Covidien, a leading global provider of healthcare products and recognized innovator in patient monitoring and respiratory care devices, announced on March 20 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted 510(k) clearance to the Company to market the Covidien Nellcor^™ Respiration Rate Version 1.0 software and the Adult Respiratory Sensor.

Nationally-known surgeon, writer and public health researcher Atul Gawande, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Helen Darling, President and CEO of the National Business Group on Health; Patricia Gabow, MD, CEO of Denver Health and Hospital Authority; and Paul Grundy, MD, Global Director of Health Care Transformation at IBM, were honored by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) with Health Quality Awards in Washington, D.C., on March 27.

Silver Spring, Maryland—Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital decreased its rates of patient falls by 33 percent and pressure ulcers acquired by patients during a hospital stay by 60 percent over three years.

Chicago—Two outcomes-based measures from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) were recently endorsed by the National Quality Forum (NQF). The two measures, surgical site infection (SSI) and urinary tract infection (UTI), were developed by ACS in partnership with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), as possible national outcomes measures that could be adopted by the governmental body as early as 2015.

eHealth Global Technologies, Inc. (eHGT) and OptumInsight will deploy an innovative medical image exchange service for HEALTHeLINK, a Regional Health Information Organization serving eight counties of western New York, including Buffalo and Niagara Falls. This partnership will enable faster diagnosis and treatment, improved outcomes, reduced radiation exposure and health care cost reductions.

Independence Blue Cross (IBC) announced that it is collaborating with Health Dialog, a leading provider of health care analytics and decision support, on a new pilot program that will offer health coaching to people with chronic illnesses to help them stay well and out of the hospital.