Toshiba reports X-ray installation

Toshiba America Medical (Tustin, California), a maker of medical and diagnostic imaging equipment, said the first U.S. installation of the Infinix CF-i/SP X-ray system was recently completed at Arlington Memorial Hospital (Arlington, Texas), an acute-care medical center.

Toshiba's Infinix CF-i/SP is a dedicated cardiac cath lab that features a floor-mounted C-arm with five-axis positioner that allows head-to-toe and fingertip-to-fingertip coverage and multiple angles, making it possible to obtain images without re-positioning patients.

NAS receives Nasdaq letter

North American Scientific (NAS; Chatsworth, California) said that it received a letter from Nasdaq providing formal notice that the Nasdaq listing qualifications panel will consider the company's appeal of Nasdaq's delisting action announced by the company on Oct. 16 at a hearing scheduled for Nov. 29.

The letter states that the delisting action will be stayed pending the issuance of a written determination by a Nasdaq listing qualifications panel. The company's common stock will remain quoted on the Nasdaq Global Market pending the outcome of the appeal under its current symbol NASI.

Synteract moves to N.C. research park

Synteract (San Diego), a full service contract research organization, has opened a new office in Morrisville, North Carolina, in the Research Triangle Park community. The new office is located in close proximity to a large number of emerging biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device companies and will support the company's East coast expansion.

The office, which will initially house safety and clinical operations personnel, will provide an East coast location to support clinical monitoring and site management, safety surveillance, and project management. Synteract plans to grow the office by hiring additional safety associates, clinical research associates, project managers, and sales management throughout 2007 and 2008.

HMS now CCHIT-certified

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) said that Healthcare Management Systems (HMS; Nashville, Tennessee) is CCHIT-certified, and meets the commission's newly launched inpatient electronic health record (EHR) criteria for 2007. Inpatient EHRs are designed for use in acute care hospitals. The Commission - an independent, nonprofit organization - is the Recognized Certification Body in the U.S. for certifying health information technology products.

In addition to meeting foundation standards such as security, certified inpatient products are examined for clinician order entry (often called CPOE) and medication administration capabilities (often called eMAR), including related clinical decision support. As a CCHIT certified product, HMS has been tested and passed inspection of 100 percent of a set of criteria for CPOE and eMAR. The Commission focused certification testing on these areas first because they have the lowest rate of adoption in hospitals but are thought to offer the highest value for improvement of care.

Liberator increases staff by 50%

Liberator Medical Holdings (Stuart, Florida) has reported that its subsidiary, Liberator Medical Supply, has increased its staff by almost 50% and is expanding its shipping facilities by 6,000 square feet to meet the demands of escalating sales resulting from continued, better-than-expected response to its recent national advertising efforts.

"Our September sales results exceeded the previous month's by 22%, in direct response to our August advertising roll-out," according to CEO Mark Libratore. "We are very encouraged to continue to have our expectations exceeded, and are extremely pleased by the contributions all our divisions have made, both in generating sales growth and in handling the rapidly escalating demands of fulfilling that sales growth."

Biomoda hires Manzano Strategies

Biomoda (Albuquerque, New Mexico), maker of early lung cancer detection testing and other cancer diagnostic technology, said that it hired Manzano Strategies (Owingeh, New Mexico), a government consulting firm focused on building government partnerships with companies interested in defense appropriations and development of advanced technologies.