• CMS (St. Louis) said that three sites have delivered clinical treatments using Monaco, its intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treatment planning system. Monaco features biological modeling, constrained optimization and Monte Carlo dose-calculation algorithms. Allegheny General Hospital (Pittsburgh), Erasmus Medical Center (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) and Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital (Milwaukee) all have begun producing treatment plans with the application. Monaco was developed with the University of Tubingen in Germany. Markus Alber, PhD, and colleagues developed the Hyperion project, which is the engine behind the new Monaco system. CMS, an Elekta (Stockholm, Sweden) company, commercialized the concepts and approaches from the Hyperion project to create the foundation for Monaco.

• Stanbio Laboratory (Boerne, Texas) has received clearance from the FDA for a new blood-testing device, the HemoPoint H2 n•x•t Microcuvette. The company said the microcuvette simplifies sample collection and virtually eliminates the possibility of air bubbles becoming trapped in the optical reading window. "This ... design represents the first substantial improvement to the microcuvette in over 30 years," says William Pippin, president of Stanbio.