WASHINGTON — Anyone who has been farther into a hospital than the front desk can attest to the bewildering array of medical devices and monitoring equipment – not to mention the appurtenant wires, hoses and other leads – used to track a patient's vital signs, but one of the sessions held on the first day of the World Health Care Congress highlighted the frustration doctors feel for the current situation. (Medical Device Daily)

BETHESDA, Maryland — The National Institutes of Health wrapped up NanoWeek on Friday with a series of sessions that addressed how nanotechnology might help to drive the evolution of healthcare in the U.S. One researcher made the case that nanoscale constructs can do a lot to improve the delivery of drugs through the digestive machinery, thanks to attachment characteristics that improve absorption and reduce the needed load of drug. However, her discussion included the suggestion that drug elution in other anatomical locales, such as the coronary arteries, might also benefit from the use of small tubes. (Medical Device Daily)

WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee met yesterday to mark up the current iteration of patent reform legislation and voted by a hefty 15-4 margin to pass the bill along to the full Senate along with changes to provisions that deal with how damages are to be determined in patent lawsuits. However, the question of post-grant reviews continues to dog the legislation and a motion to require that congressional appropriators keep their hands off patent application fees died in a party-line vote. (Medical Device Daily)