> OptiMedica has announced that Dr. Roger Steinert has joined its medical advisory board. Steinert brings to the company a wealth of expertise built on more than 30 years of clinical practice and scientific research. The board is now comprised of 10 distinguished cataract surgeons from around the world, as the company prepares for the global launch of its Catalys precision laser system. OptiMedica release
> The nation's highest court has agreed to hear a patent violation case brought by a California diagnostic firm against the Mayo Clinic. News
> To build up its medical device business in rural parts of India and China, Johnson & Johnson is focusing heavily on a strategy that involves simplifying things. The company is re-tooling glucose monitors with fewer features, making surgical tools less complicated and creating training centers to ensure that doctors are prepared to use the new, sophisticated devices. Item
> ElectroSonics Medical, which is developing ear and lung medical devices, is hoping to raise $2 million in equity, according to a regulatory filing. Story
> Life Technologies has led a successful consortium bid for a Technology Strategy Board grant, in partnership with the Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, AstraZeneca, and Ortho Biotech Oncology Research & Development unit of Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development. The grant will fund development of a commercial multi-gene next generation sequencing test that will provide comprehensive molecular profiles of tumors to identify therapy options. Life Technologies release
> China Medical Technologies' wholly-owned subsidiary, Beijing GP Medical Technologies, has entered into a strategic collaboration with Gaoxin Da An Healthcare Investment to co-market and promote molecular diagnostic technologies for clinical diagnostic applications in China. China Medical release
And Finally... Over the past three years, recent art-school graduate Josh Dickinson has participated in almost 100 medical experiments in order to pay his rent. He's been wired up with electrodes, stuck with needles, interrogated, subjected to pain and intentionally suffocated. In any other context, some of it might be considered torture. For him, it's turned into an art project. News