A Medical Device Daily
Spacenet (McLean, Virginia), a provider of satellite and hybrid terrestrial networking solutions, said it was selected by Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences Telemedicine Center (Tulsa, Oklahoma) to provide satellite network services for its new mobile telemedicine clinic.
The OSU Telemedicine Center is using Spacenet’s satellite network services with Cisco technology to support its mobile medical facility. Spacenet’s Connexstar satellite services with auto-acquisition antenna technology provide the ability to rapidly deploy communications solutions virtually anywhere in the U.S. and serve as an ideal solution for emergency response.
OSU Telemedicine also is using Spacenet’s on-demand satellite services to support its data communications and Voice over IP (VoIP) for the mobile telemedicine clinic.
In other grants/contracts news:
• CSMG Technologies (Corpus Christi, Texas), a company focused on commercializing tissue bonding devices, said that its Live Tissue Connect (LTC) subsidiary signed a contract with Ventrex (Ventura, California) for their electrocautery handheld surgical instruments.
Ventrex develops therapeutic electro-cautery instrument manufacturing and packaging, and it said that Live Tissue Connect is completing its team of medical device professionals to meet its regulatory filing, design and manufacturing needs.
CSMG owns the technology and exclusive world rights to the live tissue bonding device through Live Tissue Connect, Inc., a subsidiary formed for the exploitation of the platform technology.
LTC expects to complete hand instruments, electro-cautery generator and other electro-surgery components for the duct and vessel sealing system, meeting FDA and European CE-mark requirements. The companies said they expect to file for approval of these devices with regulatory entities in early 2007.
• Abbott (Abbott Park, Illinois) reported that it has awarded diagnostic equipment, supplies and service to clinical laboratory educational programs at 16 accredited schools across the U.S. to prepare students for careers in clinical laboratory science.
The equipment awarded includes automated immunoassay analyzers, hematology systems and handheld point-of-care automated diagnostic instruments. The awards are the first in its Instrument Donation Initiative, sponsored by the company’s Labs Are Vital program.
The 16 recipients represent nine universities and seven community colleges, selected from more than 100 online applications. An independent panel of judges chose the awardees based on a combination of selection criteria, including need and number of students reached by the program.
Labs Are Vital is a multi-year education and awareness initiative designed to highlight the role that laboratory medicine plays in human health. The program focuses attention on the life-saving work medical laboratory scientists provide in diagnosing disease and improving health outcomes. Its goal is to help promote the profession and help address some of its current challenges.
Abbott Diagnostics offers a range of instrument systems and tests for hospitals, reference labs, blood banks, physician offices and clinics.
In January, Abbott reported that it would sell its core laboratory diagnostics business, including the Abbott Diagnostics Division and Abbott Point of Care, to General Electric (Little Chalfont, UK) for $8.13 billion in cash (MDD, Jan. 19, 2007). The sale is expected to close in the first half of 2007 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.