• Echo Therapeutics (Franklin, Massachusetts) said that it has started the second clinical study of its current Symphony continuous transdermal glucose monitoring system (CTGM System) at the Tufts-New England Medical Center. The company said it expects to report the results of the study this quarter. Echo’s current generation Symphony CTGM system consists of the FDA-cleared SonoPrep skin permeation device that incorporates permeation control technology, together with wireless conductivity and proprietary transdermal sensor technologies. In addition to providing glucose monitoring benefits to diabetes patients, Symphony is designed to help patients and healthcare teams in hospital critical care settings to better control glucose levels with accurate, needle-free, continuous glucose readings. The skin permeation feature of Echo’s current generation of Symphony CTGM System involves SonoPrep, Echo’s FDA-cleared device using ultrasound-mediated skin poration technology. Echo Therapeutics is a specialty therapeutics and diagnostics company developing a pipeline of both advanced topical reformulations of FDA-approved products using its AzoneTS dermal penetration technology; and Symphony, a wireless, needle-free, CTGM system for the diabetes and hospital critical care markets.

• Escalon Medical (Wayne, Pennsylvania) reported that its Sonomed subsidiary has received FDA clearance for the Master-VU ophthalmic B-scan ultrasound system. The system consists of a B-scan probe that can be interfaced to a standard personal computer (via a USB cable connection) using Sonomed’s software, thereby converting the personal computer into an ophthalmic ultrasound system. The Master-VU features include: measurement calipers for multiple intraocular measurements; the ability to save both 30-second “clips” as well as individual frames on a scrolling frame manager; and on-screen annotation capability, including text and graphics.Sonomed is a diagnostic ultrasound company specializing in the design, manufacture and distribution of instruments for ophthalmology. Escalon makes ophthalmic diagnostic, surgical and pharmaceutical products as well as vascular access devices.

• Home Diagnostics (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) reported introduction of its new blood glucose test strip platform called TRUEtest. TRUEtest strips will use no-coding technology that automatically calibrates with the company’s upcoming TRUEresult and TRUE2go blood glucose meters. The TRUEresult meter will offer advanced performance features while TRUE2go will be the world’s smallest monitor for on-the-go testing. The new no-coding technology of TRUEtest strips will eliminate the need for users to code their TRUEresult and TRUE2go meters with each new box of test strips. This enhancement reduces the risk of inaccurate glucose results caused by miscoding or failure to change the code when a new box of test strips is used, the company said. Home Diagnostics makes diabetes-testing supplies.

• Three Palm Software (Los Gatos, California) reported receiving FDA clearance for its WorkstationOne Breast Imaging Workstation. WorkstationOne is intended for softcopy reading and interpretation of digital mammography images, and was developed with the goal of assisting radiologists to read digital mammograms efficiently. WorkstationOne incorporates viewing methodology, including Tabar’s systematic viewing technique for searching for subtle abnormalities on the mammograms. The workstation, supporting IHE integration profiles and the display of CAD markers, is a software system that can be installed on an off-the-shelf general purpose computer with one or two gray scale high resolution monitors and one color monitor. Three Palm Software specializes in development of medical imaging software.