Welcome to DigitexMedwire Research

Friends, we are so happy and excited to introduce our first ever blogging platform dedicated to Global healthcare industry. With global economy growing at 4% and world healthcare industry growing at an impressive rate of 17% annually, our team couldn’t manage a better time than now to share our knowledge tank with you people. Dear partners, friends, customers, well wishers and society in general, you can expect us bring you the best articles, write ups, news columns, reports and events update on cutting edge technologies and latest lifestyle trends in the Indian and International markets. This blog is an interim platform for leaders in making and leaders in practice who pursue ‘knowledge’ as their platform to success. This blog site is a product of DMSMedwire Research ‘knowledge sharing program’ and is a signature to our long term business expansion plans and corporate identity.

We wish all our fellow readers, best of luck. Happy Reading!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Smooth Approval Seen For Obama Healthcare Nominee- Health In Crisis


When Shirley Hunter reviewed her finances to make sure she could afford to retire in 1999, she never banked on health care costs more than doubling in less than a decade.

Now the 74-year-old former California kindergarten teacher finds herself under financial pressure. Despite taking lodgers to help pay the bills, she worries about losing her home or having to choose between mortgage, food and health insurance.

"I'm on a fixed income. Nothing else is fixed," Hunter said. "I can't afford to travel right now or anything. It's very disappointing to work like I did and then have this happen."

Hunter, who told her story to a community healthcare discussion in Costa Mesa, California, is one of millions of Americans looking for President-elect Barack Obama to make good on his campaign promise to tackle the U.S. healthcare crisis.

Obama's choice to lead the reform effort, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, testifies at his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday -- beginning a process to change the nation's health care that could be one of the most ambitious and expensive undertakings of the Obama presidency.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, a senior member of the committee conducting the hearing, met with Daschle on Tuesday and predicted things would go "very smoothly."

"We all know the enormity of the task at hand, and it is a comfort to know that in Tom Daschle, we'll have a true leader, someone who has navigated these rough waters before," Dodd said in a statement.

The United States spent $7,421 per person on health care in 2007, some 16 percent of Gross Domestic Product, but does worse in many areas of care than other developed countries.

Employers complain that rising healthcare costs put them at a competitive disadvantage in the global economy, driving up the price of everything from a car to a cup of coffee. This has become more acute during the current economic turmoil.

"We can't afford to put domestic priorities like health care on the back burner," said Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki. "This will certainly be a priority for him and for the new administration once he's sworn in."

Daschle and his team have helped organize thousands of grass-roots meetings across the country to try to understand the health problems people face and the changes they want.

Some 8,500 people signed up to host the sessions like the one Hunter attended in Costa Mesa. Daschle himself attended two -- one in an Indiana firehouse and the other at a Washington, D.C., senior center.

Feedback from people contacted by telephone after the meetings shows the scope of the problem.

"As a nation we're spending way too much money and we're not getting much value for it," said Dr. Allan Wilke, a family practitioner who attended a discussion with other doctors at a medical center in Huntsville, Alabama. "I think we all know the system has got to be fixe

Source: reuters.com Contributed by: DMSMedwire Research JSG Team

GE Healthcare to provide seed capital and acquire Indian medical cos


General Electric's Healthcare business, GE Healthcare is planning to acquire and provide seed capital to Indian medical device and diagnostic companies. The $17 billion healthcare company is looking at acquiring companies which either possess low cost solutions or have unique technology.

GE would target diagnostic equipment manufacturers in the local market that can complement its product portfolio and help expanding its rural network. GE Healthcare is looking at both organic expansion as well as strategic acquisitions.

The healthcare giant also plans to provide seed capital to Indian medical companies and pick up a majority stake in them.

It expects a major chunk of its growth to come from the expansion of its imaging and infant care products range in the tier II and III cities. The company expects its sales to increase to 50% of its total revenue by 2010 by expanding in to the rural areas.

Keeping with its strategy of viewing India as a low-cost solution market, GE launched its first fully digital X-Ray system, Tejas DR-F, in India. The X-Ray system, expected to cost 40 percent lesser than imported digital machines, would be manufactured in India, and exported to Southeast Asia, Latin America, Russia, Eastern Europe and Africa.

GE Healthcare also plans to deploy its medical imaging and diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies in various states, under a private public partnership (PPP) model.

Indian medical equipment space has seen a lot of activity and consolidation led by the global healthcare biggies. Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Ltd acquired Delhi-based Dade Behring Diagnostics India Pvt Ltd for Rs 45.10 crore. Philips acquired Indian medical device maker Meditronics for an undisclosed amount.

Philips also acquired Mumbai-based Alpha x-ray Technologies, engaged in the field of cardiovascular X-ray systems. Private equity backed Trivitron Medical Systems acquired Pune-based X-ray machine manufacturing company, Vision Engineering for Rs 10 crore.

GE Healthcare, Philips Medical Systems and Siemens AG occupy the top three slots in the Indian medical imaging market with almost equal market shares.

Source: in.reuters.com Contributed by: DMSMedwire Research JSG Team

Thursday, December 25, 2008

McKinsey: Why Americans Spend More On Healthcare- A New Look 2008


This report examines the trajectory of US Health care spending between 2003 and 2006, using data, using data from the Organization of Economic Co-operation & Development and other leading sources to build a robust picture of cost in the system and to frame the principal issues that arise for healthcare decision makers out of our reading of these facts.

User Rating: *** File Size: 3.58 MB (On Hard disc)
For Download
, please click: http://groups.google.com/group/dms-medwire-research?hl=en