• 3D Systems (Rock Hill, South Carolina) reported that it plans to introduce, in partnership with Dreve Otoplastik, a compact, fast, low-cost hearing aid manufacturing system based on its new Film Transfer Imaging (FTI) technology, the V-Flash HA 230 manufacturing system, this fall. The HA 230 Desktop manufacturing system can build high-quality, three-dimensional hearing aid shells within hours. Dreve Otoplastik, a hearing aid and materials manufacturer, will be the distributor for the V-Flash HA 230. The V-Flash weighs about 100 pounds. 3D Systems provides 3-D modeling, rapid prototyping and manufacturing solutions.

• I-Flow (Lake Forest, California) reported that preliminary results of an ON-Q prospective human study in colorectal surgery were presented at the annual meeting of the Surgical Infection Society (Ann Arbor, Michigan) in Toronto. This trial was designed to evaluate the effects of ON-Q PainBuster with the ON-Q SilverSoaker antimicrobial catheter on surgical site infections. The early results of the ongoing study indicate a statistically significant reduction in the rate of surgical site infections and a statistically significant decrease in length of hospital stay for patients who received ON-Q versus those who received only narcotics. ON-Q is a device that consists of a small balloon pump that holds a local anesthetic (a pain-numbing medicine) and delivers it automatically through a specially designed catheter to provide even distribution of local anesthetic over a wider area, as compared to other catheters, because of its patented wicking capabilities. I-Flow makes drug delivery systems and pain relief solutions.

• Signalife (Greenville, South Carolina) reported the development of software that can provide objective evaluation of electrocardiograph performance, including its Fidelity 100 ECG system. Presently, the objective evaluation of different ECG recorders is performed by parallel recordings of the device under test and the control device. In the case of differences between the two, it is difficult to determine which device recorded the source signal with higher fidelity. A combination of the Signalife simulator and newly developed proprietary software will allow the objective comparison of different electrocardiograph devices. Signalife is a life sciences company focused on the monitoring and detection of disease through continuous biomedical signal monitoring.