VISICU news from FierceHealthcare

> Business Week looks at how the eICU technology sold by VISICU helped the company's first client overcome a specialist shortage. Article

> Nine lawyers from the healthcare practice at Milberg Weiss are leaving the firm to join forces with attorneys from Alabama based-Whatley Drake to form a new firm that will focus on healthcare law. …

Shares of VISICU did well yesterday in the company's first day of trading, closing at $24.78--a jump of 55 percent over the stock's opening price of $16. That price makes the Baltimore maker of a high tech system designed to help hospitals monitor intensive care units more efficiently worth roughly $750 million. Some analysts had predicted a lackluster showing given potential legal problems facing the company this year--particularly a patent case filed by competitor iMDSoft. Wall Street, …

> Spiration, which is working on an intra-bronchial valve system for use in patients with lung disease, has raised $13.4 million through an investment from Olympus Medical Systems. Article

> The Wall Street Journal's Dr. Benjamin Brewer says Medicare Part D is playing havoc with his practice and his patient's lives. …

VISICU is either the steal of the century or highly over-rated, depending on who you ask. The Baltimore-based company, which was founded by two doctors at Johns Hopkins, prices shares for its initial public offering this week. The company plans to offer 6 million shares priced at between $11 and $13. Wall Street is watching, intrigued by a business model that provides hospitals with technology that allows remote access to intensive care services. Forbes columnist Scott Reeves, …

VISICU, the maker of remote monitoring systems for intensive care units, turned a profit of $10 million on revenues of $18 million last year according to a filing with the SEC. That performance was a marked improvement over a year earlier, when the company lost $4 million. VISICU, which is known for its eICU system and is considered a market leader, plans to go public later this year. The company expects shares to go for between $11 and $13. VISICU was founded by Dr. Brian Rosenfeld and …

A company called Advanced ICU has licensed VISICUs eICU technology and is selling a bundled service of remote ICU management tools to small hospitals. Advanced ICU markets a complete service--including VISICU's software and nursing and physician care--to hospitals with fewer than 40 beds. Release

As noted in yesterday's trends issue, you can expect the eICU concept to gain momentum this year as the increased availability of the technology makes implementing systems more affordable for providers and systems make their way into other departments. The most well-known player in this emerging field, Baltimore-based VISICU, has been exchanging legal shots with Cerner in a patent dispute over the past six months. Cerner, which sees the obvious market potential in remote monitoring …

FierceHealthcare will be continuing to track the evolution of new technologies as they are adopted by healthcare organizations. Here are a few which, while not adopted much yet in America's hospitals and clinics, will see a great deal more prominence in 2006:

• Tracking technologies: A mix of active RFID, WiFi, UWB and infra-red technologies are for the first time enabling cost-effective tracking of people and equipment in hospitals. More hospitals will …

Baltimore-based eICU specialist VISICU filed registration papers for an initial public offering late yesterday. According to the filing, the company hopes to sell up to $65 million in common stock. VISICU markets a system which allows remote monitoring of ICU units using Internet-based monitoring and video feeds. The concept, which is intended to complement rather than replace bed-side care, has been praised by some as an effective strategy for upgrading care quality. VISICU was founded …

Remote monitoring of implantable devices like defibrillators is slowly becoming mainstream. An article in the Chicago Tribune examines devices from Biotronik and Guidant which use wireless technology to report in every night from the patient's home. One outcome in these days of recalls is that any possible defect in devices can be monitored immediately. Dr. Niraj Varma, director of the electrophysiology lab at Loyola University Health System in Maywood, IL, notes: "If you have …