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Aside from benefiting the media, whose coverage of every single minute of Terri Schiavo's drawn-out death keeps their content breathelessly packed, what good can come from the feeding tube debate? Wall Street knows:

Southwestern Medical's Newest Target—-Feeding Tube Advancement!

Aggressive investors and day traders may be excited about Southwestern Medical Solutions, Inc. (OTC: SWNM) again this morning! Yesterday after the markets closed, the company issued a press release announcing that it has commenced studies to appraise the potential of several of its in-house designs to achieve medical-device advancements to the percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube, commonly referred to as the feeding tube.

This could be additional good news for investors! According to the company, inadvertent feeding-tube removal is a large scale problem in many patients. For patients with advanced dementia, difficulty with eating is especially prominent, distressing family members and healthcare professionals alike. Healthcare professionals commonly rely on feeding tubes to supply nutrition to these severely demented patients. An associated problem is the common urge by many such patients to tug or pull at the tube, often causing its untimely removal. Should the PEG tube accidentally come out, it must be reinstated within twenty-four hours or the incision site will begin to heal, and new surgery may be required. In addition, excessive tension on the tube may also result in pressure necrosis (death of an area of tissue) of the interior abdominal wall.

Southwestern Medical believes that it has the solution! SWMN's research and development team often looks towards unconventional methods to resolve serious problems and meet critical market needs that are not being fulfilled by conventional approaches. In the case with the feeding tube scenario, the team of engineers at SWNM has potentially found a simple, plausible solution in a new design of a feeding tube, which will allow a nurse to reinstate the tube without surgery. Patent pending technology offers the key in providing a tube that will stay inserted and not cause harm to the patient if it is pulled. Another element of practicality in the SWNM designs is the materials used, which have a weight unlike typical feeding tubes, allowing for a more comfortable placement and improved general comfort level during its period of use.