• Abaxis (Union City, California) said that the FDA has granted waived status under CLIA regulations for two additional analytes, Creatine Kinase (CK) and Phosphorus (Phos), when used by healthcare professionals in conjunction with the Piccolo and Piccolo Xpress point-of-care analyzers. The renal function panel is a standard panel mostly used for determination of renal function status. The MetLyte 8 is commonly used to assess a variety of metabolic conditions across several specialties, including pediatrics and cardiology. Abaxis specializes in portable blood analysis systems for use in any veterinary or human patient-care setting to provide clinicians with rapid blood constituent measurements.

• Covidien (Mansfield, Massachusetts) said it is launching a new and improved Magellan safety hypodermic needle. The company says that the development of the new design, which gives clinicians more control and smoother activation of the safety shield, reflects its continued commitment to improving healthcare worker safety. "We are transitioning to the new and improved Magellan Safety Needle technology as part of our strong and ongoing commitment to meeting the safety needs of our customers," said Jeff Hunt, president of patient care and safety products.

• Health Language (Denver) reported the general availability of Language Engine 4.6. This upgraded release provides robust interoperability to deliver disparate medical, administrative and consumer data that helps to improve patient care and reimbursement by automating many time-consuming, resource-intensive and error-prone functions. Anticipating and responding to industry needs, LE 4.6 enables healthcare IT vendors to incorporate terminology standards such as ICD-9-CM, ICD-10-CM, LOINC, SNOMED CT, RxNorm and more, corresponding maps, and other related content into healthcare applications. LE 4.6 offers enhanced functionality and performance parameters for automatically searching, indexing and coding free-text documents such as encounter notes including the detection of negation.

• ICON (Dublin, Ireland) said its Medical Imaging division (Warrington, Pennsylvania) has launched a new cardiac echocardiography analysis software solution. The software, MIRA-ECHO, enables cardiac echocardiography (ECHO) images to be viewed, measured and interpreted in clinical trials and is the latest addition to ICON Medical Imaging's MIRA (Medical Imaging Review and Analysis) platform. MIRA-ECHO is a digital DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) image viewer and analysis software module that is integrated with an eCRF (Electronic Case Report Form). It displays links from the traced images back to the measured moving heart image, and also to the numerical measurements captured in the eCRF. Functionality embedded within the eCRF allows a physician to adjust preliminary measurements, while maintaining compliance with 21 CFR Part 11 regulations. MIRA-ECHO also enables measurement and assessment of the full complement of ECHO parameters.

• NeoVista (Fremont, California) said the FDA had approved the company's "compassionate case" waiver request to use its novel wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) treatment on a patient with an advanced form of the disease who did not meet criteria for inclusion into current NeoVista investigational treatment protocols. The therapy applies a targeted dose of beta radiation to the abnormal leaking blood vessels that affect central vision in patients with wet AMD. Preliminary data show that NeoVista's targeted radiation therapy can be safe for both the patient and the physician, and may be able to improve patient's vision. The current standard of care for wet AMD requires monthly injections of anti-VEGF drugs into the eye for an indefinite period of time.

• Smith & Nephew's Advanced Wound Management Division (St. Petersburg, Florida) reported the introduction of a foam dressing kit for Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT). The company says the launch of the foam kit represents the first time wound care professionals will have the freedom to select either a gauze or foam wound interface from a single NPWT device manufacturer. NPWT is an effective and efficient method to healing advanced wounds. In comparison to traditional advanced wound therapies, negative pressure methods require less frequent dressing changes and often times a less painful treatment, combined with better healing of advanced wounds. The method can be used inside and outside of hospitals.