A Medical Device Daily

Nightingale Informatix (Markham, Ontario), a healthcare application service provider, reported signing an agreement with the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) in Canada to provide electronic medical record (EMR) and practice management solutions to healthcare providers across the territory.

The initial pact is valued at $600,000. Nightingale will license its healthcare software applications to the GNWT, through its Department of Health and Social Services, and will provide associated implementation, training and support services.

Nightingale’s EMR and practice management applications will be deployed at two pilot sites, and following a positive post-implementation review and continued funding approval from the GNWT, will be deployed to healthcare locations throughout the territory over the next several years. Implementation of the pilots is expected to begin in fall 2007. The potential future contract value is $2 million.

“By moving toward electronic records, the GNWT is keeping pace with the rest of Canada,” said Health and Social Services Assistant Deputy Minister Warren St. Germaine. “Providers will have timely and secure information, ensuring quality care for Northwest Territories residents.”

John Bodolai, vice president of global sales at Nightingale, said, “Being selected by the GNWT to provide EMR and practice management solutions to its physicians and community healthcare workers territory-wide is a testament to the robust nature and adaptability of [our] suite of software and services, and is a strong endorsement of our continued leadership position in the Canadian EMR market.”

He noted that the GNWT faces “unique challenges in delivering patient care, given the territory’s size and dispersed demographics.” Bodolai said that by implementing Nightingale’s suite of software and services, “caregivers will be able to securely access and efficiently share patient information regardless of proximity, enhancing the overall quality of patient care.”

Chindex gets $5.2M contract

Chindex International (Bethesda, Maryland), a provider of international healthcare services and Western healthcare products in China, reported the signing of a $5.2 million contract for the sale of medical equipment to be purchased using a loan which is being processed under the new Framework Agreement between the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Exim) and the Ministry of Finance of China.

The contract was signed in China with Instrimpex International Tendering Co. and Liaocheng People’s Hospital.

Roberta Lipson, president and CEO of Chindex, said, “We are [pleased} to be moving ahead with a contract under the new Exim-MOF framework, as this represents a new wave of opportunity for Chindex that had been unavailable for several years. The demand for U.S. government-sponsored financing by Chinese hospitals has pent up while the bilateral government-to-government negotiations were concluded, and then followed by a series of implementing regulations and commercial bank negotiations, which were only recently finalized.”

Lipson added, “We expect to see more contracts processed under this framework in the coming months as this demand begins to be satisfied, and in fact we have a number of potential projects moving through various stages of final approvals and preparation for tendering.”

Chindex provides healthcare services and supplies medical capital equipment, instrumentation and products to the Chinese marketplace, including Hong Kong.

Singapore plant for Affymetrix

Affymetrix (Santa Clara, California) said it has opened a manufacturing facility in Singapore for its GeneChip product. The Singapore plant is the company’s first manufacturing site located outside of the United States. Affymetrix expects the move to help support its expanding international business. About 40% of its microarray production will be located at Jurong Industrial Park in Singapore by the end of the year.

GeneChip microarray technology is an industry-standard tool for analyzing complex genetic information. More than 1500 chips have been distributed worldwide. Diagnostic and biotechnology companies use the technology to examine the relationship between genes and human health.

Affymetrix is one of five scientific instrumentation companies that have established manufacturing plants in Singapore during the last two years. The other four companies are MDS Sciex, Waters, Fluidigm and Bio-Rad Laboratories.

Taiwan branch for Bridgetech

Bridgetech Holdings International (San Diego) said it has opened its Taiwan branch office in Taipei , known as Bridgetech Medicines Ltd.

“The value of the Taiwan market is tremendous,” said Michael Chermak, Bridgetech chairman and CEO. “The alliances with Taiwan’s governmental bodies, medical research institutes, medical providers and leading companies ... are allowing the company to quickly ramp up our technology-transfer initiatives.”

John Chen, president of Bridgetech Medicines, added, “[Our] base in Taiwan allows an ongoing evaluation and introduction of current and future products in our pipeline.”

Bridgetech said it is “leveraging [our] extensive network of relationships in China and the U.S. to capitalize on the demand for Western healthcare in Greater China.” The company is bringing emerging drugs, devices and diagnostics to the region, with an initial focus on oncology.

Quintiles chooses Kenexa product

Kenexa (Wayne, Pennsylvania), a provider of talent acquisition and retention solutions, said that Quintiles Transnational (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina) has selected Kenexa to provide outsourced staffing solutions for its Japan location.

Quintiles Japan (Tokyo) is a provider of development, commercial and financial solutions to life sciences companies operating in Japan. Under the terms of the three-year agreement, Quintiles Japan will leverage Kenexa’s employment process outsourcing (EPO) solutions to manage its clinical staffing operations in that country.

“With the dynamic pharmaceutical market in Japan, we knew we needed to find a staffing solution that would be easily customized for our industry and that would improve our ability to recruit the most talented candidates,” said Dave Cooper, vice president of global staffing for Quintiles. “We have been pleased with Kenexa’s survey product and the excellent service we have received from that team. So, when we began looking for an EPO vendor, Kenexa’s outsourcing solution was a natural fit for us.”