St. Jude completes IHE testing

St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota) said it completed the testing process established by the IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise), an initiative promoting the adoption of standards that enable healthcare information to be shared seamlessly across clinical settings. The testing took place during IHE's annual Connectathon in Chicago.

St. Jude says it is the first manufacturer of cardiac rhythm management (CRM) devices to test a product for conformance with an IHE interconnectivity profile. During the Connectathon, the company joined 75 electronic health record (EHR) companies testing their products for adherence to the IHE's technical frameworks. The frameworks are aimed at lowering implementation and integration costs, enhancing patient safety and supporting more efficient workflows across the healthcare industry.

Complying with the IHE guidelines will enable integration between data from St. Jude devices and each healthcare provider’s information system, allowing hospitals and clinics to upload implanted device data to third-party EHR systems.

The IHE initiative is led by the American College of Cardiology (Washington), the Health Information Management Systems Society Chicago) and the Radiological Society of North America (Oak Brook, Illinois) and has the goal of driving standards for interoperability to address specific clinical needs, such as those related to cardiology, radiology and laboratory: technologically-advanced, clinical environments that typically house different systems with disconnected data silos.

IHE is a global initiative in its ninth year that creates the framework for exchanging health information across healthcare enterprises.

Irvine Analytical now Irvine Pharma

Irvine Analytical laboratories (Irvine, California) reported that it will change its name to Irvine Pharmaceutical Services to reflect, it said, its expanded business.

Assasd Kazeminy, PhD, founder and president of Irvine founder, said the new name is “more reflective of our comprehensive development capabilities, scientific insight and dedicated service.”

Founded in 1988 as an independent cGMP testing lab, Irvine has evolved into pharma development. Irvine says its clients include many of the nation’s leading pharmaceutical and medical device firms as well as emerging biopharma companies. It says its services will include method development and validation, analytical quality control, stability storage and testing, comprehensive microbiological support, pre-formulation and formulation, drug delivery testing, inhalation and nasal product testing and biopharmaceutical support.

Very briefly. . .

Patient Safety Technologies (Los Angeles) reported that its common stock will be included for quotation on the Over The Counter Bulletin Board under the ticker symbol PSTX.OB. PST is a holding company that owns assets in various businesses. Its wholly-owned subsidiary, SurgiCount Medical (Temecula, California) manufactures patient safety products and services. . . . American Shared Hospital Services (ASHS; San Francisco) reported plans to withdraw the listing of its common stock from NYSE Arca, formerly the Pacific Exchange. The company’s common stock will continue to be listed on the American Stock Exchange in order to streamline operations and eliminate duplicative administrative requirements. NYSE Arca will continue to trade American Shared Hospital Services stock on an unlisted trading privilege basis.