A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Sunquest Information Systems (Tucson, Arizona) said that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) has signed a strategic agreement enabling UPMC to expand use and deployment of the Sunquest laboratory information solutions (LIS) for an extended period of time.

As part of the agreement, UPMC will extend the Sunquest system, already in 15 of its 20 hospitals, to additional sites. Additionally, after a successful pilot installation that resulted in eliminating laboratory specimen labeling errors, UPMC's nursing staff will expand use of the Sunquest Collection Manager.

UPMC's long-term plans include deploying Sunquest's LIS to all sites.

In other agreements:

• Nonin Medical (Minneapolis) has been awarded a 36-month contract with Premier Purchasing Partners, the group purchasing unit of Premier (San Diego). Under the agreement, Premier's more than 2,100 hospitals and 54,000 total healthcare member sites will have access to special pricing and terms pre-negotiated by Premier for the most extensive selection of products using Nonin's PureSAT pulse oximetry technology.

Premier's members also will be able to take advantage of Nonin's leadership position in Bluetooth wireless technology with devices such as the innovative Avant 4000 tabletop pulse oximeter. Nonin's SpO 2 monitoring devices are designed to simplify the delivery of care and will provide Premier-affiliated clinicians with accurate and durable patient monitoring solutions.

• Terason (Boston, Massachusetts) signed a three-year agreement with Premier, effective April 1, that covers Terason's complete product line of portable ultrasound imaging solutions, including the Terason 2000+, Terason t3000 and Terason Echo Ultrasound Systems.