A Medical Device Daily

Emergency Medical Services (EMSC; Greenwood Village, Colorado) said that its EmCare subsidiary has agreed to partner with Advanced ICU Care (AICU; St. Louis) to co-market EmCare hospitalist and AICU intensivist programs to hospitals. By offering programs that combine the services of both hospitalists and intensivists, the companies believe they can help hospitals improve the continuum of care delivered to patients in the intensive care unit.

"This joint agreement further solidifies market expansion opportunities for both companies," said William Sanger, CEO/chairman of EMSC. "Today, the hospitalist physician often provides care to patients in the ICU who also may need the services of a board certified-intensivist, or intensive care specialist. AICU's cutting-edge approach to on-site and telemedicine technology greatly enhances the critical care continuum for patients."

Mary Jo Gorman, MD, CEO of AICU, said the agreement would allow both companies to offer hospitals improved continuity of care for their intensive care patients requiring the services of these two growing specialties.

EMSC provides emergency medical services in the U.S. It operates two business segments: American Medical Response, its healthcare transportation services segment, and EmCare, its emergency department and hospital-based management services segment.

In other agreements/contracts news:

• ContextVision (Boston), a software imaging partner for medical imaging makers, reported an agreement with a global OEM for its GOPView CT image enhancement software. The OEM will incorporate GOPView CT into products that will be launched next year. According to the company, GOPView CT will reduce noise while enhancing fine structure and edges, producing an easier-to-read image.

• Accenx (Irvine, California), a provider of health information and exchange solutions, said that MemorialCare Medical Centers (Fountain Valley, California) has selected Accenx Exchange as the interoperability platform to support its physician outreach program.

Accenx Exchange is a wide-area integration platform for creating health information exchanges, the company said. Using a software-as-a-service delivery model, Accenx Exchange provides the low up-front investment, rapid deployment and guaranteed service levels essential to minimizing project risk while maximizing adoption by community physicians, Accenx said. The platform provides the flexibility to deliver full interoperability to physician practices with an electronic medical record application, while providing convenient and efficient distribution of results for practices using paper charts, the company noted.