A Medical Device Daily

SNM (Reston, Virginia), dedicated to promoting the practical applications, technology and science of molecular imaging and nuclear medicine, has awarded $300,000 in research grants to support molecular imaging research. The grants are supported by SNM's Education and Research Foundation which is focused on supporting the next generation of researchers.

"SNM's awards and fellowships are integral to supporting promising young researchers working in the field of molecular imaging," said Henry VanBrocklin, PhD, president of SNM's Molecular Imaging Center of Excellence and professor of radiology and biomedical imaging at the University of California (San Francisco).

This is the first time that SNM has offered awards specifically to support research in the field of molecular imaging. Recipients of the new Molecular Imaging Awards were announced at SNM's 55th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Jonas Hannestad from Yale University was named the recipient of the $100,000 SNM Molecular Imaging Research Grant for Junior Medical Faculty for a research project using SPECT to study neuroinflammation and depression during treatment of patients with hepatitis C. This grant provides a junior faculty member who has clinical responsibilities with salary support to fund their research.

In other grants/contracts news:

• Cohera Medical (Pittsburgh) reported that it has been selected to receive a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant of $1.5 million for the ongoing development of TissuGlu, a surgical adhesive for application in plastic surgery.

The Phase II SBIR grant, awarded by the National Institutes of Health, will fund work to finalize the pre-clinical testing that will support submission of an Investigational Device Exemption to the FDA for approval to initiate human clinical trials. In the second year of the award, human clinical trials will be initiated to establish the product's safety and efficacy.

• Anesthesia Business Consultants (Jackson, Michigan) said it has entered into a partnership with Quantum (Charlotte, North Carolina) to offer the Quantum Clinical Navigation System to anesthesiology groups.

The Quantum software is an important option for groups already using ABC's proprietary billing and practice management system, F1RSTAnesthesia.

Quantum allows an anesthesiology group to track individual and group performance on about 50 indicators of clinical and operating room quality. Quantum was designed by physicians for physicians to track clinical performance, patient satisfaction, OR efficiency and clinical outcomes across the perioperative care continuum.