• Aethlon Medical (San Diego) said it has completed a 30-day treatment case study to further evaluate the safety and efficacy of the Aethlon Hemopurifier as a candidate treatment for hepatitis-C virus (HCV) infection. The Hemopurifier assists the immune response in combating infectious disease through real-time therapeutic filtration of infectious viruses and immunosuppressive proteins. As in previous studies, which demonstrated robust viral load reductions resulting from three Hemopurifier treatments administered in a one-week trial, the study enrolled an HCV patient suffering from end-stage renal disease (ESRD) requiring regular kidney dialysis treatment.

• Lucid (Rochester, New York) said it has connected the first users to its VivaNet system, a telemedicine network designed to allow dermatologists and pathologists to share high-resolution images of suspicious skin lesions taken with the company's VivaScope confocal imagers. VivaNet is an Internet-based medical information system that facilitates secure, HIPAA-compliant, collaboration between dermatologists and pathologists in near real-time, providing images that these physicians can interpret for detection of skin cancers at the earliest, most curable stages. The VivaNet system transfers VivaScope images from dermatologists to pathologists so that together they can form more accurate clinical judgments regarding potential skin cancers. VivaNet also facilitates rapid second opinions, as necessary.