A Medical Device Daily

SynCardia Systems (Tucson, Arizona), manufacturer of the SynCardia temporary CardioWest Total Artificial Heart, reported that its new Companion driver system has received CE Mark approval to power the Total Artificial Heart (TAH) in Europe.

"The new fleet of Companion drivers will supplement the 36 'Big Blue' hospital drivers currently in use, more than tripling implant capacity by year-end," said Rodger Ford, SynCardia president/CEO. "The Companion driver will also supply the drivers we need to train the backlog of transplant centers waiting to become certified on the TAH."

Proven Process Medical Devices, one of the largest medical original equipment manufacturers in the world, has committed to producing 85 Companion drivers by year-end, in addition to hospital carts for the OR/ICU and portable caddies for stable patients.

The Companion driver is also designed to power SynCardia's future family of pulsatile devices, including the 50cc Total Artificial Heart and the 10cc, 30cc and 60cc ventricular assist devices (VADs).

In October, SynCardia submitted a PMA Supplement to the FDA for approval of the Companion driver in the U.S.

Global Med licenses EdgeLab to Seven Labs

Global Med Technologies (Denver), an international healthcare information technology company, reported that its Inlog subsidiary has licensed its EdgeLab Laboratory Information Management Software (marketed as Labo Serveur in France) to the seven laboratories at University Hospital of Reims (Reims, France). Financial terms of this substantial agreement were not disclosed.

The Reims' laboratories handle a full range of clinical laboratory functions with their daily workload exceeding 700 patient files per day. EdgeLab will be deployed on more than 170 workstations and will be directly connected to more than 40 laboratory analyzers.

According to Cornu, the IT representative for the University Hospital of Reims, the reasons behind the hospital's choice were based on different factors: a technical architecture that corresponded to their desires, a more intuitive and user-friendly product than what the competition offered and a very broad functional basis that covered all of the requirements of the relevant wards. In addition, the on-site demonstrations and especially the visit to the University Hospital of Besancon were also very persuasive.

Since EdgeLab was introduced into the hospital market in 1999 as Labo Serveur, it has become a leading laboratory information management system in Europe with more than 150 licensed laboratories. EdgeLab is connected to more than 1,000 analyzers and interchanges data with all major hospital healthcare software applications.

Will Willman, Global Med's Senior VP of Sales and Marketing EU/ME/Asia, commented, "We are very proud to have been selected by the University Hospital of Reims to assist their seven laboratories with our laboratory information management system. EdgeLab has proven capabilities for the complex requirements of multi-site university hospitals with multiple laboratories. We are looking forward to supporting University Hospital of Reims with quality products and services as they continue to provide excellent, advanced healthcare to patients in the greater Reims area."

The University Hospital of Reims, France, has almost 2,500 beds throughout its nine facilities. It handles 20,000 surgical procedures and 1,700 births each year at its pediatric facility. Its emergency service manages 67,000 cases per year.

Global Med Technologies is an international healthcare information technology company which develops regulated and non-regulated products and services for the healthcare industry. A provider of blood and laboratory systems and services, Global Med's products are deployed in 20 countries and serve more than 2,100 transfusion centers, blood banks and laboratory sites.