by Admin
1. February 2009 22:06
Systagenix: a brand of healing A new UK healthcare company is bidding to become a leading global provider of advanced wound care therapies.
Systagenix Wound Management, formerly the Professional Wound Care Business of Ethicon, Inc. (a Johnson & Johnson company), is a new portfolio company created by One Equity Partners.
The new company aims to build on its established advanced and general wound care product portfolios, which include brands such as Promogran Matrix Wound Dressing and Tielle Hydropolymer Dressing.
Systagenix Wound Management’s new senior management team is headed up by Executive Chairman Chris Fashek and CEO Steve Atkinson. The new company will be based in the UK, including a manufacturing and R&D facility in Gargrave, North Yorkshire. Staff from the existing R&D, Operations and Sales & Marketing teams have been transferred.
Steve Atkinson, CEO of Systagenix, said: “We have inherited a business with a strong heritage and outstanding pedigree providing an excellent platform for future growth. The wound care market represents substantial opportunity and with our investment plan, customer relationships and scientific and technical capabilities, Systagenix will become the driving force in the industry.”
Systagenix has appointed Frank DiLazzaro as President of Europe, Middle East & Africa to strengthen the European and global management teams. Frank, who played a signifi cant role in building the negative wound pressure therapy business at Kinetic Concepts, said: “We have an impressive, advanced, diverse and unique product portfolio, and I am looking forward to building our position in the marketplace as we accelerate towards the number one wound care solution position.” |
Wales to gain improved breast screening services A plan to modernise the equipment used for breast cancer screening in Wales has been approved by Health Minister Edwina Hart.
The scheme, backed by £15million from the Welsh Assembly Government, will speed up diagnosis and treatment. The new equipment is expected to be phased in over three years, starting in 2010.
Edwina Hart has approved the Strategic Outline Case (SOC) from Velindre NHS Trust, the specialist cancer trust in Wales. Velindre NHS Trust aims to replace the analogue machines and associated equipment currently used for mammography with new digital screening, imaging and storage technology. This will enable faster and better processing and analysis of images and easier comparison with previous tests.
“Investment in prevention and early detection is crucial to improving the outcome for patients,” Edwina Hart said. “Wales’ population is getting older, with people living longer, healthier lives, which is something to be celebrated. However, this will place increased demand on services. It is anticipated that this new equipment will enable the services to meet that demand.” | UK ‘must specialise’ in modern healthcare The UK should focus its science spending on areas – including healthcare technology – where it can lead the world, according to the Science and Innovation Minister, Lord Drayson.
Instead of funding many research projects across a wide range of fields, the Government should highlight key priorities, Lord Drayson told the Commons Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills committee.
“I think that we need to look at the global environment,” Lord Drayson said. “There is a strong case for asking the question about where we are best placed to compete in the future based around our strengths.”
 He identified medical research as a crucial field: “An area I would point to where the UK has something nowhere else has is the NHS. The whole world faces the challenges of ageing populations. There is an enormous need for the development of effective modern healthcare.
“We in this country are uniquely well placed because of the asset of the NHS. The patient base and expertise offer a unique opportunity to develop a real strength in the life sciences, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, to promote a world leadership position that could be developed into exports.
“I’m calling for a serious debate about the areas of focus for this country in the future,” he concluded. |
Tunstall connects to EU e-health project  Tunstall Healthcare is providing the technical lead for an innovative European project to deliver telehealth and telecare services.
The CommonWell project aims to deliver ICT-enabled health and social care services to support independent living and improve quality of life for older people and those with long-term conditions.
12 partners from five European countries are co-operating in the project, which is supported by the European Commission.
The newly integrated services will support the management of chronic disease and address issues that affect independence, such as reduced agility, vision and hearing. 400 users across four locations in Europe will receive the services for at least 12 months. The results of this pilot operation will be used to promote the uptake of e-health across Europe.
Paul Timmers, head of the Commission’s ‘ICT for Inclusion’ Unit, said: “We want ICT to help improve the quality of life and perspectives of being able to live independently and healthily in real-life situations. Projects like CommonWell fulfil all these criteria by making it possible to deliver cheaper and better healthcare with ICT.”
“The project is an excellent opportunity for Tunstall to co-operate with a wide range of stakeholders to improve health and social care outcomes,” said Steve Sadler, CTO at Tunstall Healthcare. “CommonWell will also improve the way primary and social care providers cooperate, helping to deliver a truly integrated model of care with significant benefits to the people most in need.” | NEWS IN BRIEF Abbott Laboratories has definitively agreed to buy ophthalmic surgery company Advanced Medical Optics for $1.36bn plus debt. Globally, AMO is the number one company for LASIK refractive surgical devices and the number two for cataract surgical devices.
The NHS Organ Donor Register has reached the target of 16 million people set by former Health Secretary Alan Milburn in 2001, when it stood at 8 million and 5500 people were waiting for transplant. 26% of the UK population have now joined the Register.
Avacta Group PLC , a UKbased specialist in bio-analytical technologies for healthcare, has acquired UK diagnostics company TheraGenetics, which is developing and commercialising pharmacogenetic diagnostic tests to guide and improve the treatment of CNS disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.
NICE has recommended that electronic cochlear implants be available on the NHS to people with severe or profound deafness who do not derive adequate benefit from acoustic hearing aids. It has also recommended that functional electrical stimulation be offered routinely as an NHS treatment option for drop foot.
Medifiq, a Finnish medical device company, will close its factory near Sunderland by the end of April, at a cost of almost 90 jobs. Medifiq, which supplies asthma inhalers and syringes, has blamed the closure on falling demand in the economic slowdown. |
New Trauma Czar appointed Professor Keith Willett has been appointed the new National Clinical Director for Trauma Care at the DH.
Professor Willett, a practising orthopaedic trauma surgeon, will lead the development of national clinical policy for trauma care – building on the SHA vision documents published in the Next Stage Review, as well as the recommendations of the National Confi dential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death report.
Health Secretary Alan Johnson said: “Trauma care needs to be recognised as a specialist form of medicine. With this appointment today, we will see further improvements in the planning of trauma services and more specialist trauma centres.”
Professor Willett said: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead on these important policies for the care of the seriously injured patient and the care of older people with fractures. Many of the components of good care exist in the NHS but lack structure and focus. At such a vulnerable time patients need to know the regional and local systems are in place – so wherever they are, the NHS will deliver that critical care.”
Professor Willett will continue working part-time as Honorary Consultant Orthopaedic Trauma Surgeon at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. |
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