A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Calypte Biomedical (Lake Oswego, Oregon) reported receiving approval for its Aware Oral Fluid (OMT) HIV-1/2 rapid test for both PRO and over-the-counter (OTC) markets in the Russian Federation.

The company said that the Russian Federation is now the second market, following the United Arab Emirates, to approve use of an HIV-1/2 test OTC, permitting greater access to HIV testing in these countries. The approval was granted by the Minister of the Federal Service of Health Care and Social Development Control of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

Roger Gale, Calypte CEO and chairman, said, "We have worked closely with Marr Technologies, our strategic partner and the company's largest investor, whose introductions and coordination directly facilitated this approval … We plan to utilize their expertise in this region in support of our sales and marketing activities."

Gale added: "[G]iven the potential size of the Russian market, we expect that it will be one of our most significant markets for sales. It is one of our highest priorities and we believe we can begin to supply the Russian market by year end. We believe strongly that the privacy and noninvasive ease of use provided by our OTC test are attributes that squarely address the needs of the Russian Federation in its plans to contain the HIV/AIDS epidemic."

According to the 2005 AIDS Epidemic Update jointly published by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization, there are 860,000 adults living with AIDS in the Russian Federation (as of the end of 2003). The update notes, "In early 2004, more than 80% of all officially reported HIV cases since the beginning of the epidemic had been among drug injectors. The epidemic, meanwhile, is becoming more mature.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation consider Russia one of the "Next Wave" countries facing the largest increase in HIV/AIDS this decade. In 2004, Russia established a Country Coordinating Mechanism to address the situation. CCM membership includes the government, as well as NGOs, the people living with AIDS network, and UNAIDS donors.

Calypte develops diagnostic products for the detection of sexually transmitted diseases such as the HIV-1 BED Incidence EIA and new diagnostic test products for the rapid detection of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, several of which do not require blood samples.

Kodak wins Estonia contract

East-Tallinn Central Hospital (Tallinn, Estonia) has awarded Kodak (Rochester, New York) a contract for PACS and Enterprise Information Management Solutions for the Baltic e-Health project.

The Baltic e-Health project is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, and covers the Baltic Sea Regions, to encourage e-Health as a way to enhance access to healthcare in rural areas and thereby counteract rural migration. This will be achieved by creating the Baltic Health Network, a large transnational IT infrastructure for e-Health, the first cross-border health data network of its kind across the Baltic countries connecting more than 200 hospitals and 6,000 general practitioners.

Initially, Kodak will deliver PACS, remote reporting and archiving solutions to the East-Tallinn Central Hospital to facilitate participation in two pilot projects, in radiology and ultrasound. The eRadiology pilot will link the East-Tallinn Central Hospital, the Funen Hospital (Odense, Denmark) and the Vilnius University Hospital (Vilnius, Lithuania). During the pilot phase, radiologists from Estonia and Lithuania will test e-communication and the network infrastructure by remotely reporting on studies from the Funen Hospital.

The eUltrasound pilot will test communication between East-Tallinn, Norrlands University Hospital (Umea, Sweden), and the St. Olav's Hospital (Trondheim, Norway).

Kodak will work with Danish company Medical Insight (Hedehusene, Denmark), specializing in systems for managing and distributing patient images and healthcare data, across disparate technology environments.

"We chose Kodak because of its leading market position and wealth of experience in national and regional e-health projects," said Peeter Ross, director of R&D, East-Tallinn Central Hospital. "Here in Estonia we … required a supplier who could match our aspirations to participate in the wider European e-Radiology market."

Kodak says that, to date, more than 250 European sites handling over 10 million annual studies are managed by Kodak Carestream Solutions that enhance communication of patient data across the continuum of care, enabling the right information to be available wherever needed and regardless of where it is stored or generated. Kodak said its involvement in the Baltic e-Health Project is the latest in a series of recent e-Health contracts awarded to it for Carestream Solutions.

IDSI adds to distribution network

Imaging Diagnostic Systems (IDSI; Fort Lauderdale, Florida), a developer of laser optical breast imaging, said it has three exclusive distributors and added five countries to its global distribution network for it CT Laser Mammography (CTLM) technology for women. Able Global will be IDSI's exclusive distributor.

HAWA Imaging, a medical imaging equipment distributor in Sweden, will become part of IDSI's European Region and have exclusive coverage in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. According to the European Network of Cancer Registries, Northern European countries, particularly Denmark and Sweden, have some of the highest incidence rates of breast cancer in Europe.

According to the Malaysian National Cancer Registry, breast cancer is the most common cancer in Malaysian women, and the number of breast cancer cases is on the rise. Since the October 2005 passing of Malaysia's First Lady from breast cancer, there has been an increased emphasis on breast cancer detection and treatment throughout Malaysia.

IDSI's Latin and South American distributor network will expand into Mexico as Mayerick, one of the first radiological distributors in Mexico, begins exclusive CTLM distribution in Mexico. According to the Mexican Histopathological Registry of Neoplasias, breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer in women and the rates of new cases and deaths are increasing.