August 24, 2009 – The nuclear reactor in Petten, The Netherlands, which supplies medical isotopes, is up and running again after a scheduled maintenance. Covidien (COV.N) expects to begin receiving material from the reactor in Petten this weekend, the company said in a letter to hospital clients dated August 18 and posted on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website on Thursday.

August 21, 2009 - The final definition of the “meaningful use” of electronic health records that will be used to determine eligibility for incentive payments under the economic stimulus program will not be available until the middle or end of spring 2010, stated David Blumenthal, M.D., national coordinator for health information technology, in a press conference held Aug. 20.

August 21, 2009 - A study published in the August 2009 edition of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology found that non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients could be more accurately staged at diagnosis by taking into account the level of visceral pleura invasion (VPI). VPI is the extension of a tumor beyond the elastic layer of the visceral pleura.

August 20, 2009 - The White House announced today it will spend $1.2 billion in federal grants for electronic health records (EHR) systems, marking the first wave of funding in a series of HITECH priority grant programs, laying the groundwork for meaningful use of EHRs.

August 20, 2009 - McKesson updated its InterQual Molecular Diagnostics Criteria to cover more than 380 tests, including a new category of pharmacogenomic tests that determine if an individual will be responsive to a drug based on genetic makeup.

August 20, 2009 - "When I began to have access to patients’ electronic medical records. It made me a much better doctor," wrote David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P., National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, in a publicly distributed message.

August 19, 2009 - Uterine fibroid embolization (UFE), a minimally invasive interventional radiology treatment for women that cuts off blood flow to painful fibroids to kill the tumors, is highlighted as an appropriate treatment for women in a Clinical Therapeutics article in the Aug. 13 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

August 18, 2009 - The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced a proposed decision to cover FDG-PET for initial staging of cervical cancer, but to exclude coverage for diagnosis of the disease.

August 18, 2009 - Philips Healthcare announces the first commercial shipments of the MX 16-slice CT scanner to customer sites around the globe.