A Medical Device Daily

Calypso Medical Technologies (Seattle) has entered into a strategic development agreement with Siemens Healthcare (Malvern, Pennsylvania) to jointly develop products integrating the Calypso System with the Siemens Artiste linear accelerator and other Siemens radiotherapy technologies.

"By combining Calypso's technology platform with cutting edge Siemens products, we will be well-positioned to develop advanced radiation therapy technologies," said Eric Meier, president/CEO of Calypso Medical. "This agreement will provide the framework for joint development of real-time multi-leaf collimator (MLC) tracking, a future capability* which will significantly enhance the delivery of radiation to difficult-to-treat areas such as the pancreas and lung, as well as for our current prostate cancer patients."

Calypso and Siemens have already demonstrated the feasibility of MLC tracking through a partnership with the German Cancer Research Center (Heidelberg), the largest biomedical research institute in Germany. MLC tracking enables the radiation beam to move in concert with the tumor target based on real-time tracking data provided by the Calypso System, thereby enabling faster, more precise delivery of radiation with a higher degree of accuracy and confidence.

"MLC tracking guided by the Calypso System can maximize treatment efficiency while ensuring pinpoint delivery of radiation to the tumor, even in the presence of significant tumor motion," said Uwe Oelfke, MCCPM, FInstP, professor of medical radiation physics at the German Cancer Research Center.

Also known as GPS for the Body, Calypso's technology uses miniature implanted Beacon transponders to provide precise, continuous information on the location of the tumor during external beam radiation therapy. Any movement by the patient, including internal movement of the tumor, may cause the radiation to miss its intended target and hit adjacent healthy tissue. In contrast to other tumor targeting solutions, the Calypso System provides continuous tumor position information, enabling an increase in the radiation delivered to the tumor while reducing radiation misapplied to normal tissue.

In other agreements/contracts news:

• Candelis (Irvine, California) reported its plans to distribute and sell the ImageGrid PACS-RT Appliance and the ImageGrid RT Viewer through Siemens Healthcare's (Malvern, Pennsylvania) Oncology Care Systems Business Unit. Fully compliant with the DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) and DICOM-RT standard, ImageGrid PACS-RT accelerates the retrieval and routing speeds of data and images between radiation therapy and oncology facilities and the referring physician.

• White Mountain Imaging (Webster, New Hampshire) has become the newest distributor for IMCO Technologies (Pewaukee, Wisconsin) products, ensuring availability throughout the U.S. White Mountain Imaging will offer IMCO's RIS, Scheduler, Practice Manager, and HL7-DICOM Interface products, as well as IMCO's newest product, IMCO-STAT, Closed-Loop Reporting/Critical Test Results Management software.