A Medical Device Daily

Ness Technologies (Bratislava, Slovakia), a global provider of information technology solutions and the leader of a consortium with its partner Lynx (Kosice, Slovakia), has won a public tender with the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic to provide the first phase of an electronic healthcare services system, valued at €32.4 million (about $44 million), excluding VAT. The term of the initial phase is 24 months.

Ness will be responsible for the development of the system software and will serve as system integrator, in work representing €17.8 million (about $24 million) excluding VAT, of the total phase one project budget. Lynx will be responsible for security and infrastructure, representing €14.6 million (about $20 million), excluding VAT, with its partners.

The consortium consists of companies with experience implementing healthcare information systems in many countries. The project, which takes into account the process priorities in the provision of healthcare set by the Slovak Ministry of Health, will use technologies from well-known international vendors.

Among other things, the objectives of the phase one implementation are to establish a national health portal to ensure the central provision of public health-related information to patients, healthcare personnel and external organizations.

“Ness has delivered and acted as system integrator on similar projects in the United States and in Israel, for very large healthcare organizations, covering a wide healthcare spectrum in these countries,“ said Martin Kohut, managing director of Ness Slovakia. “eHealth computerization is a broad and complex task which requires a range of skills and expertise, and we and the consortium of companies we represent have an extensive track record in the field of healthcare informatics. This expertise forms the basis for this socially important implementation in Slovakia, which we expect to lead to further phases of healthcare computerization.“

EDAP lithotripter earns European approval

EDAP (Lyon, France) reported the European approval of its new lithotripter, the Sonolith i-move. The EDAP sales team and distributors will begin marketing Sonolith i-move immediately and will officially introduce the product to distributors, partners and visiting urologists at the European Association Urology (EAU) congress next week in Barcelona, Spain.

Leveraging EDAP's patented electroconductive technology, Sonolith i-move is a compact, stand alone lithotripter with an infrared stereo-vision system for real-time, 3-D ultrasound localization of urinary stones. With its various modular configurations, Sonolith i-move targets the largest lithotripsy market segment, offering a wide range of treatment procedures for mid-size clinical sites and hospitals. Sonolith i-move will replace Sonolith Praktis, an earlier generation lithotripter, and complements the company's Sonolith I-sys lithotripter, an integration of X-ray and ultrasound locatization systems.

In addition to the official launch in Europe, EDAP is actively working towards filing for regulatory approval of Sonolith i-move in the U.S. and in Japan.

Curato implements digital mammography

Curato (Stockholm) has fully implemented Sectra's (Linköping, Sweden) digital mammography system, Sectra MicroDose Mammography, at three of the organization's mammography clinics.

“As a private care provider, being competitive and efficient is particularly important,“ said Hans Olav Almaas, president of Curato. “We now conduct examinations with a significantly lower radiation dose than other players in the private market can offer. We have already examined more than 2,500 women using our new system, and many have expressed their appreciation.“

Sectra MicroDose offers improved or identical image quality at a significantly lower radiation dose than other solutions in the market. It also contributes to a more efficient workflow, in which images and patient information are available wherever they are required, regardless of time and place.