A Medical Device Daily

Based on their respective expertise in imaging IT and clinical workflow, Merge Healthcare (Milwaukee) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH; Boston) have signed a partnership agreement to build a testing environment for new mobile healthcare applications.

“Our vision is to find new applications that blow away the preconceived notions of today's reading workflow,“ said Keith Dreyer, MD, vice chairman of radiology informatics at MGH. “The technology has arrived to push medical imaging review and reporting out to mobile devices, and free the radiologist from having to be handcuffed in a dark reading room. As a practicing radiologist for over 15 years, this is one of the most exciting pilots I have ever undertaken.“

The partnership will begin by testing additional uses for the eFilm Mobile solution from Merge. This new application, currently approved for use on an Apple iPod Touch or iPhone, extends the popular eFilm Workstation functionality into the pocket of the physician.

In other agreements/contracts news:

• Royal Philips Electronics (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) reported collaboration with Microsoft (Redmond, Washington) to build on Philips Healthcare's foundation of healthcare informatics and advanced clinical decision support offerings that drive efficiency and effectiveness at the point of care. Working together, the companies aim to integrate technologies that will yield faster delivery of meaningful health information, further improve healthcare efficiency and productivity, and reduce development and infrastructure costs.

“We are driving towards a significant paradigm shift from, on the one hand, simply reporting healthcare analytics to, on the other hand, creating systems which actually provide access to health information when and where it is needed,“ said Deborah DiSanzo, CEO, Healthcare Informatics and Patient Monitoring, for Philips Healthcare. “Philips and Microsoft are in a unique position to work together for the betterment of the healthcare system by effectively helping to close the healthcare technology loop.“

• NextGen Healthcare Information Systems (Horsham, Pennsylvania) has executed an agreement with Prime Care Physicians (Albany, New York) to deploy NextGen EHR and NextGen Practice Management. The practice will implement the integrated platform across its enterprise, which consists of 104 providers that serve a geographic area from Kingston to Glens Falls, New York. Implementation is expected to be completed in 2010.

• Spineology (St. Paul, Minnesota) has partnered with Captiva Spine (Jupiter, Florida) as a non-exclusive U.S. distributor for Captiva's capLOX Pedicle Screw System.

The intuitive instrumentation, ease of assembly and biomechanical soundness of the capLOX Pedicle Screw System helps to speed surgical procedures and provide quality spinal fixation during the healing process.

• UpToDate, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health (Waltham, Massachusetts), and Logical Images (Rochester, New York), developers of the VisualDx visual clinical decision support system, have partnered to bring their customers a greater level of diagnostic support at the point of care. The companies will unveil a new program in 2Q10 that enables customers to opt in to receive results from VisualDx integrated within UpToDate's search options. This integration will streamline the search process for physicians who use both products, giving them one-click access to clinical and visual diagnostic information.

• Lumedx (Oakland, California), a provider of vendor-neutral, integrated medical imaging and information systems, said that University of California Davis Medical Center purchased LumedxApollo structured reporting, analytic and interoperability solutions for their Heart and Vascular Centers. Prior to these purchases, UC Davis Medical Center used the Apollo clinical data repository solely to support cardiac registry participation.

• Under a seven year agreement, Aramark Healthcare (Atlanta) reported it has been chosen by Provena Health System (Mokena, Illinois) to provide clinical technology services for the 1,500 bed, six hospital system serving Illinois and Indiana.

Brian Poplin, senior VP of Aramark Healthcare Clinical Technology Services, said, “This partnership is built on the understanding that clinical technology is about more than repair and maintenance. It's about a mindset that interfaces with the system's information technology mission and patient care goals.“