A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Siemens Healthcare (Malvern, Pennsylvania) reported that it has signed an agreement with Hospital Clinic (Barcelona, Spain) to integrate the use of laboratory diagnostics, imaging and information technology systems with the intent to improve management of patient care from early detection and diagnosis of diseases or conditions to patient treatment.

Under the agreement, Siemens and the Hospital Clinic will initially focus on three specific areas: liver fibrosis, fetal medicine and colon cancer.

By integrating patient information generated from the lab and imaging systems, physicians are able to receive integrated information about a patient more quickly, enabling them to make clinical decisions and possibly begin treatment sooner than before. In the long-term, this practice should allow for more patient-centric healthcare, improved clinical outcomes and cost savings to healthcare payers.

"Siemens Healthcare is the first company capable of offering integrated healthcare solutions, which we believe is the next generation of patient care," said Donal Quinn, CEO, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. "By working together with Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, we will align technologies used to detect and treat several diseases or conditions so physicians can obtain more comprehensive patient information earlier, leading to improved quality of life for patients through earlier diagnosis and treatment."

"This agreement allows us to build a platform for a new concept for patient care," said Aurea Mira, manager of the Biomedical Diagnosis Center at Hospital Clinic. "Integrated healthcare will benefit our patients in many ways, including the possibility of replacing invasive testing methods, such as biopsy, with a combination of non-invasive testing methods. In the case of early detection of a prenatal condition, we hope to ensure the health of unborn babies."

In other agreements/contracts news:

• VivoMetrics (Ventura, California), developer of the LifeShirt, a continuous, integrated and wearable remote patient monitoring system (RPM), reported that it is joining the Continua Health Alliance (Beaverton, Oregon), a coalition whose goal is to create an interoperable system of personal telehealth solutions that aim to foster independence and empower people to better manage their health and wellness.

The Continua Health Alliance is comprised of technology, medical device and industry members dedicated to connecting patients, doctors and treatments in new ways through personal telehealth.

"Through our partnership with Continua, we can help to advance a much needed system of personal telehealth devices that will work together," said VivoMetrics President/CEO Howard Baker. "As members, we can share in the development of design guidelines and product certifications that will help deliver on the promise of RPM to, as Continua puts it, 'continuously protect and enhance health, regardless of location.'"

Nikon Instruments (Melville, New York) has appointed Laboratory Supply Co. (LABSCO; Louisville, Kentucky) as its clinical laboratory dealer in Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Ohio and West Virginia. LABSCO will sell Nikon's i-Series Laboratory Microscopes and DS Series Digital Cameras to the healthcare market in these states.

"Nikon Instruments is excited to offer customers superior service from LABSCO," said Lee Shuett, executive VP, Nikon Instruments. "LABSCO is known for its expertise in the clinical laboratory, and the selection was made based on LABSCO's experience and infrastructure to provide excellent customer service to Nikon's loyal customer base.n "