Nordic, a top-rated healthcare consulting firm, on 2 Oct 2020 announced its acquisition of Tasman Global, a healthcare IT consulting company headquartered in the Netherlands with offices throughout Europe and Asia. Tasman will continue to operate and serve customers under its brand as part of Nordic.

Nordic CEO, Jim Costanzo said, “With this acquisition, we are executing our strategy of continued global growth and diversification. The addition of Tasman’s world-class health IT expertise enables us to expand our reach and provide solutions for the challenges healthcare organizations are experiencing in Europe and Asia.

Adrienne Flatland, Tasman Founder and CEO said, “We share Nordic’s passion for transforming healthcare. As part of Nordic, we look forward to continuing to deliver the highest quality support to the health systems we serve wherever they are on their EHR journeys.”

Tasman, which Flatland founded in 2015 and will continue to lead, specializes in EHR consulting services, including implementation support, optimization, and application managed services, as well as strategic advisory consulting and project management. These offerings align with Nordic’s portfolio of consulting solutions, which, in combination with its Canadian entity, Healthtech, are provided to customers across North America. The combined entity will now serve nearly 300 healthcare organizations globally.

Both Healthtech and Tasman have experience working with universal healthcare environments in Canada, the U.K., and Europe. Nordic will leverage that expertise to assist clients operating in similar environments to enable better healthcare through the use of technology.

Tasman is Nordic’s third acquisition in recent years. In addition to its acquisition of Healthtech in 2019, Canada’s leading strategic healthcare IT consulting firm, led by its President Terri LeFort, Nordic acquired the revenue cycle transformation practice of The Claro Group in 2018, complementing Nordic’s offerings with robust revenue cycle solutions for its healthcare customers.

Through genetic sequencing and targeted treatment, researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have resolved a severe lymphatic disorder in a young woman with kaposiform lymphangiomatosis (KLA), a complex and rare disorder that causes lymphatic vessels around the heart and lung to leak fluid, causing breathing difficulties, infections, and often death. The treatment, which the research team has used successfully in other patients with lymphatic disorders, led to a complete resolution of the patient’s symptoms and fully remodeled her lymphatic system within a matter of months.

“The resolution of lung disease with lymphatic remodeling is remarkable and potentially should change how we evaluate and treat lung disease in this patient population,” said first author Jessica B. Foster, MD, an attending physician in CHOP’s Division of Oncology. “These results offer hope to other patients with lymphatic-induced lung disease and warrant further investigation.”

Brenna, the patient described in the paper, first developed symptoms related to KLA at age 6 and was diagnosed with the condition when she was 10. For nearly a decade, she was treated with a variety of therapies, including rapamycin, an immunosuppressant; prednisone, a steroid; and vincristine, a chemotherapy drug. Despite aggressive treatment, her debilitating symptoms persisted, and so her clinical team at CHOP decided to explore other therapies.

Many patients with KLA have a mutation in the NRAS gene, and the team had previously used a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK) inhibitor called trametinib in another patient with a severe lymphatic disorder and NRAS mutation. The drug resolved his symptoms and completely remodeled his lymphatic system. Although that patient did not have KLA, the researchers felt the success of trametinib in treating his severe lymphatic symptoms, combined with Brenna’s rapidly deteriorating condition, warranted the request for expanded access to treat Brenna with the drug.

As Brenna began taking trametinib, a drug historically used to treat metastatic melanoma, the researchers sent samples of her lymph fluid for genetic sequencing. The researchers learned that Brenna did not harbor an NRAS mutation and instead had a mutation in a different gene: CBL, a gene that operates along the Ras pathway, the same genetic pathway implicated in other lymphatic disorders, including the one for which they had used trametinib with great success. Mutations along the Ras pathway result in an overproduction of MEK, which leads to the uncontrolled proliferation of lymphatic vessels. A MEK inhibitor like trametinib brings the production of MEK under control, putting the brakes on a system in overdrive.

Brenna was the first patient with KLA to take trametinib for a lymphatic issue, and within four weeks of starting a low dose, her symptoms improved. Her shortness of breath, coughing, and difficulty breathing while lying flat disappeared. She was able to exercise again, and during the second cycle of her therapy, she began training for a 5K race.

“The relatively low dose required for dramatic improvement in this case highlights that a small amount of trametinib may be sufficient to treat lymphatic disorders, which will likely limit the side effect profile compared to the higher doses used for oncologic cases,” said senior author Yoav Dori, MD, PhD, Director of the Jill and Mark Fishman Center for Lymphatic Disorders at CHOP. “We are now preparing ongoing prospective studies to evaluate Ras pathway inhibition in clinical trials of large cohorts of patients.”

Follow up tests have shown significant improvement in Brenna’s restrictive lung disease, and the fluid in her lungs has disappeared. Her overabundant lymph vessels have remodeled themselves and are now behaving normally. Now 20 years old, she continues to take a daily dose of trametinib, which has kept her symptoms at bay.

“Genomic evaluation of vascular anomalies such as KLA have only just begun in recent years,” said Denise Adams, MD, Director of the Comprehensive Vascular Anomalies Program (CVAP), a CHOP Frontier Program. “This case study demonstrates the power of collaborative, cutting-edge research that reaches across disciplines, from genetics to oncology to cardiology, to bring breakthrough treatments to patients.”

About Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia:
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation’s first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals, and pioneering major research initiatives, Children’s Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 564-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents.

Select Rehabilitation and Kindred Healthcare, LLC announced they have signed a definitive agreement under which Select will acquire Kindred’s RehabCare business line. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Together, Select and RehabCare will become one of the country’s largest providers of contract rehabilitation services. The combined company will serve patients in 43 states across care settings, including skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, and outpatient facilities, and provide patient-focused, outcomes-driven care that allows patients to achieve and maintain their highest quality of life.

Benjamin A. Breier, Kindred’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Select’s exclusive focus on contract rehabilitation makes it an ideal partner to build upon RehabCare’s patient- and client-centric approach. Select shares many of our core values and is led by a senior management team whose number one priority is doing what is best for the patients entrusted to their care. Together, Select and RehabCare will be poised to enhance the quality and breadth of their services to customers and to bring new professional and growth opportunities for our RehabCare team members.”

“Select’s acquisition of RehabCare presents exciting growth opportunities based on the companies’ shared cultural foundation of clinical excellence, quality care provision, and outstanding customer service,” said Anna Gardina Wolfe, Select’s CEO and Co-founder. “The addition of RehabCare’s management and therapy teams will solidify Select’s best-in-class reputation, while the expanded operations will position us to leverage our technology solutions beyond the contract therapy healthcare sector.”

“When we founded Select 22 years ago with a single facility in Illinois, our vision simply was to provide a better solution for post-acute care rehabilitation,” reflected Neal Deutsch, Select’s Chairman and Co-founder. “Our ability to acquire RehabCare enhances Select’s position as a leading industry provider of contract rehabilitation services and is a true testament to the strength of our amazing leadership team, dedicated therapists, and extremely loyal customer base.”

Mr. Breier continued, “The sale of RehabCare builds on Kindred’s record of innovation and intentional disruption in its core businesses. Following the completion of the transaction, Kindred will remain the largest specialty hospital company in the United States, with a portfolio of long-term acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, acute rehabilitation units, and an emerging behavioral health line of business, all specializing in treating the most medically complex patients. We believe a more concentrated focus on our specialty hospital operations will position Kindred to achieve even greater long-term success.”

The transaction is expected to close in 2020, and is subject to customary conditions to closing, including the expiration of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended. Guggenheim Securities LLC is serving as exclusive financial advisor to Kindred and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP is serving as Kindred’s legal advisor.

About Kindred Healthcare

Kindred Healthcare, LLC is a healthcare services company based in Louisville, Kentucky with annual revenues of approximately $3.1 billion(1). At June 30, 2020, Kindred through its subsidiaries had approximately 32,000 employees providing healthcare services in 1,731 locations in 46 states, including 64 long-term acute care hospitals, 22 inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, 10 sub-acute units, 94 inpatient rehabilitation units (hospital-based), contract rehabilitation service businesses which served 1,541 non-affiliated sites of service, and behavioral health services. Ranked as one of Fortune magazine’s Most Admired Healthcare Companies for nine years, Kindred’s mission is to help our patients reach their highest potential for health and healing with intensive medical and rehabilitative care through a compassionate patient experience.

Mountain Pacific Venture Fund (MPVF) announced aninvestment in Xenocor, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based medical device company that has developedtheXenoscope™, a single-use, multi-purpose HD laparoscope with an integrated light source. Designed to befog proof, the Xenoscope minimizes common visualization challenges and provides consistent image quality through electrocautery smoke.

“Our vision is to make minimally invasive approaches more accessible and affordable to hospitals and patients around the world,” said Evan Kelso, CEO of Xenocor. “We set out to make a more effective and reliable surgical device, whichwould enhancethe quality of care for patients, but wehavealso dramatically impactedthe bottom line for hospitals and surgery centers by reducingupfront capital expenditures, and eliminatingboth service contracts and maintenance costs,making it more accessible to those who need it.”

Xenocor’s innovative technology improves upon dated laparoscopic surgery devices. As a single-use, disposable device, Xenoscope reduces the risk of disease transmission and minimizes operational downtime since there is no need to sterilize the scope pre-surgery. Xenoscope is paired with the Xenobox HD image optimizer, a compact reusable unit that serves as the power supply, adapter and video processor. It offer suniversal“plug and play” functionality for seamless integration into any HD monitor or existing operating room imaging infrastructure.

“We are seeing a steady increase in demand for single-use scopes, driven by a rise in hospital acquired infections and a push from the FDA to start transitioning away from devices that require reprocessing,” said June Chen, MD, Managing Partner of MPVF. “These factors, along with the current pandemic, are fueling a sea change where more procedures will be done outside of the hospital in lower risk settings such as outpatient clinics or ambulatory surgery centers where Xenoscope can have really have an impact.”

The Xenoscope system is FDA cleared, CE marked and on the market. MPVF’s investment will support Xenocor’s commercialization efforts, with an initial focus on the growing ambulatory surgery center (ASC) market.

About Mountain Pacific Venture Fund Mountain Pacific Venture Fund (MPVF) is a Salt Lake City-based venture capital firm focused on equipping early-stage life sciences and biotech companies with the capital and hands-on support they need to change the future of the healthcare industry. With a geographical emphasis on the Mountain West and South Korea, MPVF is positioned to help innovators meet the ever-changing demands of the global community.

About Xenocor
Xenocor offers a suite of leading edge, fog-free, disposable surgical technologies for minimally invasive, abdominal and thoracic procedures. These product offerings are FDA cleared and patent protected.Xenocor is a privately held corporation, based in Salt LakeCity, UT.

Haemonetics Corporation , a global medical technology company focused on delivering innovative hematology solutions to drive better patient outcomes, announced it has received U.S. FDA clearance for its NexSys PCS® system with Persona™ technology. The new, proprietary Persona technology is the latest innovation on the NexSys PCS system and it customizes plasma collection based on an individual donor’s body composition.

Haemonetics’ NexSys PCS® with Persona™ technology customizes plasma collection based on an individual donor’s body composition.

“The NexSys PCS system has transformed and improved the way our customers can collect plasma,” said Chris Simon, Haemonetics’ President and CEO. “Persona builds on that legacy by delivering meaningful innovation and reinforces our commitment to supporting the plasma industry.”

The 510(k) clearance was supported by clinical data from the IMPACT (IMproving PlasmA CollecTion) study, a multicenter, prospective, double-blinded, randomized controlled clinical trial involving 3,443 donors who underwent 23,137 plasma donations. The study was one of the largest clinical trials on the topic of plasmapheresis and it demonstrated that the NexSys PCS system with Persona technology was safe and effective. Using NexSys PCS with Persona technology, which incorporates a novel, personalized percent plasma nomogram, study results showed an average 8.2% increase in volume of plasma collected per donation across the study population when compared with NexSys PCS® with YES® technology. Additionally, the average number of repeat donations was not impacted and increasing plasma collection volume up to a maximum of 1,000 mL was well tolerated in eligible donors.

The amount of plasma a donor can donate is currently based on a variable calculation, also called a nomogram, which is solely correlated to an individual’s weight. The IMPACT study showed that, compared to the current industry standard nomogram, the Persona technology and nomogram customizes collection to an individual donor’s body mass index (BMI) and hematocrit to optimize each collection and yield a greater average volume of plasma collected per donation.

“Plasma is an essential component used to make life-saving and life-improving medicines for many conditions, and the current nomogram has been a safe and effective method for collecting plasma for decades,” said Dr. Jan Hartmann, Haemonetics’ Vice President, Medical Affairs, Clinical Development and Medical Safety. “Persona now sets a new paradigm by leveraging improved technology and taking a personalized approach to optimize plasma collection for each individual donor.”

“Octapharma strives to improve the health and lives of people worldwide and our participation in this randomized clinical trial reinforces our commitment to advancing science in plasma collection,” said Judy Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Octapharma Plasma, Inc., whose collection centers served as the IMPACT study trial sites. “We are excited about the prospect of using this new technology to help meet the rising demand for plasma-derived therapies.”

According to the Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (PPTA), approximately 750,000 people across Europe and North America rely on plasma for life-saving therapies. Plasma-derived medicines are used to treat hundreds of conditions1, like primary immunodeficiency, hemophilia and others, and it can take hundreds of plasma donations to treat a single patient2.

About NexSys PCS® with Persona™ Technology
The NexSys PCS® plasma collection system with Persona™ technology is intended for use as an automated cell separator system and blood component collector in conjunction with single-use sterile disposable sets, with or without saline compensation. Products that can be collected using the NexSys PCS system include source plasma and plasma for transfusion. The Persona technology builds on NexSys PCS® with YES® technology, which received FDA 510(k) clearance in 2018 and has been used to perform approximately 11 million collections to date. The NexSys PCS system with Persona technology includes disposables and the ability to integrate with NexLynk DMS® donor management system.

About Haemonetics
Haemonetics is a global healthcare company dedicated to providing a suite of innovative hematology products and solutions for customers, to help them improve patient care and reduce the cost of healthcare. Our technology addresses important medical markets: blood and plasma component collection, the surgical suite and hospital transfusion services.

Middle East Cleaning Technology Week, the region’s leading exhibition for the commercial cleaning and hygiene industries, will be moved to September 2021 in Dubai, joint organisers Messe Frankfurt Middle East (MFME) and VIS have announced.

The 6^th edition of the three-day event was originally rescheduled to run in January 2021, but will now take place from 28-30 September 2021 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

Shyam Parmar, Project Manager at Messe Frankfurt Middle East, said the new dates come after careful discussion with exhibitors, associations, and trade partners, adding that the exhibition and conference will be an important platform for participants to showcase their innovations and contributions toward the fight against covid-19.

“Commercial cleaning and hygiene is hugely topical right now, and the industry has played a pivotal front-line role in restarting economic activity on a global scale,” said Mr. Parmar.

“Whether in hotels, hospitals, airports, office buildings or shopping malls, our community is providing sanitation and deep-cleaning services on a major-scale to restore public confidence and meet the requirements of major asset owners, so that life can gradually return to normal.

“We know that from now until September 2021, and beyond, there will be much to learn and many success stories to share, and Middle East Cleaning Technology Week will be the ideal stage for the industry to share experiences, address challenges, while also fostering valuable business partnerships.”

Added Mr. Parmar: “With our confirmed Dubai Municipality government partnership and a number of other high level partnerships in the pipeline, we remain committed to delivering a successful show in 2021.”

Middle East Cleaning Technology Week 2021 will encompass Clean Middle East Expo, Gulf Car Wash, and Gulf Laundrex presented by Texcare, meeting the 360 degree needs of commercial and industrial cleaning, facilities and waste management, car and auto cleaning, laundry and dry-cleaning.

It will co-locate with two other MFME-organised shows: Light Middle East, the region’s dedicated architectural lighting design exhibition; and SPS Automation Middle East, a platform for innovative industrial automation solutions.

With the support of government and associations, the revised show programme will provide more value for visitors and exhibitors, with topical content discussed at a three-day conference, and further learning opportunities via workshops and accredited trainings.

Over the course of the year, Middle East Cleaning Technology Week will continue to host its popular free-to-attend webinar series, where industry experts share their insights on innovations, developments, and trends impacting the regional cleaning and hygiene sectors.