A Medical Device Daily

Carefx (Scottsdale, Arizona), whose Fusionfx solution suite aggregates patient information across existing systems and offers clinicians single, clinically relevant views of patient information, reported that it has established a base of operations in London.

The company said the move is designed to serve and build upon its client base in the UK and Europe and expand its overall reach in the UK and EMEA markets. Wayne Parslow will lead Carefx's business development in the UK as executive vice president and general manager.

"With the opening of our London office, we enhance our position to serve both government-operated and National Health Service [NHS] Foundation Trust hospitals and fulfill our long-term commitment to the UK and European markets," said Chairman/CEO Andrew Hurd. "With Wayne in place, Carefx can fully leverage our established distribution partnerships and help UK hospitals and their clinicians tap into a centralized electronic clinical record (ECR) system that resolves the problem of data fragmentation."

Carefx already has implemented Fusionfx at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where clinicians are using the solution to access the patient information they need where, when and how they need it. Fusionfx also is being implemented at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

UK hospitals such as Cambridge and Oxford face many of the same issues experienced by U.S. institutions. "Hospitals use varied combinations of health administration systems (HASs), with some relying on national hosting, and others running systems by themselves or through an external managed services company," Parslow said. "But every UK hospital realizes that it must pursue some action plan to resolve the pervasive and crippling crisis of data fragmentation."

Italian urologists back HIFU

EDAP TMS (Lyon, France), a market leader in therapeutic ultrasound, said that the Association of Italian Urologists (AURO) has recommended high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) as a standard of care for the treatment of prostate cancer as part of its new guidelines on prostate cancer diagnosis and therapy.

The recommendation and updated guidelines on the use of HIFU for prostate cancer are based on the "significant number" of HIFU patients treated in Europe to date, AURO said, and on what it called a "comprehensive review" of the current literature highlighting the positive clinical outcomes and acceptable follow-up.

AURO highlighted HIFU's "major advantage" as a minimally invasive approach and because side effects following a HIFU procedure have proven to be very low, preserving patient quality of life, EDAP said.

The association recommends the use of HIFU for primary care patients with localized prostate cancer (T1-T2 stages) and for those who are not suitable for, failed or rejected radiotherapy or surgery.

EDAP said Italian urologists also consider the use of HIFU for locally advanced tumors (T3 stage), based on preliminary positive results.

HIFU also is used in case of local relapse of cancer after radical prostatectomy or radiotherapy, as no other alternative is being offered to these patients and also as a palliative treatment for other forms of the disease.

Sergio Pontecorvi, managing director of EDAP Italy, said, "These updated recommendations ... will clearly help in positioning our minimally invasive HIFU option with urologists eager to offer the best treatment options to their patients with prostate cancer. These guidelines confirm the growing adoption of HIFU as a valid alternative to existing therapies while preserving patient quality of life."

He added, "The low side effects associated with a HIFU procedure are significant benefits to highlight when a patient is considering a treatment option for his cancer."

EDAP Chief Executive Marc Oczachowski said, "The AURO recommendations are fully in line with the French Association of Urology's recent publication [of similar guidelines]. The clear and concrete support from two major scientific and clinical communities in Europe is a major step forward in favor of our program to focus on driving deeper adoption of our HIFU technology among the urology community."