MPO’s Most-Read Stories This Week—Aug. 17

Top 30 Companies report comrades topped MPO website traffic this past week.

While the Top 30 report itself failed to prevail, its new class members proved rather popular over the past seven days. Baxter International led pageviews with the (surprise?) sale of its Kidney Care segment to global investment firm Carlyle for $3.8 billion. The company had originally intended to spin off its Renal Care and Acute Therapies businesses into an independent, publicly traded company (named Vantive) by July 2024 but after reviewing the separation pathway’s financial impact, management and the board determined selling the business to Carlyle would maximize value for shareholders and best position Vantive for long-term success. Such a possibility was mentioned in Baxter’s Top 30 report installment.

Stryker Corp. was the secondary traffic driver, enticing cybervisitors with word of its pending acquisition of care.ai, a privately held company that specializes in artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted virtual care workflows, smart room technology, and ambient intelligence solutions. The acquisition will bolster Stryker’s healthcare IT and wirelessly connected medical device portfolios. care.ai’s complementary tech integrates with the Vocera platform (acquired in 2022) and Stryker’s devices. 

Medtronic was the digital caboose this past week, though it still generated plenty of traffic via its FDA approval for Asleep deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery Parkinson’s and essential tremor patients. The approval reprtedly makes Medtronic the first and only company to gain an FDA nod for DBS surgery while a patient is asleep (under general anesthesia) or awake.

Other items of interest to readers this past week was a diagnostics development partnership between the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Asensus’ warning about its impending merger with KARL STORZ.

1. Baxter to Sell Vantive Kidney Care Biz to Carlyle for $3.8B

2. Stryker to Acquire care.ai to Bolster Healthcare IT

3. CDRH, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Team Up on Diagnostics Development

4. Asensus Will File for Bankruptcy Should KARL STORZ Merger Fail

5. Medtronic Gets FDA OK for Asleep Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery