(Eagle: Tampa, FL) -- Eagle Product Inspection has launched the Eagle Pack 400 HC, an energy-efficient X-ray inspection system designed for easy and efficient cleaning in the harsh wash-down environments of the packaged meat, poultry, and dairy industries, where daily sanitization of equipment is mandatory. The new system facilitates compliance with food safety standards regarding plant hygiene, including the American Meat Institute’s (AMI) guidelines for meat processors and manufacturers.

(Kauffman Foundation: Kansas City, MO) -- Cost trends in U.S. health care consistently increase at about 2.5 percentage points faster than the general rate of inflation—clearly an unsustainable rate. To address what it called "America’s most urgent public policy problem," the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation released a report that focuses on improving the cost-benefit balance in U.S. health care through open access to medical data.

(Instron: Norwood, MA) -- Instron, a leading provider of testing equipment solutions designed to evaluate mechanical properties of materials and components, has launched BioBox, a controlled air environment ideally designed for testing of large or long medical devices at body temperature. The BioxBox is a more practical environmental solution for devices or materials that elongate beyond the testing space allowed by a heated bath or that cannot be submerged in a liquid.

(ThedaCare: Appleton, WI) -- ThedaCare has announced the launch of Potent Medicine: The Collaborative Cure for Healthcare, the latest title from award-winning author John Toussaint, M.D., of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value.

(NTOCC: Washington, D.C.) -- The National Transitions of Care Coalition (NTOCC), an organization dedicated to improving patient transitions through the health care system—i.e., when the patient leaves one care setting and moves to another care setting—has launched a new tool to facilitate the advancement of care quality. The Transitions of Care (TOC) Evaluation Software, a web-based program provided at no cost to the user, is designed to meet the needs of organizations ready for an advanced stage of transitions-of-care improvement efforts.

(Booz & Co.: New York) -- Confirming pessimism about the state of the pharmaceutical industry, a recent survey of U.S.- and European Union-based pharmaceutical sales and marketing executives reveals that 68 percent believe “the current business model is broken.” The survey, conducted jointly by Booz & Co. and National Analysts Worldwide, was designed to take the temperature of the industry on current challenges and help analysts understand how industry leaders plan to overcome those challenges in the next several years. It builds on surveys Booz & Co.

(Productivity Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- Instead of building new hospitals that import old systems and problems, the time has come to reexamine many of our ideas about what a hospital should be. Can a building foster continuous improvement? How can we design it to be flexible and useful well into the future? How can we do more with less?

(Lenox: Trevose, PA) -- Lenox Instrument Co.’s Micro Borescope delivers a clear, bright image ideal for close-range inspection of medical devices like coronary stents; tubing; micromolded, machined, and cast parts; and electronic and mechanical assemblies—particularly where access is limited and the insertion point is only a few millimeters in diameter.

(IHI: Cambridge, MA) -- The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), an independent nonprofit organization that works with health care providers and leaders throughout the world to achieve safe and effective health care, will host its 13th Annual International Summit on Improving Patient Care in the Office Practice and the Community from March 18 to March 20, 2012, in Washington, D.C.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has announced major changes in how the nation’s medical residency programs will be accredited in the years ahead, putting in place an outcomes-based evaluation system where the doctors of tomorrow will be measured for their competency in performing the essential tasks necessary for clinical practice in the 21st century.