A Medical Device Daily

Skytron (San Diego) reported the extension of its distributor relationship with Awarepoint (San Diego), a provider of real-time location system (RTLS) solutions.

Under the terms of the contract, Skytron's North American network of independent distributors will exclusively offer the Awarepoint RTLS technology, marketed under the name Skytron Asset Manager, powered by Awarepoint, to hospitals nationwide and international markets.

Skytron is an OEM distributor, and represents more than 20 different manufacturers around the world.

"Our partnering philosophy allows us to search the world for the best technology," said Dave Mehney, president/CEO of Skytron. "Skytron recognized early on that RTLS offered one of the most promising solutions to an extensive array of resource management and workflow problems in healthcare and after spending several years researching RTLS, Awarepoint emerged as the leading choice.

"The recent RTLS deployment of Jackson Health System (Miami), which covers 17 buildings and 91 floors, could not easily have been installed and running in six weeks with any other RTLS player in the market. We are honored to have secured the exclusive contract to distribute Awarepoint RTLS technologies to hospitals."

Awarepoint's ZigBee sensor network needs no hardwiring or fixed infrastructure: wireless sensors simply plug into electrical outlets to form the enterprise-wide self-healing Awarenet mesh network, then small, battery-powered tags are securely attached to assets, which are tracked and managed using a web-based search engine and business intelligence reporting tools.

The Skytron contract further expands the company's growth to the Canadian, Mexican, Caribbean, Central and South American international markets.

"Although we've always realized there is enormous worldwide potential for wireless location services, up to now, Awarepoint has been cautious to expand internationally. Finding a distributor we could trust was a challenge, along with understanding potentially complex trade barriers," said Awarepoint CEO Jason Howe.

In other agreements/contracts news:

• EarlySense (Ramat Gan, Israel), developer of the EverOn patient supervision system for hospital and home use, reported a collaboration with Catholic Healthcare West (CHW; San Francisco), the eighth-largest hospital system in the nation, to test EverOn in the hospital setting.

Select hospitals within the 41-hospital CHW system are slated to evaluate the impact of EverOn both clinically and financially to determine whether and how best to implement the technology. Based on evaluation outcomes, certain CHW facilities may elect to be training centers for the EverOn system.

EverOn is a wireless patient supervision system installed underneath the hospital bed mattress. At present, the system is for investigational use only.

• SynCare (Indianapolis) has extended its contract with Managed Health Services (MHS; also Indianapolis) to provide intensive case management. MHS, a Medicaid managed care company, engaged SynCare to assist the company in providing comprehensive care and support services to its pregnant members.

SynCare will manage all of MHS's obstetrics, which includes about 9,000 deliveries per year, and expand its current 3:1 return on investment.

• Premier (San Diego) reported a new agreement for electrophoresis analyzers, reagents, consumables and service products with Helena Laboratories (Beaumont, Texas). Effective April 1, the 36-month agreement is available to acute-care and continuum-of-care members of the Premier healthcare alliance.