MedQuist taps new CEO
Peter Masanotti will lead medical transcription specialist MedQuist as its new chief executive officer effective Sept 16. Masanotti was most recently managing director and global head of business-process sourcing at Deutsche Bank. Previously, he served as chief operating officer and executive vice president of OfficeTiger, a knowledge-process outsourcing firm that services major investment banks and Fortune 500 corporations. Masanotti takes over for Mark Ivie, who since June served as MedQuist's interim president and CEO as well as its chief technology officer. Ivie will continue to serve as CTO. MedQuist provides enterprise-wide software packages for speech recognition and voice capture for medical applications. In August, Royal Philips Electronics sold its 69.5% stake in MedQuist to CBay Systems Holdings for $285 million. U.K.-based CBay invests in medical transcription, healthcare technology, and healthcare financial services companies.
Digirad technology reduces cardiac distortion
Preliminary clinical results indicate that proprietary technology developed by Digirad improves attenuation correction. The novel technology, scheduled to debut Sept. 10 onboard the company's new Cardius X-ACT at the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology meeting, boosts image clarity and accuracy. It also enables more rapid imaging while significantly reducing radiation dosage, according to Digirad.
Stereotaxis catheter hops back on track
Physicians at San Raffaele University Hospital in Milan, Italy, have performed the first atrial fibrillation interventions using a magnetically guided irrigated catheter redesigned for use on a guidance system developed by Stereotaxis. The company reintroduced the catheter at the end of August under the CE Mark, following its resubmission to European regulators by Stereotaxis partner Biosense in July. The interventionalist who performed the procedure, Dr. Carlo Pappone, described the contact stability, lesion quality, and overall mechanical performance of the new catheter as excellent.
