The electrical interface in standard implantable medical devices hasn't changed much in decades. There's an electrode contact, a wire soldered to that and it goes back to a can that contains a battery and the active electronics. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) have developed a flexible silicon technology half the diameter of a human hair that brings electronic circuits directly to the tissue rather than having them located remotely that, if validated, could herald a new generation of implantable medical devices.(Medical Device Daily)

The FDA has approved a new kind of hearing device made by Envoy Medical (Minneapolis) that the agency said represents a breakthrough technology to restore hearing. (Medical Device Daily)

"Boston Scientific needs a defibrillator" (SeekingAlpha.com). "The Toyota of the medical industry" (Wall Street Journal blog). "Boston Scientific cut to sell by Goldman Sachs" (MarketWatch.com). "Analysts bemoan lack of information" (WSJ blog). (Medical Device Daily)

In what may be hailed by some as one of the biggest medical device recalls ever, Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) on Monday stopped shipment and is retrieving field inventory of all its implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) and cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators (CRT-Ds). The move caused a spike in trading and the company's stock dove 16.45% at midday. (Medical Device Daily)

Being hospitalized for anything is traumatic to most people; the insult and threat on top of that is the hospital-acquired deadly infection known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Current diagnostic techniques take days. Newcomer MicroPhage (Longmont, Colorado) has just submitted human data from a pivotal clinical study of its MRSA/MSSA (methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus) Blood Culture Test to support FDA 510(k) clearance of the test that produces results onsite in five hours. (Medical Device Daily)