> It's election season, which means big promises from candidates. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has joined the fray, telling medical device companies that the state's pharma gift ban was never supposed to include them. But that opened him up to attacks from his Republican opponent, Charles Baker: "If the governor had been willing to step up and step out and make it happen, it might have been repealed." Report
> MRIs may be used to predict the onset of Alzheimer's in the future, according to researchers at the University Hospitals of Geneva. Radiologists were able to determine which patients had stable mild cognitive impairments versus those who would develop Alzheimer's using artificial intelligence and MRI scans. News
> Volcano Corporation received good news from the Superior Court of Massachusetts; the court ruled in favor of Volcano against LightLab Imaging in a laser technology trade secret case. Volcano release
> NovaBone Products has received FDA approval for its NovaBone Putty MIS Delivery System, which will be used for bone grafting in minimally invasive orthopedic procedures. NovaBone release
> Gen-Probe has filed a 510(k) application for its STD-detection test, the Aptima trichomonas vaginalis assay on its Tigris system. It's the third out of five STD tests Gen-Probe hopes to administer via the Tigris system. Gen-Probe release
> DePuy Spine agreed to distribute Osseon Therapeutics' steerable spine augmentation needle used for vertebral compression fractures. Osseon release
And Finally... Neurologists at Washington University in St. Louis have found a new option for removing tumors: "cooking" them with MRI-guided laser probes, effectively killing the cancer cells. Story