giant

In northern California, Kaiser Permanente is giving patients online access to lab and test results, a step long called for by many patient advocates. The system will give Kaiser patients access to the information via a password-protected Web site. The initiative is part of Kaiser's closely-followed HealthConnect initiative, the non-profit giant's billion-dollar effort to modernize operations by emphasizing electronic medical records and other key new technologies such as …

Are blogs evil, or are they a promising new way of reaching customers? Do corporations make good bloggers? Many healthcare managers continue to wonder just what to do about the new medium. IBM is not one of those sitting on the fence, however. The IT giant recently launched a new blog devoted to promoting its healthcare business. Today's topic: personalized medicine. Blog

Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson announced that it may not complete its $23.4 billion purchase of Guidant, saying the company's recent problems have had an "adverse impact" on its value and that its negotiations with Guidant have not been productive. The news came on the same day that the FTC announced its approval for the original deal. A complete abandonment of the transaction would be something of a surprise; many analysts had speculated that J&J wanted to renegotiate its price.

- see this article from the Associated Press

Guidant said it plans to regularly release data on its pacemakers and defibrillators in an effort to address safety concerns. The Indianapolis-based device maker has been the focus of attention since reports earlier this year that it failed to inform regulators about problems with its popular Ventak Prizm and Contak Renewal implants. This week, the company announced it is the subject of a Department of Justice probe into the circumstances surrounding its recall of both models. Over the …

WellPoint said its profits have nearly doubled as a result of its merger last year with Anthem. The giant health plan announced stellar numbers today, with net income up 164 percent to $640 million. The insurer said its sales more than doubled, rising to $11.3 billion from $4.8 billion. It wasn't enough for Wall Street, however, which was looking for more. WellPoint shares were down 3% in morning trading.

- see this …

The Justice Department said that British pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay a $150 million fine to settle fraud charges stemming from its pricing and marketing of two antinausea drugs. The company is accused of inflating the prices it charged Medicaid and Medicare programs for Zofran and Kytril. The two drugs are commonly used to combat nausea caused by radiation treatments. story  

One of the "Big 3" PBMs, Express Scripts, said that it has extended its alliance with IT outsourcing firm EDS through 2010. The IT services giant, which has been trying to extend its healthcare business away from dependence on a few major Blues plans in recent years, provides Express Scripts with various IT services,
including mainframe and midrange hosting, communications networking and Web
hosting. Release

Dutch consumer giant Royal Philips Electronics said it will pay $280 million to acquire Stentor, a California-based medical imaging start-up. The deal gives an immediate shot in the arm to the healthcare IT unit of Philips Medical Systems. Stentor's picture archiving and communication system (PACS) technology is highly regarded for its speed in transmitting digital images. $45 million from the transaction goes to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which initially developed the …

HealthAlliance says it has installed a full implementation of Siemens Medical Systems' Soarian web-based hospital IT system in its Leominister, MA. facility to track both patient medical data and finances. Soarian is the flagship product from Siemens, which purchased hospital software and services giant Shared Medical Systems (SMS) to get into the health care IT market in 2000. However, Soarian has been best by problems and while more than a hundred customers have been announced, the …

The Food and Drug Administration said this morning it is approving Tygacil, a member of a new class of antibiotics developed to fight drug-resistant infections. Developed by pharma giant Wyeth, the intravenously administered drug has been shown to be useful against the kind of dangerous infections which have become an increasing concern at hospitals in the US and elsewhere in recent years. In particular, research has shown the drug to be useful for treating the "Superbug" MRSA. Tygacil is …