Market & Industry Briefs
Executive Summary
Brief summaries of recent medtech market and industry developments.
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Fractional Flow Reserve Makes Inroads In Interventional Cardiology
Fractional flow reserve (FFR), a measurement of the severity of a coronary artery obstruction, has not yet reached mainstream use in the US, but that could soon change as interventional cardiologists face increased scrutiny about the “appropriateness” of their clinical treatment decisions. Part of that scrutiny will be driven by recent overstenting scandals, but cost-control measures are playing just much of a role in this shift. At the same time, ongoing advancements in FFR technology are helping to overcome barriers to use and could convince more physicians and hospitals to jump on the FFR bandwagon.
HRS 2011: What's Hot, What's Not, in AF Ablation
Presenters at a day-long AF Symposium held just prior to this year's Heart Rhythm Society meeting lamented the disappointing long-term results with AF ablation and spoke about upcoming technological advances in catheters and adjunctive tools that may improve the procedure's efficacy and durability.
Radiosurgery Branches Out
The convergence of advancing technology and the push for more effective, noninvasive cancer treatments is helping to build the perfect storm of innovation for the field of stereotactic radiosurgery. SRS allows high doses of precisely focused ablative energy to be delivered to targeted tissues with a minimum of damage to surrounding areas. It has been used for years to treat tumors in the head and neck, where patient movement can be effectively restrained with frames to protect healthy tissue. However, technological advances are now making the procedure more viable for tumors in other parts of the body, and that opens the door to treating cancers in the lung, prostate, breast, and beyond.