The Trump administration is prioritizing reforms to improve the reimbursement process for medical devices, and it is willing to spend money to do it. That's according to Joe Grogan, the health program associate director for the White House Office of Management and Budget. See what he said about it here.

A device manufacturer wouldn’t violate anti-kickback law by offering hospitals a refund if their joint replacement fails for patients, the Department of Health & Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General said in a recent advisory opinion.

A patient advocacy group recently met with US FDA officials to ask for new safety measures, if not a total ban, around LASIK eye surgery. See what the group's coleader, Paula Cofer, said about the dangers of LASIK here.

US FDA has issued a final guidance document discussing appropriate labeling for products containing heparin. The new rules reflect recent revisions to US Pharmacopeia monographs on heparin solutions.

A new US FDA draft guidance describes the agency's plans to identify trial sponsors that have failed to submit required clinical trial registration and/or results information to ClinicalTrials.gov. The draft guidance also clarifies when the agency will seek civil money penalties for non-compliance, the applicable procedures for assessing civil money penalties and the civil money penalty amounts that may be assessed.

Greg Crist, the top public affairs executive at AdvaMed, is stepping in to head the trade group's government affairs operations, as JC Scott departs to lead the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association.

Two Medtronic facilities that make cardiac rhythm management devices were sent warning letters by US FDA because of quality systems issues. The sites were inspected by the agency after the firm initiated high-risk class I recalls for an array of CRM products earlier this year.

US FDA has released a six-violation warning letter sent to a Zimmer Biomet facility in Warsaw, Ind. The company had already acknowledged that the letter was a possibility.

US FDA will soon ramp-up enforcement of the clinical trial transparency provisions of Title VIII of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007, according to TrialScope Chief Strategy Officer Thomas Wicks. Those that fall foul of these new requirements will face penalties – and it looks like SMEs will be hardest hit.

Find out where the medtech money is flowing in our weekly roundup. Among other deals, Medtronic makes a mammoth acquisition to buy the remaining shares of Israeli surgical robotics firm Mazor Robotics and Israeli company MeMed secures $70m to advance its point-of-care immune system diagnostic for distinguishing between bacterial and viral infections.

Industry fundamentals to date suggest the device sector as a whole should be doing more to go all-in on digital and data analytics. That's the takeaway from EY's annual "Pulse of the Industry" report for the medtech space.

Medtronic is straightening up as a market leader in spinal surgery after agreeing to buy the shares of Mazor Robotics that it does not already own. The $1.3bn deal builds on an existing agreement between the companies formed in May 2016 and strengthens Medtronic as the front runner in the spine robotics field.

A lawsuit over negative pressure wound-therapy devices ended in a win for plaintiff KCI Medical Services after an Ohio federal judge ordered Healthcare Essentials Inc. to pay $645m for alleged theft. See what Judge Benita Pearson wrote about the case here.

An Ohio federal judge recently awarded $645m to Acelity subsidiary KCI Inc. The company sued Healthcare Essentials Inc. for allegedly stealing wound-therapy units for resale.

An anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) repair technology developed by MIACH Orthopedics has secured backing from investors, including the union for National Football League players, in a new round of financing. See what MIACH founder Martha Murray said about it here.

A new US FDA draft guidance describes the agency's plans to identify trial sponsors that have failed to submit required clinical trial registration and/or results information to ClinicalTrials.gov. The draft guidance also clarifies when the agency will seek civil money penalties for non-compliance, the applicable procedures for assessing civil money penalties and the civil money penalty amounts that may be assessed.

Results Recap is a new regular feature in Medtech Insight providing a summary of clinical trial results that have been announced or published in the past week, based on information collected by Meddevicetracker. This week's edition includes trial announcements from NeuroMetrix, Vertos, LivaNova, and Boston Scientific.

A new guidance from the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) concludes that sutureless aortic valve replacement is an alternative to conventional surgical aortic valve replacement. The NICE guidance came as LivaNova announced completed enrollment in the 900-patient, randomized PERSIST-AVR trial of its Perceval sutureless aortic valv.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new clinical recommendations for health-care providers treating children with concussions or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) advise physicians against using advanced imaging for diagnosis. See what the CDC's Deb Houry said about the guidelines here.

Aselsan, Turkey's leading defense company, is increasing its focus on medical technology to support localization of medical devices. The company has started projects to develop and produce mobile X-ray and MRI systems, as well as defibrillators.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a guidance on diagnosing and treating pediatric mild traumatic brain injury, that advises health care providers to avoid use of computed tomography, MRI, single photo-emission CTs, and skull radiographs in diagnosing kids 18 years and younger.