A Medical Device Daily

Confirma (Bellevue, Washington) and GE Healthcare (Waukesha, Wisconsin) reported they have expanded their partnership to offer Confirma service to GE Healthcare customers with CADstream.

Under the new agreement, Confirma will offer program consultation, applications training, customizable educational courses, and marketing and reimbursement consultation to GE Healthcare customers with CADstream for breast MRI.

Since July 2004, Confirma and GE Healthcare have partnered to deliver MRI technologies for breast cancer detection to healthcare providers. Under the agreement, GE Healthcare will continue to distribute CADstream to its MRI customers while Confirma will install, train and support CADstream. Currently, more than 200 CADstream systems have been installed at GE Healthcare customer sites worldwide.

"As physicians begin to offer breast MRI to their patients, there is increasing demand for a truly complete solution. Productive workflow and interpretation efficiency are critical to a complete offering. CADstream has been a key component of our solution for the past several years," said David Handler, general manager, MR Global Marketing, GE Healthcare.

"This amendment demonstrates our commitment to GE Healthcare and its customers," said Wayne Wager, president/CEO, Confirma. "We will offer customers expertise and support that continue to improve confidence in breast MRI."

Recently published clinical studies support breast MRI for improved breast cancer detection and in March 2007, the American Cancer Society (ACS; Atlanta) started recommending that women with a 20%-25% or greater lifetime risk of breast cancer undergo an annual MRI in addition to mammography.

CADstream automates analysis, reporting and interventional planning of studies and promotes standardization with the incorporation of the ACS's Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System, which guides the breast cancer diagnosis and decision-making process.