Sometimes a minor change can have a major impact. By simply adding an optional air-feed cutter bushing to its established Medline tubing puller/cutter, for example, Conair (Cranberry Township, PA) claims to have dramatically improved process efficiency, ultimately saving customers time and money.

In the wake of St. Jude's announcement last week, Welch Allyn announced restructuring plans that entail a 10% reduction in workforce over the next three years, which it attributed, in part, to preparing for the impending medical device tax. Unfortunately, this trend does not appear to be slowing down just yet.

Listen up: The global hearing-aid market is primed for growth, according to a report by GBI Research, which produces business intelligence reports. The company estimates that the global hearing-aid market will increase from $7.2 billion in 2011 to $11.3 billion by 2018 at a compound annual growth rate of 7%.

By Sanjay Salunkhe, iGATE Corp.

Abbott's much-anticipated Absorb BVS coronary scaffold system is considered a trailblazer in the bioresorbable stent market, boasting U.S. clinical trials underway and a CE Mark in Europe. Yet despite the polymer-based device's prominence in the sector, the Absorb may face some stiff competition down the road from a novel bioresorbable metal stent with big dreams.

Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are among the most pressing issues in healthcare today owing to their role in rising costs, longer recovery times, and preventable patient endangerment. And among the biggest culprits and contributors to HAIs, particularly to blood and urinary tract infections, is the common catheter.

Sadly, 300 St. Jude Medical employees found themselves suddenly jobless as they headed into the Labor Day holiday this year. The medical device maker announced the job cuts last week as the result of a company restructuring effort that yielded two new operating units: the Implantable Electronic Systems Division (IESD) and the Cardiovascular and Ablation Technologies Division (CATD).

Renal denervation (RDN) was among the most prevalent and buzzed-about topics pumping up the crowd at this year's European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2012. And in light of the parade of presentations focused on validating or making new claims of safety and efficacy for the still-nascent technology, it's becoming evident that the hypertension-treatment method may just live up to the hype.

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress was held in Munich this week and served as a platform for announcing the launch of various products and the results of exciting trials, particularly for medtech powerhouses such as Medtronic and St. Jude. Hot topics such as fractional flow reserve and renal denervation played a prominent role at the conference. Read more about some of the big news to come out of ESC in our weekly roundup below.

Developing an alternative approach to blood glucose monitoring that does not rely on lancets and pinpricks has been a primary goal of diabetes device R&D in recent years. Contributing to this effort, researchers at Purdue University have engineered a noninvasive, low-cost biosensor capable of detecting glucose in concentrations as low as 0.3 micromolar in blood, urine, saliva, and tears.