Instrumentation Laboratory (IL; Lexington, Massachusetts) has been awarded a three-year contract for its critical care portfolio with HealthTrust Purchasing Group (HealthTrust; Brentwood, Tennessee), a group purchasing organization. The membership of HealthTrust is comprised of more than 800 acute care facilities, including seven of the 10 largest for-profit healthcare systems in the country.

The contract covers IL's portfolio of critical care analyzers, reagents, consumables and service, including IL's flagship product, the GEM Premier 3000 analyzer for blood gas, electrolyte and metabolite testing. This analyzer features Intelligent Quality Management (iQM), a real-time, automated, continuous quality assurance system that helps ensure the quality of every test result while reducing costs and saving time. iQM, coupled with its cartridge-based technology and ease of use, is designed to allow the GEM Premier 3000 to be used throughout the hospital, at the point of care and in the lab. It is the only critical care analyzer that offers "true standardization." The flexibility of the many cartridge sizes and menus makes the GEM Premier 3000 ideally suited to meet the needs of HealthTrust's diverse hospital market.

"Customer satisfaction with our products and services is exceptionally high, so we are confident that HealthTrust and IL will have a very positive relationship," said Brian Durkin, director sales and national accounts at IL. "We continually strive to help our customers deliver top quality patient care and look forward to providing HealthTrust members with the best in critical care diagnostics."

In addition to the GEM Premier 3000, IL's contract with HealthTrust includes the GEM PCL Plus, a portable coagulation analyzer; GEMweb, software for remote management of the GEM Premier 3000; and IMPACT for Critical Care, a data management system.

IL makes in vitro diagnostic instruments, related reagents and controls for use primarily in hospitals and independent clinical laboratories. The company's product line includes critical care systems, hemostasis systems and information management systems.

HealthTrust is a group purchasing organization that supports acute care hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, alternate care sites, and physician practices.

In other grants/contracts news:

  • Zargis Medical (Princeton, New Jersey), a spin-off from Siemens Corporate Research (also Princeton) and a majority-owned subsidiary of Speedus (Brooklyn, New York), reported that it has been awarded a $101,000 contract by the U.S. Army to develop pilot versions of a telemedicine system for use in cardiology.

Zargis will develop prototypes of a system designed to record, synchronize and analyze heart sounds, lung sounds and ECG signals in pediatric patients who are being cared for by remote military treatment facilities. The system will be fully integrated with an existing Army telehealth platform.

Zargis has developed Cardioscan, a computer-assisted medical device designed to support physicians in analyzing heart sounds for the identification of suspected systolic and diastolic murmurs.

The device implements voice-guided protocol and a graphical user interface while maintaining an efficient physician workflow.

Cardioscan provides a summary of findings in terms that are "readily understood" by physicians and offers an additional range of quantitative auscultatory information that cannot be obtained through listening alone, the company said.

Zargis develops advanced diagnostic decision support products and services for primary care physicians, pediatricians, cardiologists and other healthcare professionals. Zargis was formed in 2001 when Siemens Corporate Research, a division of Siemens AG (Erlangen, Germany) and Speedus co-invested to develop and market an advanced acoustic technology designed to detect heart abnormalities identified through analysis of heart sounds.

  • VirtualScopics (Rochester, New York), a developer of image-based biomarker solutions, reported signing a 30-month contract totaling $1.7 million for a later phase osteoarthritis study of a disease modifying agent.

VirtualScopics will provide quantitative MRI analysis to help determine the efficacy of the compound.

VirtualScopics' image analysis is designed to identify small changes in soft tissue and bone which can provide information on drug effect and disease progression earlier than standard X-ray joint space measurements. As part of the agreement VirtualScopics will train, manage and collect MRI data from sites located throughout Europe and the U.S.

  • MAGNET (Mid-Atlantic Group Network of Shared Services; Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania), a healthcare group purchasing organization, has signed a new five-year contract with Eastman Kodak (Rochester, New York) that makes Kodak's digital imaging products available to more than 12,000 MAGNET member facilities.

MAGNET participating healthcare facilities — including hospitals, clinics and growing medical practices — can now purchase KODAK computed radiography (CR) systems, Kodak digital radiography (DR) systems, Kodak laser imaging systems as well as a variety of X-ray films.