside the visual cortex. The surprising finding was that when white boxes appeared out of their usual pattern, the visual cortex would go into overdrive to identify the unanticipated object. The scientists involved in the study believe that this implies that the visual cortex is performing a great deal of predicting on a regular basis, and that our vision system is far from being a passive mechanism that simply describes what it is seeing.

Image: The sight of bars apparently moving from bottom left to top right (dotted line) evokes activity in the primary visual cortex (V1). Right: in the upper part of the image, the test stimulus (a white-framed bar) is presented in such a manner that it is integrated into the motion of the white bars. In contrast, the brain does not predict the appearance of the test stimulus in the lower part of the image. This test stimulus is presented with a certain time delay, so that the motion direction appears to be interrupted. Image detail bottom left: the activity in V1 is significantly higher for the unexpected test stimulus (brown graph) than for the expected test stimulus (blue graph).

Press release: The scientific brain ...

Abstract in The Journal of Neuroscience: Stimulus Predictability Reduces Responses in Primary Visual Cortex

Occupational Therapy Transcription Service
BigNews.biz (press release)
Identifying the rising demand of occupational therapy transcription services, many professional medical transcription companies are providing reliable and ...

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