medical device news from FierceHealthIT

As prices fall and capabilities expand, a broad array of medical devices making use of wireless technology are beginning to emerge. We're not talking about phones or PDAs here--but rather, devices that live on or inside patients. These include the PillCam, made by Israeli-based Given Imaging. A $450 capsule, the Pill Cam is swallowed by patients, then used to perform gastro-intestinal endoscopy tests. Another example comes from Germantown, MD-based Sensors for Medicine and Science. The …

If you're an emerging health IT vendor, you'll like this news. During 2006, angel investors got really excited about health IT, plowing a good chunk of the $25.6 billion they spent into medical device and healthcare services startups, according to a new report released by the Center for Venture Research. In fact, medical device and healthcare services startups captured 21 percent of total investments last year, the group reported. What types of investments are the hottest? …

> A U.K. health consultant offers a litany of ways in which providers can use RFID chips to improve operations, including patient, medical device and drug tracking. Article

> A HIMSS study has found, among other things, that many larger hospitals aren't meeting HIPAA security standards, and that nearly one-quarter of providers aren't meeting privacy requirements. Ouch. …

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is either the most amazing thing to grace healthcare in decades or a civil liberties nightmare waiting to explode. Kinda depends on who you ask. RFID fans will cheer a report from hospitals showing how they are cutting down on equipment theft using the technology that allows for "track and trace" of anything from a bottle of pills to a giant medical device. And RFID has already made it inside, so to speak, the human body. Florida-based …