Henry Schein Inc (Melville, NY) named Christian Boehnke as VP of operations, Central Europe. He will be responsible for Henry Schein’s distribution centers in Gallin and Weinheim, Germany. He will also take a partnership role in the operations of the company’s distribution centers in Italy, Czech Republic and Switzerland, as well as the overall distribution center strategic direction of the company. Boehnke joined Henry Schein in January 2001 as director of logistics in Gallin.

Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, a division of Novartis (Basel, CHE), began shipping seasonal influenza vaccine to customers in the United States for the 2010-2011 season. The company plans to supply the U.S. market with approximately 40 million doses of Fluvirin® influenza virus vaccine, which has been approved by the FDA (Rockville, MD) for patients four years of age and older. Fluvirin will be available to healthcare professionals in both pre-filled syringes and multi-dose vials. The 2010-2011 season marks the first time that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (Atlanta, GA) recommend influenza vaccination for all people six months of age and older.

Royal Philips Electronics (Andover, MA) introduced a newly upgraded line of oral/enteral feeding products. Oral/enteral syringes are part of Philips Children's Medical Ventures' (PChMV) safety and feeding solution products for the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). These specialty-use syringes were developed to reduce feeding errors in the NICU and PICU. The new line features 1 ml, 3 ml, 5 ml, 10 ml, 20 ml, 30 ml and 60 ml sizes. Visit www.philips.com for more information.

Thoratec Corp (Pleasanton, CA) announced the termination, by mutual agreement, of the previously announced agreement to sell its International Technidyne Corporation (ITC) division to Danaher Corporation (Washington, DC). The parties could not agree about the status of certain aspects of ITC's quality system and regulatory filings. Also, during the period since the agreement was signed, the ProTime InRhythm® launch in the United States was delayed because the FDA (Rockville, MD) did not clear the product's initial 510(k) submission.

ZOLL Medical Corp (Chelmsford, MA) received 510(k) clearance from the FDA (Rockville, MD) to market and begin distribution of the new Propaq® MD Monitor/Defibrillator. The product was developed specifically to meet the special needs of military customers and air medical operations worldwide. Its development was a joint undertaking between the U.S. Military Health System (DoD) (Washington, DC) and a cooperative arrangement between Welch Allyn (Skaneateles Falls, NY) and ZOLL, and was facilitated with grants from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command. For more information about the device, visit www.zoll.com.

HealthSouth Corp (Birmingham, AL) signed a definitive agreement to acquire 50-bed Sugar Land Rehabilitation Hospital (Sugar Land, TX). The transaction is expected to close in Q3 2010. No further details were disclosed.

Kendall Anderson, CEO of John Muir Health System (Walnut Creek, CA), announced plans to retire on March 31, 2011. He has been with the health system for 36 years. The board of directors has created a search team to find a new CEO by the end of 2010.

Sentara Healthcare (Norfolk, VA), the largest integrated healthcare provider in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, signed an affiliation agreement with Rockingham Memorial Hospital (RMC) (Harrisonburg, VA). Under the agreement, Sentara will oversee RMC's finances; however, the hospital will retain its local board of directors. RMC has approximately $250 million of debt, most of which is from construction of the new hospital site. The affiliation agreement will close in early 2011.

Residents of a home in Laconia, New Hampshire were lucky to find only the mess left by an intruder and not the intruder itself--a black bear. The bear gained entrance through an outside door into the kitchen and ate two pears and some grapes, and took a drink out of the fishbowl. Luckily the sound of the garage door apparently scared the bear off before the residents could get inside, just in time to save the fish from becoming another snack.

In Vienna, Austria, police and firefighters were forced to partially dismantle a police car in order to rescue a rambunctious kitten. The cats desperate meows spurred local residents to call for help. After sending its potential rescuers on a merry chase, the cat was found under the hood of a car, but out of reach.

**"News of the Weird" is for entertainment purposes only. Dail-E News does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any of the information or content included in the "News of the Weird" section. Views expressed on linked Web sites do not represent MDSI, and MDSI is not responsible for any material found on linked Web sites.**

MDSI (Lawrenceville, GA) announced that nominations are now being accepted for the Repertoire and HIDA 2010 Excellence in Sales Awards. A top-performing distributor sales representative and manufacturer sales representative will be selected from all nominations submitted. Awards will be presented to winners at the Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA) (Alexandria, VA) MedSurg Conference & Expo in Chicago on October 13, 2010. Deadline for nominations is August 20, 2010. The online nomination form can be found at www.repertoiremag.com/salesaward.shtml.

In his recent "TIPS FOR SUCCESS," Dan Nielsen, founder of the National Institute for Healthcare Leadership (www.nihcl.com), discusses communication, and how to whom you are communicating should decide how you communicate. He says that to effectively serve and create value for others, you must take the time and effort to understand the person with whom you are communicating. To read more about Nielsen's tips for communication, visit nihcl.com/html/tips/2010/July-27.html.

Amerinet Inc (St. Louis, MO) awarded a new agreement to CareFusion Corporation (San Diego, CA) for pulmonary function patient monitoring equipment. Effective July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2013, the contract offers significant savings to Amerinet members on pulmonary diagnostic products for pediatric and adult applications that test spirometry, lung volume, lung diffusing capacity and airway resistance; nutritional assessment products offered to measure patient's oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production levels to determine the caloric burn rate; and diagnostic equipment for sleep disorders, including systems for hospital-based sleep laboratories and mobile environments.

Quotes last updated at 7/29/2010 10:19:42 PM EST