A Medical Device Daily

AdvanSource Biomaterials (Wilmington, Massachusetts) has entered into a multi-year supply agreement with an undisclosed international manufacturer of orthopedic devices.

The agreement is based on the development and subsequent supply of a specialized aromatic polycarbonate-based material specifically targeted for applications in the orthopedic medical device market. The successful development of the specified polymer has resulted in execution of this agreement which provides for an annual usage fee per end-product incorporation and commercialization.

Khristine Carroll, AdvanSource's vice president of sales and marketing, said, "Having the opportunity to exhibit and provide our custom synthesis capabilities to a leading innovator in the orthopedic market represents a broader entr e into the orthopedic arena, which we consider to be an important vertical market within our growth strategy. This relationship further supports what we believe to be the ongoing success of our revitalized business strategy to leverage the company's biomaterials technology and capabilities in partnership with developers and manufacturers of medical devices."

AdvanSource manufactures polymer materials. The company's biomaterials are used in devices that are designed for treating a broad range of anatomical sites and disease states.

In other agreements and contracts news:

• A collaborative study between ContextVision (Stockholm, Sweden), SharpView (Link ping, Sweden), Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH; Boston) and the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV) will investigate 3-D image filtering as a means of increasing patient throughput and improving image quality in MRI and further enabling dose reduction in computed tomography (CT).

Researchers will compare state-of-the-art 3-D techniques with 2-D filters. ContextVision and its partner company SharpView have previously worked with CMIV at Link ping University (Sweden) to pioneer advances in image enhancement, adaptive filtration and 3-D filtration, leading to lower-dose CT and faster MRI procedures with better image quality. The new study will build upon existing research collaboration among the organizations, with MGH's Mannudeep Kalra, MD as principal investigator. The study aims to demonstrate that 3-D filtering can allow hospitals and practitioners to increase patient throughput for MRI, enabling one to two additional patient appointments per day.

• Gene-Jack Wang, chair of the Medical Department at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL; Upton, New York), on behalf of Samuel Aronson, BNL's director, Olivia Ho Cheng, CEO of Aurora Imaging Technology (North Andover, Massachusetts) and Da-Hsuan Feng, senior executive vice president, National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan), together have signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a cooperative relationship to further scientific and technological advancement in fields of interest, including various imaging and positron emission tomography (PET) projects.

• Wolters Kluwer Health (Minneapolis) reported that Medical Center Endoscopy (Houston) has selected its ProVation MD software for procedure documentation and coding, and its ProVation EHR electronic health record and patient charting solution. ProVation MD, replaces dictation and transcription and allows physicians to efficiently document procedures at the point of care.

• Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian (Newport Beach, California) has expanded its partnership with Surgical Information Systems (SIS; Atlanta) by adding anesthesia, business intelligence and tissue management capabilities to its existing system, and by extending the SIS Solution to Hoag Hospital Irvine, which is scheduled to open in 2010. A SIS client since 2003, Hoag Hospital has leveraged its single database perioperative solution to enhance clinical, financial and operational outcomes. In November it chose to build on these successes by implementing additional tools to further optimize the surgery department's impact on the entire hospital. These tools include: SIS Trax, a comprehensive tissue management system; SIS Analytics, the AHA endorsed perioperative business intelligence solution; and SIS Anesthesia, a complete anesthesia solution that provides the accuracy and automation needed to manage patients and optimize anesthesia practice.

• Mirth (Irvine, California) and HealthBridge (Cincinnati) reported the selection of the Mirth Meaningful Use Exchange (Mirth MUx) as the core of HealthBridge's interoperability infrastructure. By implementing Mirth MUx HealthBridge becomes one of the nation's first health information exchanges to enable physician access to critical patient information via the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). The NHIN has been developed under the guidance of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to serve as a nationwide, interoperable health information infrastructure.

• The University of Cambridge (UK) and Life Technologies (Carlsbad, California) have formed a collaboration to advance translational research studies in key disease areas such as cancer, diabetes and neurological disorders. Through this collaboration, sequencing technology will be made available to the European research and clinical communities through the Eastern Sequence and Informatics Hub at Addenbrooke's Hospital (Cambridge). The Cambridge-based hub was established to accelerate the use of genetic information to help identify new therapies, diagnostics and preventive strategies. Genomics and biomedical scientists will use three SOLiD 3 Plus Systems, next-generation DNA sequencing platforms from Life Technologies, to advance targeted medical resequencing and whole transcriptome analysis research studies.

• Halfpenny Technologies (Blue Bell, Pennsylvania), a health information exchange (HIE) company that enables interoperability between physician electronic medical record systems (EMR) and hospitals, labs and other ancillary service providers, reported that American Pathology Partners (Nashville), a private diagnostic testing services provider, will deploy the company's Integration Technology Framework (ITF) platform. "We needed an integration solution that would facilitate connectivity to the wide variety of EMR systems that physician practices use," said Thanasis Papaioanu, chief development officer for American Pathology Partners. "We chose the ITF platform because of Halfpenny Technologies' strong history of providing secure and efficient clinical data exchange between incompatible systems. The platform will allow us to receive electronic lab orders and deliver test results directly into a physician's EMR system regardless of the type of system the practice uses, strengthening our provider relationships."

• Initiate Systems (Chicago) reported that Intermountain Healthcare (Salt Lake City) will use Initiate Interoperable Health as the foundation of its new Enterprise Clinical Information System (ECIS). The system will facilitate advanced clinical decision support within an environment of information sharing. Intermountain employs more than 31,000 healthcare workers in a system comprised of 23 hospitals, a physician group with associated ambulatory clinics, and a health plans division serving residents of Utah and southeastern Idaho.