Those in the business of therapeutic or diagnostic devices know how quickly things can change, so let's take a quick look at a few stories that appeared in Medical Device Daily in August 2009. After all, two years are less than the average time needed to get a patent through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which is another story. Aug. 12, 2009: Schultz out at CDRH; Shuren to serve as interim director On Aug. 11, 2009, the Internet was abuzz with reports that Dan Schultz, MD, had stepped...

CPAP. Such an innocent-seeming acronym, no? It stands for continuous positive airway pressure, which also comes across as pretty harmless. I use one of those things, though, and I have to tell you something. They're a colossal pain in the you-know-what. The only thing worse than a CPAP machine strapped to your face is obstructive sleep apnea (which I have) or central sleep apnea (which I don't as far as I know). Here's the deal. You strap one of these masks over your face – over your nose in this case – and it blows air past the obstruction...

On This Date: The birth of Emil Theodor Kocher, MD, Swiss surgical pioneer With the pace of change in the modern world and the emphasis on what's just around the corner, it can be edifying to take a moment to ask where we've been. And so we reflect for a moment on the work of Emil Theodor Kocher, MD, who was born 170 years ago on this date, Aug. 25, 1841. Kocher was born in Berne, Switzerland, where he earned his medical degree in 1865. He took the position of director of surgery at the Inselspital (Island Hospital), also in...