Innovation, influence and business in America's medical cities.

Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT) is quietly working on plans to develop a pacemaker that can deliver electricity to the heart without wires. Several medical device firms have been pursuing leadless cardiac devices in recent years.

Cardinal Health Inc. (NYSE: CAH) continues to feel the love from credit ratings agencies, with Fitch upgrading the Ohio company’s outlook to “positive.” Fitch attributed the change in Cardinal Health’s outlook to the company’s focus on paying down debt, and expected strong financial performance and disciplined acquisition activity over the next year.

Farm plans to staff the office with executives from its New Hampshire offices beginning next week, but eventually hopes to hire a dedicated Cleveland staff.

Cardinal Health Inc. (NYSE: CAH) will manage and operate the Knoxville, Tennessee, cyclotron facility of ProVision Healthcare through an agreement that expands the Dublin, Ohio, drug distributor’s ability to make molecular imaging agents nationwide. Ohio’s largest corporation has been partnering with academia and industry to push the boundaries of nuclear medicine — and have first dibs on commercializing the industry’s innovations — by using its know-how and technologies to enable researchers to come up with new products.

About 800,000 American per year are medical tourists–that is they leave the cozy confines of the good ol’ US of A to seek medical treatment in cheaper locales. But where’s the intrepid medical tourist to go, and for what procedures?

CareFusion Corp. (NYSE:CFN) posted bottom-line declines for both the fourth quarter and its first year as a public company, prompting the medical device maker to slash its workforce by 4.7 percent despite positive top-line growth.San Diego-based CareFusion reported profits of $52 million, or 23 cents per diluted share, on sales of [...]

Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH) Foundation has awarded a total of $1 million in grants to 40 organizations for projects designed to improve medication management and operating room safety.The grants range from $7,500 to $37,500 each, and are part of a healthcare quality-improvement program that Cardinal launched in 2008, according to a statement. Cardinal has awarded [...]

Cardinal Health Inc. (NYSE: CAH) has closed the books on fiscal 2010 — a year of transition that included continuing financial and operating turnarounds, as well as a major spin-off — while raising its earnings sights for the coming year.Ohio’s largest company earned $642.2 million, or $1.77 a diluted share, in fiscal 2010, which ended [...]

Device and drugmaker Neoprobe Inc. (OTCBB: NEOP) has applied for listing on the NYSE: Amex market.The move would make the Dublin, Ohio, company more attractive to institutional investors and provide more liquidity for existing investors, according to a statement from the company. Neoprobe is currently traded on Nasdaq’s Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board.CEO David Bupp said it [...]

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration said it is requiring nine medical device companies to conduct postmarket analysis on a connection between needless connectors and higher rates of blood stream infections.In a notice posted on the Centers for Devices and Radiological Health web site, officials said that the agency is “aware of [...]