Bedside Point of Care (BPoC)

Several molecular diagnostic firms are planning to unveil new assays and instrument systems that could greatly expand their market presence, company executives told investors at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference held in San Francisco this week. Qiagen, for example, has a number of new offerings in the works, including a point-of-care, portable molecular diagnostics instrument capable of running eight samples at a time. The small machine weighs only half a pound and can run on three AA batteries.

The way physicians and consumers are diagnosing everything from disease to genetics to diet is undergoing a transformation, as procedures requiring samples to be sent off to laboratories are being replaced by rapid, on-the-spot tests that can be administered by doctor's, or in a patient’s home. These new point-of-care diagnostics are growing more rapidly than the traditional diagnostics market.

Toshiba has broadened the range of communication tools it offers the healthcare market with the introduction of the Cornell Series 4000 Tone/Visual Nurse Call System and AURA 2.0 Emergency Response System from Cornell Communications. The systems can be integrated with Toshiba’s Strata CIX IP business communication system.

Omnicell, a Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of medication system solutions to acute healthcare facilities, previewed the Omnicell Mobile Medication System yesterday at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists in Las Vegas. The new offering is touted as a fully-integrated, closed loop and transportable solution that extends secure transportation of medications from the automated dispensing cabinet to the patient bedside.

In response to feedback from the healthcare market, Panasonic has upgraded its mobile clinical assistant (MCA) device with an optional integrated smartcard reader. Nurses and physicians can now insert their smartcards to securely sign-on to the CF-H1 Mk2 device for recording and accessing patient information at the point of care, or on the go.

Executives of the e-prescribing network Surescripts are saying 23 percent of all office-based physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants in the United States are actively e-prescribing. At the current pace, the group projects that its active e-prescribers in 2009 will more than double the 74,000 that were e-prescribing at the end of 2008.

American Industrial Systems officially launched its 10.4-inch Rugged Tablet PC on Aug. 31. The device features a 10.4-inch industrial LCD screen and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor and an Intel 945 GSE chipset.