Vendors

BALTIMORE – The founders of OxyGEN will use their recent prize money to turn their prototype portable oxygen concentrator into an actual product.  Jessica Dakkak, Jonathan Smith and Wilson Tang were recently named the winners of an Innovation Challenge hosted by Three Lakes Foundation and MATTER for their POC combining high-flow ambient air with pulses of concentrated oxygen to provide more efficient...

CAESAREA, Israel – Digital health company Itamar Medical plans to buy San Francisco-based Spry Health, which makes a wrist-based remote monitoring solution.  Spry’s Loop System, a watch-like, home-based device, uses sensing technologies and algorithms that contextualize real-time, continuous physiologic data to flag signs of patient deterioration using bio-markers such as SpO2, respiration rate and heart rate. These three signals, combined...

SAN DIEGO – ResMed has ended its three-year foray into the portable oxygen concentrator market due to “market conditions.”  The company says payers and HME providers are relying less on POCs for Stage 2 and Stage 3 COPD patients, dampening demand for the devices.  “ResMed has determined that it can successfully execute its respiratory care strategy and provide the most benefits to patients, HMEs, clinicians and all other stakeholders by reinvesting its...

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., and NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Optum, a division of UnitedHealth Group, and Change Healthcare have agreed to merge, combining two technology companies focused on serving health care.  Optum is a diversified health services company; Change Healthcare is a health care technology provider. Together, they will provide software and data analytics, technology-enabled services and research, advisory and revenue cycle management offerings.  “Together we...

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – Katherine Royster, 3B Medical’s new vice president of sales and marketing, always has cost top of mind from her years working on the provider side of the HME industry. “I’m always framing things in terms of what something costs the HME provider,” said Royster, who previously worked for Classic SleepCare in California, now part of AdaptHealth. “I always have that questioning voice, ‘Does it add value?’ Sometimes manufacturers...

BRISBANE, Australia – Oventus Medical’s pivot to telehealth and a home care option has allowed the company to continue growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, says Dr. Chris Hart, CEO.  Due to closures, Oventus Medical has transitioned to online or phone conversations to complete the verifications needed for insurance coverage and to schedule scan appointments for its O2Vent Optima oral device.   “Out of adversity comes...

CHICAGO – Three Lakes Foundation and MATTER have named OxyGEN as the first-place winner in their Innovation Challenge to accelerate new solutions in diagnosing, treating and managing pulmonary fibrosis.  OxyGEN, a med-tech venture out of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, has produced a POC that tracks, monitors and automatically adjusts the oxygen level for each patient, improving mobility and quality of life. OxyGEN, along with three other winners, will receive...

MINNEAPOLIS – rtNOW, which has offered tele-respiratory solutions to hospitals since 2016, has now launched HME On-Call to help HME providers better manage RT shortages that have only intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic.  With HME On-Call, providers can outsource everything from after-hours staffing to equipment setup on a per-call basis, plus an initial implementation fee.  “We’re...

ELYRIA, Ohio - Mal Mixon, who passed away on Nov. 30 at the age of 80, will be remembered by many as the “face of HME” for guiding Invacare and, in many ways, the industry at large for more than three decades. Mixon will be remembered for numerous his contributions to the industry, but those who worked with him say his most significant contribution was a leadership style that helped to grow Invacare from $19 million in revenues and 300 employees in 1979, when he led a leveraged...

LAGUNA HILLS, Calif. - Fisher & Paykel Healthcare reported stable operating revenue for its homecare products group in the first half of the 2021 financial year, despite many sleep labs closing or operating at reduced capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company reported $226.2 million in operating revenue for the group, which includes products used to treat obstructive sleep apnea in the home, a 5% increase compared to the same period in the previous financial year. “The...