Newswatch: February 2005

Contract Awards

A4 Health Systems

The Baptist Medical Center (Jackson, Miss) has contracted with A4 Health Systems (Cary, NC) to use A4's HealthMatics ED, an emergency department (ED) information system. With imminent ED renovation and expansion plans, the medical center has implemented HealthMatics ED to accommodate patient growth, help reduce patient's length of stay, and enhance caregiver access to patient information. With more than 52,000 emergency visits annually, Baptist Medical Center plans to use A4's technology to electronically streamline its ED, including patient registration, triage, tracking, nursing and physician charting, disposition, charge capture, and reporting.

AcerMed

AcerMed Inc (Irvine, Calif) recently added 16 medical practices to its client roster, one of which is the Berkeley Family Practice (Moncks Corner, SC). The company's electronic medical records software solution enables physicians from all specialties to practice better medicine and run a more efficient and profitable business.

MECS

Amerinet Inc (St Louis) has awarded Medical Equipment Consulting Services Inc (MECS of Brookfield, Wis) a 3-year contract to provide Amerinet members with a range of remanufactured diagnostic imaging systems. The contract provides Amerinet members with the opportunity to save 25%–40% on new equipment purchases and allow individual facilities access to the MECS line of remanufactured mobile X-ray, C-arms, R&F systems, mammography, and CT scanners. It also provides an asset management component for the remanufacture and upgrade of existing mobile X-ray, C-arm systems, and CT scanners for redeployment within individual organizations.

Per-Sé Technologies

The hospital services division of Per-Sé Technologies (Alpharetta, Ga) has announced that the Valley Health System (Las Vegas) will undergo an upgrade to the system's Ansos One-Staff enterprise staffing and productivity management system. The upgrade will enable Valley Health's four facilities to share staffing information through one centralized database instead of three separate systems. Valley Health also will integrate a fifth hospital, currently under construction, with the system.

Relizon

The Relizon Co (Dayton, Ohio) has been awarded a 3-year contract with two 1-year options for document management by Novation (Irving, Tex). The contract is part of a master agreement involving 14 different suppliers of related products and services, ranging from records archiving to healthcare document management.

Sensors Unlimited Inc

The US Air Force has awarded a contract to Sensors Unlimited (Princeton, NJ) for developing a dual-spectrum imager that doubles as a communication device. The research and development contract will build upon Sensor's dual-spectrum Visible-InGaAs MiniCamera, which allows simultaneous imaging in two wave bands: visible and shortwave infrared.

Siemens Medical

Siemens Medical Solutions (Malvern, Pa) announced a 5-year alliance with Fairview-University Medical Center (Minneapolis), which will provide physicians at the center with access to advanced imaging solutions from Siemens Medical, including MRI, CT, angiography, PET/CT, and ultrasound equipment. Siemens also will collaborate with the staff on education programs focused on individual imaging modalities. Siemens and Fairview-University Medical Center also are in discussions to develop a service agreement to cover all of the imaging equipment at the facility.

A 10-year agreement has been established between Siemens Medical Solutions (Malvern, Pa) and Holy Redeemer Health System (Meadowbrook, Pa) in which Siemens Medical will be the principal technology and service provider for Holy Redeemer. Expanding upon its existing relationship, Holy Redeemer will migrate its current Siemens Medical clinical and financial applications from the Invision platform to the company's Soarian platform. In addition, Holy Redeemer will outsource its information technology operations to Siemens Medical.

Swissray

Swissray International (Elizabeth, NJ) has signed a sole source corporate capital agreement with Lake Erie Cooperative (Toledo, Ohio) for DR products and services. Lake Erie Cooperative consists of 25 acute-care members, more than 400 physician practices, and numerous nonacute-care organizations.

Trestle Holdings

Trestle Holdings Inc (Irvine, Calif), a supplier of digital imaging and telemedicine applications, has been selected as the primary technology partner for Hawaii Health Systems Corp (HHSC of Honolulu) in a grant project to bring specialized medical service and distance learning statewide to rural, underserved communities in Hawaii. The Rural Telemedicine and Telepathology Distance Learning Network of Hawaii will use the $500,000 distance learning and telemedicine (DLT) grant awarded by the Rural Utilities Service of the US Department of Agriculture to provide education and training to medical pathology residents. The grant project also will provide health professionals, rural patients, families, and community members with distance learning services as well as give rural Hawaiian communities access to specialized medical care, especially for chronic conditions. (For more information on telemedicine and teleradiology, don't miss " Teleradiology Today .")

Voxar

Voxar Ltd (Boston), recently acquired by BarcoView LLC (Duluth, Ga), announced it will supply the radiology department of the Royal Bournemouth Hospital (Bournemouth, Dorset, UK) with a site license for 22 concurrent users of Voxar 3D, the company's flagship 3-D imaging software. The site license will be integrated into its PACS workstations and will allow radiologists unlimited access to advanced MPR and 3-D reconstruction functionality.

Xtria

Xtria LLC (Planto, Tex) has been awarded a 3-year, $4 million contract to provide managed services supporting the digital imaging environment at Richardson Regional Medical Center (Richardson, Tex). Under the terms of the agreement, Xtria will upgrade Richardson's technology infrastructure, which includes the facility's network and image storage devices. Xtria also will manage the implementation of Richardson's advanced digital imaging environment, including the installation of a RIS and PACS. In addition, Xtria will provide on-site support to manage the implementation process.