One small med-tech firm is developing a system that is intended to provide interventional cardiologists with the first treatment option beyond percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to salvage heart muscle in heart attack patients.

A routine physical turned out to be a nightmare for me last year when it was discovered that my white blood cell count was significantly low. It was also the catalyst behind my drive to make sure that any physician I go to now can get overnight if not instant results from a lab once my sample is being tested. At the time, I was just getting over a severe cold that I had received from my now 2-year-old daughter - which was the ultimate culprit of the white blood cell shortage. However, at the time, when I questioned the...

Like most medical device executives, Peter DeComo, chairman/CEO of ALung Technologies (Pittsburgh), a developer of respiratory assist devices, knows how difficult it can be to attract investors in the current environment. But with the right strategy and a differentiating technology, raising money is not impossible. ALung proved that with its recently closed $15.8 million Series B-1 financing round. The round is one of the largest this year in Pittsburgh's life sciences market, the company noted.