The agency is reopening the coverage policy on ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, non-invasive blood pressure measurement over 24-hour cycles, in response to a request from medical professional societies. Currently, Medicare only covers ABPM in limited circumstances where there is reason to believe a patient's in-office blood-pressure is not an accurate representation of their normal blood pressure.

The second week of 2017 scored a hat trick of M&A deals, including Hill-Rom's $330m acquisition of a privately held diagnostic cardiology and patient-monitoring company. This deal builds on the diagnostics and monitoring product lines Hill-Rom established when it acquired Welch Allyn in 2015.

Despite slowdowns in capital equipment spending and strong pricing pressures, the US patient monitoring device market will grow by over $500 million between 2014 and 2019, reaching more than $2.5 billion by 2019 – a CAGR of almost 5%. Several factors are driving growth in this market, including the need for seamless solutions that can provide monitoring from hospital to home, and the growing adoption of portable and wearable technologies.

Product announcements from St. Jude, Medtronic, BD, Masimo and Fujifilm Medical.