TMAC expands communications division

The Medical Affairs Company (TMAC; Atlanta), a provider of outsourced medical science liaison services, reported an expansion of its medical communications division.

TMAC says this expansion strengthens its ability to provide the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries with a complete array of outsourcing capabilities for medical affairs activities.

TMAC's medical communications capabilities include the provision of: inbound and outbound medical information services; Adverse Event and Product Complaint handling; medical writing, including standard letter, FAQ, SOP development; literature surveillance and summarization, including pharmacovigilance; and medical meeting surveillance and support.

Breast cancer center opens

What began as a vision of community collaboration more than three years ago has become a reality with the opening of the Carol Milgard Breast Center (Tacoma, Washington). The three largest providers of breast imaging services in the Tacoma/South Sound region pooled their resources to create the new facility for women's breast care. That vision is now offering the region's highest quality diagnostic care while significantly reducing the time from screening to diagnosis.

The three organizations – Franciscan Health System, MultiCare Health System and TRA Medical Imaging – reported the opening of the new breast center following more than a year of discussions.

Report: DES use to rise through 2013

According to Millennium Research Group's (MRG; Waltham, Massachusetts) US Markets for Interventional Cardiology Devices 2009 report, the use of drug-eluting stents will continue to climb steadily through 2013, driven in large part by the adoption of primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients, who accounted for nearly 150,000 PCIs in the U.S. in 2008.

In the past, primary PCI defined as a PCI performed within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms was mostly limited to facilities that had surgical back-up present. Studies have shown, however, that AMI patients who undergo primary PCI have improved outcomes over thrombolytics, even without surgical back-up. Experts are now trying to reduce the time it takes to get patients to a cath lab in some cases bypassing the emergency room which will drive primary PCI adoption and support DES use in AMI patients.