NEW ORLEANS – The question of when a study is a failure is at times entirely in the eyes of the beholder. However, a study unveiled in the Crescent City suggests that echocardiography cannot distinguish which patients will benefit most from the Mitraclip device for secondary mitral valve regurgitation. At the same time, a secondary study that looked at quality-of-life issues provided a supportive context for the device vs. medical management – an increasingly important consideration as physicians, regulators and device makers move deeper into this era of personalized medicine.

Laboratory work for intensive care unit (ICU) patients can be laborious, time-consuming and repetitive for providers, as well as painful, draining and tedious for patients who are already among the sickest in the hospital. Hayward, Calif.-based startup Optiscan Biomedical Corp. aims to enable continuous, blood-based patient monitoring in the ICU that alerts care providers when vital measures stray out of range. Patients who remain in-range on these indicators have been shown to have fewer complications, shorter hospital stays and reduced costs.