GE teams with Nobel Prize winner
Bangladesh will be the proving ground for ideas developed jointly by GE Healthcare and Grameen Health to improve healthcare in developing nations. GE will work with Grameen, a microfinancing organization in Bangladesh that shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for its work to alleviate poverty and identify sustainable models for healthcare delivery to the estimated four billion people around the world possessing annual incomes of less than $3000. GE and Grameen will launch a pilot program to evaluate the use of ultrasound in rural clinics around Bangladesh to detect health problems early, especially among expectant mothers. GE will train providers in the use of ultrasound and will evaluate products, training, and workflow.
Refurbisher expands portfolio to include PACS
Block Imaging International is extending its product line to include PACS, RIS, DICOM-to-CD, CR, and archive products. Dicom Solutions, a distributor and systems integrator, will supply the products and in turn will offer its customers refurbished and preowned medical imaging equipment from Block. These will include MR and CT scanners as well as digital radiography systems. Since its founding in 2003, Dicom Solutions has completed installations at more than 550 imaging centers and hospitals.
Lantheus readies promotion of Bracco PET product
Lantheus Medical Imaging will work with Bracco Diagnostics to promote that company's CardioGen-82, a generator of rubidium 82 used in PET myocardial perfusion studies. CardioGen-82 is the only generator-based PET perfusion agent approved by the FDA and reimbursed for the evaluation of coronary artery disease. Don Kiepert, Lantheus president and CEO, described the copromotion agreement as a strategic fit for Lantheus, which markets Cardiolite, a kit used to prepare technetium for gamma-camera studies to examine myocardial perfusion. The copromotion deal comes in the wake of an FDA decision to approve for sale a generic form of Cardiolite by Covidien.
FDA clears Digirad software
Digirad is cleared to begin marketing software that promises to cut dramatically the time or radiopharmaceutical dose needed for studies performed using its SPECT cameras. The nSPEED reconstruction software, recently cleared by the FDA, can be used in Digirad imaging systems at either half-time or half-count densities with parallel and nonparallel hole collimators, according to the company. Plied with nSPEED, Digirad Cardius solid-state dedicated cardiac systems can perform cardiac SPECT procedures in as little as three minutes or with one-half the required pharmaceutical dosages, the company said.
Italian RIS enters development at Carestream
Carestream Health is working with Salvatore Hospital in the Italian province of L'Aquila to develop a module for the company's radiology information system. The module will enable general practitioners to directly book digital x-ray exams for their patients and receive the results on their PC.
