• American Med Tech (Charles Town, West Virginia) said that it is offering "a specially assembled" home protection kit for swine flu, based on the germ-killing power of silver. "We spent the entire weekend assembling swine flu kits from existing inventory already boxed in pre-paid overnight FED-EX boxes," said David Phillips, PhD, company CEO. Additionally, Phillips said that the company has been selling its nano-silver-based hygiene products for the last fiive years. "Our silver ion based products were developed as a cure for the highly contagious skin disease Molluscum Contagioisum and to protect the delicate skin of diabetics. The problem with washing your hands with normal hand cleaners to kill swine flu virus is that they contain harsh chemicals. Your hands may be clean immediately after washing, but the harsh chemicals make your skin vulnerable to infections minutes afterward."

• Astra Tech (Waltham, Massachusetts) reported the availability of Atlantis abutments for Straumann Bone Level 3.3, 4.1, and 4.8 diameter implants. Material options for this new interface include titanium and gold-shaded titanium (Atlantis GoldHue abutment) for "esthetically challenging situations." Atlantis abutments are designed and fabricated using Atlantis Virtual Abutment Design software, a patented process combining 3D optical scanning and advanced software and manufacturing methods to make patient-specific abutments that eliminate the need for hand modification.

• ITGI Medical (Or Akiva, Israel) said that the FDA has granted Humanitarian Use Device status to its Over and Under and Aneugraft Pericardium Covered Stents for treatment of perforations and dissections of native coronary arteries and saphenous vein grafts. Over and Under and AneuGraft are stents covered with a heterologous tissue that is designed to set a barrier between the coronary blood vessel wall and its lumen. The stents are commercially available in Europe, Israel and Latin America for treatment of saphenous vein graft stenosis, aneurysms and for emergency situations such as perforations.

• Microsoft (Redmond, Washington) has introduced the Amalga Life Sciences software system designed to transfer healthcare and life science research data into the knowledge needed for discovering new personalized treatments. The company said that the software helps life science researchers connect data in new ways through novel storage capabilities, ontology management functions and a semantic query environment powered by a next-generation reasoning engine. The Amalga Life Sciences "hybrid store manages both simple and complex data, including experimental protocol descriptions and higher-level knowledge representations, giving organizations the opportunity to manage and redesign processes to increase productivity, improve decision-making and reduce errors," according to Microsoft.

• Power Medical Interventions (Langhorne, Pennsylvania) said it has filed with the FDA for clearance of its iDrive Intelligent Power Unit (IPU), detachable Intelligent Surgical Instruments and iConsole monitor. The iDrive IPU is a hand-held, computer-controlled power unit, to which any of the company's Intelligent Surgical Instruments can be attached, offering a range of cutting and stapling configurations. The iConsole wirelessly communicates directly with the iDrive IPU during surgical procedures to output specific auditory and visual reference information via its speaker and liquid crystal display. Outputs provide surgeons with information regarding calibration, firing, and instrument and reload type.

• Texas Instruments (TI; Dallas) reported the new MSP430FG47x ultra-low power microcontroller (MCU) series. TI says the FG47x MCUs offer on-chip integration of the complete signal chain, reducing design complexity and resulting in space and cost savings. The company says these devices are designed to help improve the quality of healthcare products such as blood glucose meters, digital thermometers, pulse oximeters and blood pressure/heart rate monitors. TI said that MSP430FG47x features and benefits include signal chain integrated on a chip, consisting of two configurable op amps, 12-bit digital-to-analog converter, comparator and 16-bit analog-to-digital converter.