A Medical Device Daily

Document Storage Systems (DSS; Juno Beach, Florida) reported that Spectron (Tulsa, Oklahoma) has become its first distribution partner. Spectron will redistribute vxVistA, DSS' free and open source version of the VistA system and resell DSS' proprietary add-on products. DSS will be providing sales and implementation training to the Spectron staff.

According to William Grosso, president of Spectron, "We are pleased to become a commercial partner with DSS for their vxVistA EHR product line. This partnership provides access to the best, most proven EHR available. We're looking forward to the introduction of vxVistA EHR products to the community hospitals of the U.S."

Mark Byers, president of DSS, added: "Spectron is an experienced company with a great reputation. We know they'll do an exceptional job of helping customers take advantage of all that vxVistA has to offer."

In other agreements/contracts news;

• Aquilent (Laurel, Maryland) said that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has chosen Aquilent for two health IT support contracts valued at more than $2.7 million combined. Under terms of the contracts, Aquilent will provide healthcare revenue data migration and health risk assessment solutions. Specifically, under the first contract, Aquilent will develop and execute a detailed strategy and plan for the migration of healthcare revenue data from existing systems to VA's new Revenue Improvement and System Enhancements solution. Under the second contract, Aquilent will engage stakeholders to create a combined set of health assessment questions for VA and the Department of Defense, and prototype a combined Health Risk Assessment Instrument. When implemented, this solution will give active duty service members, reserves, veterans and their families direct access to health risk assessments which can be incorporated into personal health records.

• The Premier (San Diego) healthcare alliance said that seven new hospital supplier agreements have been launched in its supplier diversity program aimed at increasing the number of small, diverse and regional enterprises doing business with members of the Premier alliance. New contract agreements were launched with:

• Hercules & Hercules (Detroit), Impex Surgical (Brooklyn, New York), Materials Management Services (Detroit), Neocase (Winston Salem, North Carolina), Parker Medical Associates (Charlotte, North Carolina), Veteran Medical Products (Grand Rapids, Michigan) and Viscot Medical (East Hanover, New Jersey).

• CardioComm Solutions (Toronto) reported shipment of its Global ECG Management System (GEMS) software as part of a multi-year North American licensing agreement signed last November with General Electric's Healthcare division (Waukesha, Wisconsin) and a subsequent OEM agreement signed this past summer. Focusing on optimal cardiac arrhythmia management, CardioComm's GEMS is being rebranded as GE's non-invasive arrhythmia analysis and diagnostic data management systems called MARS Event Station and MARS Event Station Lite.

• BridgeHealth Medical (Denver) reported a partnership with Medtral New Zealand (Auckland). With all-inclusive travel and medical treatment packages to New Zealand, Medtral's services will serve as part of BridgeHealth's ever-expanding and comprehensive network of medical travel options.

"This partnership represents an unparalleled opportunity for our clients to gain access to high quality medical procedures in a friendly, first world country that is internationally praised for its green, clean practices," said Victor Lazzaro, Jr., CEO of BridgeHealth. "Through our comprehensive network, they can have procedures performed in top-flight facilities by medical specialists who speak English as their first language and who have typically received their specialist training in either North America, the United Kingdom, as well as New Zealand."