In the News: Heart transplant, device approvals, and studying cannabis for COPD

Patient Care

A cardiac surgeon in Mumbai, India, is raising money to fund bypass surgeries, angioplasties, and angiographies for people who cannot afford them.

A boy in Hong Kong receives heart transplant after 282 days on a mechanical pump.

TAVI is now an option for patients in Saskatchewan, Canada, and the first transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement in West Virginia, USA, is performed at WVU.

Doctors in Al Ain, UAE, call for more facilities to offer cardiac surgery.

Drugs and Devices

The US FDA used data from the STS/ACC Transcatheter Valve Therapy Registry to expand the approved use of a Edwards Lifesciences’ Sapien 3 TAVR to valve-in-valve procedures. The US FDA also cleared FlowGlide Technology, the latest generation of technology for chest drainage after CT surgery from company ClearFlow, Inc.

MedReleaf Corp. in Canada is now the first ICH-GMP certified medical cannabis producer.

Stryker Corporation is expanding into surgical imaging technologies with its purchase of Novadaq Technologies.

Research Trials and Funding

Tilray will support a Phase II trial on the efficacy of vaporized cannabis in COPD at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.