In brief: Rehab Medical hits milestone, JANZ supports medics, Belluscura partners with Sunset 

INDIANAPOLIS – Rehab Medical now has 100 assistive technology professionals (ATPs), a milestone it recently celebrated at a two-day annual conference in downtown Indianapolis. 

“This milestone is a great achievement for us, and we are very proud to celebrate it,” said President Kevin Gearheart. “It is also the first of many milestones we expect to cross. We have an outstanding team, and this is just the beginning.” 

Reaching the milestone is instrumental to Rehab Medical’s plans to open three new offices in the coming months, company officials say. 

Jarrad Rankin, now vice president of operations, became Rehab Medical’s first ATP in 2010. The company started off adding ATPs in strong sales markets like Kansas City, Cincinnati and Louisville and grew from there, he says. 

“Eventually, we put a smooth enough system in place that allowed us to increase the number ATPs we had on staff,” he said. "Now, 14 years later, it’s amazing to see that we’ve reached 100 ATPs, and I can only attribute that success to our phenomenal sales and executive leadership team.” 

• Rehab Medical most recently opened an office in Charlotte, N.C., its first in the state. 

JANZ supports medics in Ukraine 

COLUMBUS, Ohio – JANZ Corp. recently watched more than $1 million worth of medical supplies leave its Columbus, Ohio, headquarters bound for Ukraine. 

The shipment was the culmination of a six-month effort by Brain Finsterbusch, vice president of sales and a former U.S. Army medic, whose wife is also Ukrainian, to ensure that combat medics in Ukraine have the equipment they need to save lives on the front lines of its war with Russia. 

“We succeeded in obtaining some of the finest equipment for the Ukraine training facilities, including items that are more advanced than those used in U.S. training programs,” Finsterbusch said. “The enhanced training these medics will receive is undoubtedly going to save countless lives.” 

Working with retired U.S. Army Brigadier Gen. Mark Arnold, Finsterbusch drew on his own experience as a U.S. Army medic and his knowledge of the medical supply industry to source top-quality tools and supplies that will be used to train more than 20,000 combat medics in Ukraine. 

The shipment was funded completely by private donations through a campaign led by Arnold, who praised JANZ for its role in sourcing, packaging and shipping the supplies to Ukraine. 

• Read about JANZ’s diversification into the commercial market with its acquisition of Mullaney’s Medical Supply. 

Mount Sinai 'poised to shift paradigm’ on sleep testing, therapy 

NEW YORK – Mount Sinai researchers have been awarded a five-year, $4.1 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health to develop and study an artificial intelligence-powered model that predicts adverse outcomes of obstructive sleep apnea. Researchers say their model will better reflect the underlying physiology of the condition and the ways it impairs sleep, improving patient care and treatment. “Our proposal uses a state-of-the-art, artificial intelligence model that risk-profiles sleep apnea patients using data from routine sleep studies,” said principal investigator Ankit Parekh, PhD, director of the Sleep And Circadian Analysis (SCAN) Group and assistant professor of medicine (pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Our study will assess the real-world performance of an AI approach and offer crucial evidence needed to translate metrics that go beyond the apnea-hypopnea in assessing severity of obstructive sleep apnea into clinical practice. Achieving this would leave us poised to shift the paradigm in clinical management of obstructive sleep apnea.” Researchers at Mount Sinai have developed an AI-powered approach that examines the sleep functions apnea is known to impair—breathing, oxygen levels and sleep stages—and combines these categories into a probability score that predicts the risk of short- and long-term outcomes of the disorder. They say preliminary data from three cohorts of nearly 11,000 participants suggests the machine-learning model could predict the probability of sleepiness due to apnea with an accuracy of about 87%. In contrast, the model using the existing apnea hypopnea index predicted sleepiness at about 54% precision. 

Belluscura, Sunset Healthcare partner 

LONDON and PLANO, Texas – Belluscura's X-PLOR portable oxygen concentrator will be offered to more than 1,600 customers of Chicago-based Sunset Healthcare Solutions under a new distribution partnership. The partnership will also include Belluscura’s DISCOV-R POC in the second quarter, when it becomes available to DME providers. "We welcome the new partnership with Sunset Healthcare Solutions, which will provide over 1,600 health care businesses with access to our innovative products through a trusted, industry leader,” said Robert Rauker, CEO. “This agreement significantly expands our distribution network." Belluscura has also named Konstantin Grey vice president of sales for North America. Grey, who joined Belluscura in July 2023, has been responsible for the creation and launch of the company’s direct-to-consumer sales force and website, which it says has seen strong growth in sales and gross margins since launching last year. He also successfully launched the company’s direct-to-consumer leasing program and has been instrumental in driving the partnership with Sunset Healthcare, as well as a pipeline of further opportunities.  

Samsung expects to launch sleep apnea feature in Q3 

RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J. – Samsung Electronics has announced that the sleep apnea feature on the Samsung Health Monitor app has received de novo authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This feature, which detects signs of sleep apnea using a compatible Samsung Galaxy Watch and phone, was the first of its kind to be authorized by the FDA, the company says, following previous approval by Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in October. “With the sleep apnea feature, Samsung is taking the next step in its ongoing commitment to provide Galaxy users with the best possible sleep tools to improve their sleep health habits,” the company stated. “The feature will be available on the Galaxy Watch series in the U.S. via the Samsung Health Monitor app in the third quarter.” The sleep apnea feature enables users over the age of 22 who have not been diagnosed with sleep apnea to detect signs of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) over a two-night monitoring period. With the feature, users can simply track their sleep twice for more than four hours within a 10-day period. 

Medtrade’s York Schwab steps away 

ATLANTA – York Schwab is stepping away from his role as show director of Medtrade this year. Schwab, who began working with Medtrade in 2017 and became show director in 2021, will remain with Emerald, the show’s parent company, but will be working on different events. “I’m proud of the work we achieved as a team at Medtrade over the years,” Schwab said. “With the pandemic, and before, to now – Medtrade is in a stronger position. We were able to deliver on a consistent industry request that we schedule one show per year, instead of two. Emerald leadership had the open-mindedness to engage in these conversations, ultimately arriving at the decision to move from Atlanta to Dallas, and agreeing that one annual show would be best for the HME industry. It’s a long-term vision. and I’m glad to see it thriving.” Emerald named Kerry Tyler as associate show director of Medtrade in May of 2023. This year’s Medtrade is scheduled for March 26-28 at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in Dallas. Register here. 

Ascensia announces coverage expansion for CGM system 

PARSIPPANY, N.J. – Ascensia Diabetes Care and Senseonics Holdings have announced that Medicare has significantly expanded access to the Eversense E3 CGM System with the implementation of local coverage determinations that provide access to implantable CGM for basal-only patients. Medicare coverage has been expanded for implantable CGMs to include all people with diabetes using insulin, removing the previous requirement for multiple inulin administrations per day. Coverage has also been updated to cover non-insulin users who have a history of problematic hypoglycemia. “We welcome this policy change and look forward to bringing this differentiated CGM option to millions of more Americans through Medicare,” said Rudy Thoms, vice president, CGM Commercial U.S., for Ascensia. “Eversense E3 is a truly unique technology and optionality is key in diabetes care, where what works for one person does not always work for all. In particular, our Medicare users love that this twice-yearly CGM offers them unparalleled reliability and flexibility, without the burden of regular self-insertions and the constant reordering of supplies. It is important that people with diabetes have the same access to the benefits of a fully implantable, long-term CHM, as they do traditional CGMs and so we are thrilled to see this expansion.” Noridian, Palmetto and National Government Services are the first three MACs to publish final local coverage determinations. The earliest MAC expansion becomes effective Feb. 25, 2024. 

Product launches: ResMed, Tandem Diabetes Care, Permobil, Dynarex 

ResMed has launched its AirCurve 11 series of bilevel devices. The AirCurve 11 uses two levels of support – inspiratory positive airway pressure (IPAP) and expiratory positive airway pressure (EPAP) –and is also built on the company’s AirSense 11 platform. Other features include integrated heated humidifier, engagement tools like AirView, myAir and Personal Therapy Assistant. “Patient care is our top priority, and that includes their comfort and compliance with PAP therapy,” said Dr. Carlos M. Nunez, the company’s chief medical officer. “We’ve seen patient compliance improve from 70% to 87% through the use of coaching features and the ability to track and view their nightly sleep data via myAir and AirView, so we’ve incorporated these digital health applications into the new AirCurve11 series to enable maximum comfort and support throughout the therapy experience.”  FMI: https://resmed.com/AC11. 

Tandem Diabetes Care has announced the commercial launch of its newest insulin pump system, Tandem Mobi with Contro-IQ technology for people ages 6 and up living with Type 1 diabetes. Control-IQ, an advanced hybrid closed-loop automated insulin delivery feature, predicts and helps prevent high and low blood sugar, and has demonstrated improved time in range throughout the day and night in numerous controlled clinical trials and real-world studies. Features of the system also include expanded wearability and mobile control. “This tiny, wearable pump exceeded the expectations of users from an early access program, and we are thrilled to begin offering this exciting new technology to more people in the diabetes community,” said John Sheridan, president and CEO. "With this launch, we are executing on our strategy to offer a differentiated portfolio of durable insulin pumps, providing choice, along with new options in wearability.” FMI: www.tandemdiabetes.com/mobi. 

Permobil has launched the QuickConfig for all Corpus power wheelchairs in the United States and Canada. In the summer of 2023, the company initially launched the solution for the M Corpus VS and F5 Corpus VS standing power wheelchairs. "We're delighted to integrate Power Platform electronics into the entire Corpus power wheelchair lineup,” said Amy Morgan, PT, ATP, director of product management for power wheelchairs. “Following positive feedback from the standing power wheelchair release, QuickConfig's new features and simplified programming have been well-received. Our aim is to offer the best user experience, and the Power Platform electronics lay the foundation for ongoing enhancements.” With its user-friendly interface, comprehensive programming guides, and wireless connectivity, QuickConfig simplifies and expedites the customization process. FMI: https://hub.permobil.com/quickconfig.     

Dynarex Corp. has introduced The Glenshaw Collection, a line of premium patient furniture that includes everything from nightstands, dressers and wardrobes to resident room chairs and dining chairs. "The Glenshaw Collection represents a new era in patient care, combining functionality, safety, and aesthetics," said Zalman Tenenbaum, CEO of Dynarex. "We've listened attentively to the voices of caregivers, administrators, and residents themselves. The result is an outstanding line of furniture that seamlessly integrates into residential facilities and long-term care settings while addressing the practicalities of daily care." FMI: dynarex.com.