Newswatch: March 2006

Contract Awards

Advantage Life Screening

Advantage Life Screening (Mokena, Ill), a division of DiaTri LLC, has been contracted by Life Time Fitness facilities throughout Illinois. The partnership, which started in January, will continue through April 2006 and states that Advantage Life Screening will visit all eight Life Time Fitness centers to provide preventive ultrasound screening services to interested members. Offered on mobile ultrasound units, the screenings offered include stroke/carotid artery, abdominal aortic aneurysm, peripheral arterial disease, theyroid, osteoporosis, and heart disorders/echocardiogram.

DeJarnette

DeJarnette Research Systems Inc (Towson, Md) has provided a multi-unit dyseCT order to Clarian Health Partners, Indiana University Medical Center (IUMC of Indianapolis). The initial order is for 11 dyseCT units to be installed. This installation will make IUMC the largest adopter of this technology worldwide. The purchase follows a 6-month evaluation of the technology by radiologists, technologists, and administrators at IUMC.

Fuji

FUJIFILM Medical Systems USA Inc (FMSU of Stamford, Conn) has announced that the group purchasing division of Premier Inc (San Diego) has extended the company's existing film and imager contracts through August 31, 2008. This enables Premier's nearly 1,500 member hospitals to continue to benefit from FMSU's full line of medical film and imagers, including conventional wet film, mammography film, dry film, dry thermal imagers, and dry laser imagers.

GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare (Waukesha, Wis) has announced that Sullivan Orthopedic Associates Inc (Stoughton, Mass) has acquired its digital X-ray technology. This new DR system, called the Definium 8000, brings a new era of orthopedic imaging to the community, which previously was available only in Boston hospitals or larger clinical settings. The new Definium 8000 is designed to streamline challenging exams with consistent and superior image quality, allowing Sullivan's physicians to provide early diagnosis, treatment, and study of musculoskeletal diseases and disorders while reducing waiting time for patients.

PACSGEAR

PACSGEAR Inc (Pleasanton, Calif) has completed a multi-center installation of the company's suite of products at Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers (Denver), Colorado's largest and most comprehensive provider of cancer care, with 20 locations and more than 60 physicians throughout the state. By deploying PacsSCAN and Print2PACS software with its Direct View 5 PACS System from Eastman Kodak Co (Rochester, NY), Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers now have the ability to bring all patient-related documents into a central patient file for improved patient care and efficiency.

Additionally, PACSGEAR has announced that Adventist Health System (Winter Park, Fla) has added its PacsSCAN document-scanning package to an additional nine hospitals and imaging centers in Illinois and Tennessee. PacsSCAN is now the document-scanning solution in Adventist Health System sites in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Kansas, Illinois, and Kentucky.

Philips Medical

Philips Medical Systems (Andover, Mass) has announced the installation of its advanced cardiology information management system, Xcelera, at both the Los Angeles County Harbor at the University of California Los Angeles and Los Angeles County Olive View Medical Centers. Both hospitals also have signed agreements with Philips Medical for the installation of new catheterization laboratories at each site, including one room with an Allura Xper FD 10/10 system, 3-D-CA pivot table, the Xcelera, and vascular and coronary software, and another with an Allura Xper FD 20 system with syncratilt vascular and cardiac software, 3-D-RA, and an EP med systems workmate recording system.

Riverain Medical

Riverain Medical (Miamisburg, Ohio) has signed agreements with three leading healthcare group purchasing organization: Consorta, medAssets, and Novation will work with the company to provide their customers with RapidScreen, the first and only FDA-approved-for-marketing chest radiography CAD system designed to assist radiologists in detecting suspicious pulmonary nodules that could indicate early-stage lung cancer. The company has established early-adopter programs with all three companies, providing RapidScreen to members at a preferred rate. The agreements with Consorta, MedAssets, and Novation took effect January 1, 2006; Novation's contract extends through December 31, 2007, while MedAssets's and Consorta's contracts extend through 2008.

Rogan Delft

Rogan-Delft (Veenendaal, The Netherlands) has announced that Banner Health (Phoenix) has selected its PACS for installation at seven community hospitals across five states. Banner Health's selection of the Rogan XS PACS solution will further transition the healthcare system to a near filmless and paperless environment over a 2-year period. As part of the agreement, MTS Delft will provide a fully integrated PACS solution featuring Rogan Delft's patented EOL (everything online) and RAIS (random array of independent servers) technology, enabling MTS Delft to guarantee 99.999% uptime of archive server and storage.