A Medical Device Daily
Accuray (Sunnyvale, California), a radiosurgery company, said it has entered into a partnership with Still River Systems (Littleton, Massachusetts), a developer of proton beam radiotherapy (PBRT) solutions, and will provide Still with a robotic patient positioning system.
Accuray said it would supply a version of its RoboCouch Robotic Patient Positioning System, which is designed to position patients with six degrees of freedom for treatment, enabling clinicians to automatically re-position the patient from the control room. The system will be used with Still’s Monarch 250 PBRT System, a single-room PBRT system scaled for use at most cancer centers, the company said.
“We are pleased that Still River Systems recognizes Accuray’s prominent position in the field of medical robotics and has chosen us to develop their patient positioning system,” said Chris Raanes, senior VP and COO of Accuray. “Accuray’s technologies are precise and will allow the Monarch 250 System to provide optimal patient positioning accuracy and comfort.”
“As it is well recognized that precise positioning is required to gain the advantages of proton therapy, we are excited to work with Accuray to bring new standards of excellence to positioning patients for these treatments,” said Marc Buntaine, CEO of Still. “With our Monarch 250 System including a custom version of the RoboCouch, physicians will be able to quickly and precisely position patients in correct translation and rotational alignment for each proton treatment fraction.”
Accuray also develops the CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System, which extends the benefits of radiosurgery to include extracranial tumors, including those in the spine, lung, prostate, liver and pancreas.
In other agreement news:
• Beckman Coulter (Fullerton, California), maker of diagnostics instruments in the U.S., said it has been awarded new three-year agreements with Amerinet (St. Louis) to provide a full range of core laboratory systems and supplies, valued at about $74 million a year.
Amerinet, a healthcare group purchasing organization, has more than 2,200 acute-care hospital members.
Amerinet members will continue to purchase automation, general chemistry, immunoassay, integrated workcells, hematology, flow cytometry, and coagulation products from Beckman Coulter. Beckman Coulter and Amerinet have been partners since 1997.
Systems included in the agreement are Beckman’s Power Processor Automation Systems and UniCel DxC 800 and DxC 600 Synchron Clinical Systems, as well as high-throughput UniCel DxI 800 Access Immunoassay Systems and integrated UniCel DxC 600i Clinical Systems, which offer one of the broadest menus available on a single instrument, according to the company. Cellular analysis systems include Coulter LH 780 Hematology Analyzers, fully automated ACL TOP hemostasis systems with optional closed-tube sampling, and the FC 500 Flow Cytometry Systems.
• Globerian (New Delhi, India), a subsidiary of MediConnect Global (South Jordan, Utah) signed a memorandum of understanding Monday with the University of Utah as a health information research, analysis and management partner.
Globerian and the University of Utah said they intend to work together to identify and explore ideas and technologies that can be co-developed to rapidly improve the collection and transfer of health information and provide more efficient healthcare practice management.
Globerian provides full end-to-end outsourcing services for U.S.-based doctors, hospitals, health and life insurance companies, and legal firms.
MediConnect provides medical records retrieval, scanning and storage services.
• Avalon Healthcare (Tampa, Florida) signed an agreement with Tenet Healthcare (Dallas), which covers Tenet’s 11 South Florida hospitals as well as its ambulatory surgery and imaging centers.
Recently, Avalon signed direct hospital contracts with the BayCare Health System (Tampa Bay), Mt. Sinai Hospital (Miami Beach), IASIS Hospital System (Tampa Bay) and Winter Haven Hospital (Polk County).
Avalon is a health insurance company offering consumer directed health plans to employers and individuals who need high quality, affordable healthcare and live and work in Florida.