A Medical Device Daily

Johns Hopkins Medicine International (Baltimore) and Sanofi-Aventis Egypt have signed an agreement for educational and consultative services through the Johns Hopkins Division of Cardiology.

The agreement calls for assistance with the development of new national guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention. Other services in the agreement include support in training of primary care physicians and cardiologists in cardiovascular disease prevention and patient education.

According to Johns Hopkins, Egypt has among the highest incidences in the world of hypertension, obesity, smoking, Type 2 diabetes and other risk factors leading to heart disease.

In Egypt, this initiative is referred to as the Delta-C Project, a model for change. The Delta concept was originated by Innovara , a Massachusetts-based healthcare consulting firm that has facilitated the relationship between Johns Hopkins and the Egyptian cardiology community.

Dr. M. Mohsen Ibrahim, professor of cardiology at Cairo University and president of the Egyptian Hypertension Society , is chairman of the Delta-C project. Focusing on prevention is critical both socially and economically, Ibrahim said, because Egyptians have among the highest rates of cardiovascular disease in the world.

On Dec. 8-9, a major physician re-education event hosted by Sanofi-Aventis Egypt will launch the new guidelines while also training cardiologists to train primary care physicians throughout the country. Training throughout the two-day event will include case studies, medical training in cardiovascular disease prevention, advances in the use of new cardiovascular medicines in disease prevention, and plans for a patient intervention study to measure the effect of prevention education on cardiovascular disease outcomes.

The training will be conducted by a team of cardiologists who also have helped to author the Delta-C guidelines, under the leadership of Ibrahim and with additional guidance from Dr. Richard Lange, chief of clinical cardiology at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

The guidelines proposed in the Delta-C initiative address both lifestyle modification and drug therapy for established risk factors, Ibrahim said. Having the Johns Hopkins guidance in such an initiative brings credibility and value to the project as a whole, he said.

Ibrahim said that two complementary prevention strategies are needed in Egypt, one that is directed to the whole population to decrease the risk profile of the community and another that approaches individuals in high risk of cardiovascular disease. The guidelines also call for complete smoking cessation and education on the hazards of an increasingly unhealthy dietary style.

The Delta-C project is licensed from Innovara by Sanofi-Aventis Egypt for use by the Egyptian Hypertension Society. Innovara also serves as advisor to the project.

Aurora system okayed in China

Aurora Imaging Technology (North Andover, Massachusetts) reported receiving a Registration Certificate for its Aurora 1.5T Dedicated Breast MRI System from the State Food and Drug Administration of the People’s Republic of China.

Receipt of the certificate allows Aurora to sell its product into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, with a medical device market estimated at close to $3.5 billion.

With the recent introduction of its SpiralRODEO image acquisition technology, Aurora said it is “the leading innovator in the breast MRI industry.”

Olivia Ho Cheng, Aurora’s president and C EO, said, “With a higher incidence of dense breast tissue in Asian populations, which can make mammography less conclusive, we believe that the Aurora System will be tremendously valuable to the improvement of breast cancer care in the Chinese population.”

The company said the Aurora System is the only fully integrated MRI system designed specifically and exclusively to image the breast and optimized for breast imaging and interventional procedures.

Aspect in agreement on BIS integration

Aspect Medical Systems (Newton, Massachusetts) has entered into a multi-year licensing agreement with Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics ., a subsidiary of Mindray Medical International (Shenzhen, China) to integrate Aspect’s Bispectral index (BIS) technology into Mindray’s patient monitoring systems, which are sold globally.

Mindray is a provider of patient monitoring systems in China and has a growing presence throughout Asia and Europe, Aspect said. BIS technology is available on Mindray’s Beneview T8 high end modular systems that were recently introduced to the market.

“We believe that this agreement with Mindray will be valuable as the market in China and other countries in the Far East continue to develop,” said Nassib Chamoun, president and CEO of Aspect Medical. “This is an important step in strengthening our leadership position in brain monitoring and supports our commitment to expand the reach of the safety and quality benefits of BIS monitoring through alliances with leading original equipment manufacturers across the globe.”

Power3 in Greek collaboration

Power3 Medical Products (Houston), a proteomics company specializing in the development and commercialization of early detection diagnostic tests for neurodegenerative diseases and breast cancer, reported an international collaboration with the University of Thessaly (Larissa, Greece), focusing on the proteomic discovery of biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease.

The collaboration will extend to cover other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease).

The University of Thessaly will provide Power3 with clinically confirmed samples of neurodegenerative disease, including age- and gender-match controls. Power3 will use its existing technologies to analyze the samples, seeking new protein biomarkers for the early detection of neurodegenerative diseases to add to its portfolio.

Steven Rash, chairman and CEO of Power3, said he is hopeful that the collaboration will provide more than 300 patient samples.