A Medical Device Daily

Karl Storz Endoscopy-America (El Segundo, California) has entered into a reseller agreement with Rivulet Communications (Herndon, Virginia), whose technology enables HD Medical Video anywhere on and off the hospital IP network.

Karl Storz will be entitled to resell Rivulet's complete suite of networking products and to utilize the expertise of both companies to jointly sell, market and promote their respective products and services for integrated operating room solutions in the U.S.

Both companies will embrace this new partnership to combine Karl Storz OR1 Integrated Operating Room technology with Rivulet's IP Video Transport and Storage applications to provide customers with complete OR and video solutions.

"This reseller agreement with Rivulet advances our vision of anticipating and addressing future trends with the development of sophisticated products, services and processes," said Connie Padden, director of Technology Integration, Karl Storz. "I am confident that the expertise and leadership of both companies will be utilized to provide true interoperability in the OR and throughout the entire hospital."

Ed Kennedy, Rivulet CEO, said, "Karl Storz customers are embracing Rivulet's solution as the new means by which to move video around the hospital. This reseller agreement will allow both companies to leverage their strengths and present a unified solution to their customers."

Karl Storz OR1 is the comprehensive operating room integration solution that combines surgical and video technologies, as well as data and image management. Touchscreen panels provide a user interface that gives surgeons and OR teams complete command of system settings and functions via intuitive icon-based controls.

In other agreements and contracts news:

• Intrinsic Bioprobes (Tempe, Arizona) reported the start of a contract with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to develop effective technologies for accurate measurement of cancer-related proteins and peptides that improve diagnostic capabilities by effectively discerning diseased from non-diseased states. The total cost of the 2.5-year contract is $1,276,360, out of which $1,130,272 is federal money provided by the NCI, and $146,088 is the contractor's share provided by Intrinsic Bioprobes. This contract is in support of NCI's Clinical Proteomic Technologies for Cancer initiative to assess and apply proteomic technologies and data resources to solve critical problems in cancer research.

• Universal Health Services (UHS; Austin, Texas) said that the company will enter into a long-term agreement with Opus Healthcare Solutions (Austin, Texas) to roll out OpusMobility, a web-based smart phone application to deliver access of patient clinical data in a secure fashion to physicians, across their entire enterprise of acute care hospitals. The long-term contract also includes a commitment by UHS to extend their service level agreement with Opus Healthcare for continued support, ongoing enhancements, and rollout of the OpusClinicalSuite across their organization's healthcare facilities. The application enables physicians to continue monitoring their patients' health outside of the hospital using secure WiFi and cell phone networks.