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Report: Devices Nearly Half of OC Biomed Workers

Report: Devices Nearly Half of OC Biomed Workers

Cardiac Sciences Eyes Public Agencies; Tenet Sites Getting Tech Upgrades

HEALTHCARE

by Vita Reed

Orange County and Southern California’s economy gets a reasonable boost from the biomedical sector, according to a new survey from an industry trade group.

The La Jolla-based California Healthcare Institute’s report shows Orange County’s biomedical industry accounts for 33,674 jobs with an average annual wage of $54,029. There are 318 biomedical companies in OC, according to the institute.

It’s worth noting that some biomedical industry sources contend the institute’s figures are too low. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC issued the report with the institute. Report data was based on a survey of Southern California biomedical companies, academic and private nonprofit research institutions, government data and the institute’s internal database.

In terms of how the jobs are distributed, 48% of OC biomedical employees work in businesses that make medical devices, instruments and diagnostic gear; 28% work in biopharmaceuticals; 15% in wholesale trade, 6% in academic research; and 3% in laboratory services.

The county’s biomedical industry mix has been historically concentrated in device and diagnostic companies, thanks to historical influences. But there’s a bit of change coming, according to David Gollaher, the institute’s president.

“In the past three or four years there’s been a shift in focus to more of a mixed model,” Gollaher said. He attributed such changes, in part, to more activity around the University of California, Irvine, including University Research Park and the establishment of the National Acade-mies of Sciences & Engineering’s Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center.

Speaking of UCI, the institute’s survey showed that faculty members there attracted $194.5 million in research funding in fiscal year 1999-2000, up 36% from $142.9 million in fiscal 1998-99. According to the institute, the increase was the largest in the nine-campus University of California system.

Device Maker Eyes Public Sector

Cardiac Science Inc., an Irvine-based medical device maker, signed a deal with Complient Corp., a Cleveland-based provider of workplace automated external defibrillator programs, to co-market their products and services to corporate, municipal, state and federal government customers.

Terms of Cardiac Science’s agreement with Complient, which is privately held, were not disclosed.

Complient provides workplace and public access defibrillation programs for big companies. Complient’s programs are designed to equip its customers with systems that would allow immediate response to workplace emergencies including sudden cardiac arrest,a major cause of death in the workplace.

Cardiac Science develops and markets portable defibrillators, which deliver small electric shocks to the hearts of people suffering heart attacks.

In other Cardiac Science news, the company said it sold nearly 200 of its Survivalink defibrillation devices to schools throughout New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio. Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the death rates from sudden cardiac arrest in young adults climbed 10% for men and 32% for women in the 1990s. Federal researchers theorized that a combination of increased obesity, smoking and drug abuse were factors in the increased death rates.

Tenet Hospitals Make News

Fountain Valley Regional Hospital Medical Center and Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center, two of 10 OC hospitals owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp., Santa Barbara, are among seven facilities involved in an update of an information technology pact between Tenet and Perot Systems Corp. of Plano, Texas.

The deal, which also covers hospitals in Los Angeles County, is valued at $15 million and is an add-on to a 10-year, $550 million master information technology outsourcing deal signed by Tenet and Perot last July.

Separately, officials at Coastal Communities Hospital, a Tenet facility in Santa Ana, said that their site was the first in OC to use Enterra, a therapy system designed to treat gastroparesis, a gastrointestinal disorder marked by chronic nausea and vomiting. Enterra uses a neurostimulator device that delivers mild electrical pulses to nerves in the stomach, which allows patients to keep food down.

CHOC Adding Cancer Clinic

Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Orange, is spending $1.3 million to build the CHOC Cancer Institute Outpatient Clinic. The clinic is set to have 3,000 square feet of space, and is slated to open in late spring.

According to CHOC officials, the clinic is needed because around 200 children are newly diagnosed with the disease every year and the hospital treats one in two children with cancer living in OC. CHOC provided outpatient care to some 7,500 cancer patients last year. Its services include bone marrow transplantation.

Bits and Pieces:

National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Orange County chapter, is presenting its second multiple sclerosis research symposium on March 16 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn in Costa Mesa. Covered subjects include treatment advances, symptom management and an update on research at the University of California, Irvine. Biogen Inc. is sponsoring. Information: (949)752-1680.

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