As part of a bid to connect the dots between its own product offerings, Philips Healthcare acquired InnerCool Therapies, maker of surface and endovascular cooling devices for the management of cardiac patients. InnerCool fits into the company's broader "care cycle" strategy, the point of which is to provide a continuum of care to patients in the diseases Philips serves. Specifically, Philips' strategy is to connect diverse care settings to its product markets, in this case, cardiac resuscitation. The combination marks a change in how sudden cardiac arrest is regarded, from an isolated episode focused on a stopped heart to a larger strategy of patient management.

In May 2000, START-UP profiled five medical device companies targeting stroke, in an article entitled "Making Progress in Stroke." We recently revisited Radiant Medical, Medivance, MicroVention, and two others to find out what went according to plan and what didn't In 2007, we have to say that there has in fact not been much progress, at least in acute ischemic stroke. Two companies dropped out, two remain active with promising programs--in clinical areas other than stroke, and one, which avoided ischemic stroke in the first place, enjoyed a nice exit.

Physicians have long theorized that being able to precisely warm and cool patients, depending on their conditions and settings, would be beneficial in both cardiovascular and neurological procedures, and recent clinical evidence has shown temperature management to be even more important than initially thought.Medivance is looking to develop a non-invasive external temperature management system that is both simple to operate and suitable for a variety of settings for both precise warming and cooling. The company believes an external device avoids the risk of an invasive procedure and can be used easily by neurologists, who generally aren't comfortable inserting catheters.In striving to solve a difficult technology problem (external, non-invasive temperature management) with an easy-to-use device, Medivance is looking to avoid a problem that plagues many device companies--falling in love with complex, hard-to-operate technology. While a very sophisticated device may work effectively, a steep learning curve inhibits broad adoption because physicians are notoriously reluctant to adopt new technology unless it closely resembles current techniques. Medivance's system enables an anesthesiologist to regulate patient temperature without intruding on the surgical field and without heating up the OR, a win-win for surgeons.