A Medical Device Daily
Hypercom (Scottsdale, Arizona) reported the introduction of its medMobile terminal in Germany as part of its global initiative for high-security electronic health card systems.
The mobile device, which the company refers to as "ultra secure," is specifically designed to support the thousands of physicians who make house calls/visits throughout Germany.
This is Hypercom's fourth healthcare device released in support of Germany's e-Health card program. It said that with this new product, it becomes the only transaction solutions provider offering what it terms "a complete family of high security data transaction products for German doctors, dentists, hospitals, pharmacies and other healthcare service providers."
Ulf H nick, vice president, healthcare, for Hypercom, said, "Germany is initiating a sweeping advanced technology e-health system that will speed and streamline the delivery of vital data and significantly reduce the cost of the healthcare system. Hypercom is providing state-of-the-art high security systems and our unparalleled expertise to support Germany's migration to its new health card."
He added, "Our Germany-specific and global skill in healthcare data security and efficiency well positions us to expand our support for the migration to highly secure electronic health systems and programs."
In addition to medMobile, Hypercom's secure medLine product family for the German e-health card program includes the medCompact countertop, the medHybrid for data authentication and payment and the medModular unattended unit.
Hypercom's German base of operations is in Bad Hersfeld.
Germany's e-Health card program is one of the largest e-health IT projects worldwide, with a planned deployment of more than 80 million electronic health insurance cards. In addition to Germany, Hypercom's solutions facilitate electronic health care in a number of other countries, including Australia, France and the U.S.
RapidArc platform expands
A 51-year-old female cancer patient from Switzerland has become the first patient outside the U.S. to be treated with RapidArc radiotherapy technology from Varian Medical Systems (Palo Alto, California) on a Novalis Tx platform for radiosurgery and radiotherapy.
Doctors at Inselspital, the Bern University Hospital, used the Novalis Tx platform from Varian and BrainLAB (Munich, Germany) to treat a patient suffering simultaneous skin cancer of the nose and an aggressive nasopharyngeal cancer with image-guided IMRT (intensity modulated radiotherapy). The treatment was "very satisfactory" and compared favorably with conventional treatment techniques, according to Daniel Aebersold, MD, chairman of radiation oncology, who said the patient is responding well to the treatment.
Rather than targeting tumors with radiation beams from fixed angles, the Novalis Tx unit with RapidArc capability rotates continuously around the patient performing radiotherapy or radiosurgery several times faster than is possible with conventional techniques.
"Our first case was particularly challenging due to the fact that two distinct tumor regions were to be treated using different dose prescriptions," Aebersold said. "The treatment was very quick and we were very impressed by the excellent conformity and good sparing of organs at risk compared to standard IMRT.
"By delivering advanced RapidArc treatments on a gold standard platform such as a Novalis Tx, we were able to combine speed with extremely high precision, to minimize the possibility of movement during treatment, which is particularly important bearing in mind the larger doses we are using," he said.
Last summer, Inselspital became the first hospital outside the U.S. to install a Novalis Tx and treatments began last fall. Aebersold said he and his team now plan to explore further stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic body radiotherapy treatments, along with hypo-fractionation for fewer treatment sessions as well as techniques and treatments such as partial breast irradiation and frameless treatment of arteriovenous malformations.
Novalis Tx features very high-dose delivery rates, which contributes to shorter treatment times. It also offers dynamic fine beam shaping and non-invasive, precise frameless patient positioning for rapid and more comfortable treatments, and allows multiple beam energies of up to 18 million volts for treating deep-seated tumors.
The Novalis Tx platform includes an On-Board Imager device for pinpointing the tumor and positioning the patient with millimeter precision. The platform's ExacTrac room-based image-guidance system provides continual imaging during treatment to detect movement and support robotic adjustments in patient positioning. This enhances protection of surrounding healthy tissues while enabling clinicians to concentrate higher, more effective doses on tumors.
Accumetrics in distribution accord
Accumetrics (San Diego) has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with ELITech UK for distribution of the VerifyNow System in the UK. The company said the agreement marks the beginning of several new distribution channels as it expands its reach both in scope and geography.
ELITech UK will concentrate its efforts on reaching customers in surgery suites and catheterization labs within UK hospitals and other medical centers.
"Their demonstrated expertise in this market and knowledge of our customer base in the UK will help expedite physician access to our products," said Accumetrics President/CEO Timothy Still. "This partnership marks the beginning of our distribution channel expansion outside the U.S. and demonstrates our focus on rapidly growing our global presence."
"Distribution of the VerifyNow System is extremely complementary to our current portfolio of products, and we are delighted to add them among our customers," said Tim Watson, managing director of ELITech. "The VerifyNow System is an excellent fit with our expertise within the interventional cardiology market."
Accumetrics said the VerifyNow System is "the first rapid and easy to use platform for measuring an individual's response to multiple antiplatelet agents.