A Medical Device Daily

Merge Healthcare (Milwaukee), a health IT solutions provider, reported the addition of three Biotronics3D (London, England) applications to its eFilm eCommerce channel: Diagnostic 3D, Vessel Review and Colon Review. The company says each module brings fast access to an array of advanced visualization tools that assist in non-invasive viewing and diagnosing of medical conditions. All three modules are currently available via a free trial software download from the Merge Web site.

In other agreements/contracts news:

• Perkin Elmer (Waltham, Massachusetts) reported that its NTD Laboratories (Melville, New York) business will be a participant in Aetna's (Hartford Connecticut) network of contracted laboratories. PerkinElmer NTD Laboratories is the exclusive provider of the first trimester Down Syndrome screening protocol that uses the free-Beta hCG biomarker. The multi-year agreement is effective immediately and applies to all Aetna health plans.

• MedQuist (Mt. Laurel, New Jersey), a provider of technology-enabled clinical documentation services, said that it has been awarded a contract by SwedishAmerican Health System (Rockford, Illinois) a healthcare provider, to provide complete transcription outsourcing and speech recognition editing services to the system's hospital and medical center.

The contract also includes acquisition of MedQuist's SpeechQ for Radiology real-time interactive speech recognition system to handle radiology documentation at both SwedishAmerican Hospital and the affiliated FHN Memorial Hospital (Freeport, Illinois), through the two organizations' joint venture health information technology organization – TriRivers Health Partners (Rockford; Illinois).

• Premier (San Diego) reported Philips Medical Systems (Bothell, Washington) has been added to its invasive cardiology equipment portfolio, joining GE Medical Systems Information Technologies (Wauwatosa, Wisconsin).