A Medical Device Daily

Welch Allyn (Skaneateles Falls, New York), maker of medical products and solutions including vital signs monitors and spot check devices, reported that it has formed a partnership with Sensitron (San Mateo, California), which focuses on medical device connectivity and data management, and its exclusive distributors in Europe, UK and the Middle East.

The agreement is expected to provide a solution for ensuring that key vital signs data are captured with Sensitron’s careTrends and automatically sent to a dedicated server and an electronic medical record (EMR) when available. This solution helps to reduce transcription errors as well as time lag between the capture and posting of data.

Welch Allyn and Sensitron will provide nurses and clinicians with technology that is expected to help them deliver an enhanced standard of clinical care, as well as both time and budget savings. Welch Allyn’s extensive range of traditional vital signs monitors and spot checking devices can either be wirelessly enabled or hard-wired by Sensitron’s careTrends.

“We believe that our partnership with Sensitron will provide the best of both worlds, data capture and data management, offering significant benefit to the patients, nurses and clinicians,” said Pascal Gand, product development director at Welch Allyn.

In other agreements news:

• Aethlon Medical (San Diego) reported that it has executed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID, Ft. Detrick, Maryland).

The focus of the agreement is to explore the therapeutic efficacy of the Aethlon Hemopurifier against viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) targets, including, but not limited to Ebola Virus, Marburg Virus, Lassa Virus, and Machupo Virus.

Aethlon Medical is the developer of the Hemopurifier, a first-in-class medical device to treat infectious disease. The Hemopurifier is a innovative platform technology targeted to be a broad-spectrum treatment solution for drug- and vaccine-resistant bioweapons, naturally evolving pandemic threats, and chronic infectious disease conditions including Hepatitis-C (HCV) and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

In addition to USAMRIID, collaborative studies to demonstrate utility of the Hemopurifier are being conducted with researchers at the Government of India’s National Institute of Virology (NIV), theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta), and the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR).

Aethlon said it has previously demonstrated the safety of the Hemopurifier in a 24-treatment human study, and most recently submitted an investigational device exemption (IDE) to the FDA requesting permission to initiate human studies of the Hemopurifier as a treatment countermeasure against select category “A” bioterror threats. Category “A” threats are defined by the CDC as agents that pose a risk to national security; are easily disseminated or transmitted from person to person; result in high mortality rates; may cause public panic and social disruption; and require special action for public health preparedness.

• BioServe (Laurel, Maryland), a provider of genetic testing services, said it has been selected by Suracell (Montclair, New Jersey) as its exclusive DNA testing partner.

Suracell has developed a fully integrated information technology platform to identify genetic markers related to a number of biological processes that have been shown to be associated with healthy aging, the company said.

Suracell’s DNA assessment is a key component of an innovative personal genetic health program that provides the basis for developing personalized recommendations, it said. Suracell’s programs are formulated to address each person’s unique genetic inheritance as it relates to healthy aging.

Suracell has also developed a genetic testing web portal that provides an integrated solution to the collection and processing of samples from a single source or multiple sources and dissemination of the results of both DNA testing and other specialized laboratory tests.

BioServe will receive samples collected from patients seeking to take advantage of Suracell’s programs. BioServe extracts DNA from a buccal swab collected from the de-identified patient. Next, the DNA quality is verified before undergoing analysis using a panel of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) selected by Suracell. BioServe then transmits the analyzed data back to Suracell using Suracell’s information technology platform. Suracell subsequently delivers the results to the requesting physicians and health care practitioners. BioServe is one of the few DNA testing laboratories that have been awarded the CLIA certification, the highest standard in lab certification, it noted.

In addition, BioServe is the first company providing DNA testing services to use Suracell’s “genetic testing web portal.” This portal provides a single point of access for physicians and health care centers, allowing them to use the Internet to order genetic testing services for patients from participating laboratory service providers, as well as allowing for secure online delivery of test results in a format of their choosing, the company said. It also provides composite results based on input from multiple tests and other relevant data.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed and discussions are ongoing to develop a more comprehensive partnership between the two companies, they said.