A Medical Device Daily

Abbott (Alameda, California) reported that it will provide a free Abbott blood glucose meter and a starter supply of strips to all blood glucose monitoring patients using BD (Franklin Lakes, New Jersey)Logic meters and test strips.

Abbott made this decision after BD’s announcement that it intends to exit the blood glucose monitoring market by the end of 2007.

“People with diabetes using BD Logic blood glucose meters and strips are going to need an alternative for the short and long term, and Abbott is pleased to assist BD Logic patients so they can effectively manage their diabetes now and in the future,” said Ed Fiorentino, president, Abbott Diabetes Care . “We hope to alleviate any concern these patients may have by providing them with their choice of any one of our leading Abbott blood glucose monitoring systems.”

Abbott’s FreeStyle meters are similar to BD Logic in that both blood glucose monitoring systems require a small blood sample size, just 0.3 microliters, and offer fast test results, the company said.

In other agreements:

• Premier Purchasing Partners (Charlotte, North Carolina) reported that new agreements for high-level disinfection reprocessing have been awarded to Hygia Health Services (Birmingham, Alabama) and ReNu Medical (Everett, Washington). Both are woman-owned small businesses.

The 36-month agreements offer discounted reprocessing services for semi-critical and non-critical medical devices such as compression sleeves, laryngeal mask airways, pulse oximeters, blood pressure cuffs, tourniquets, splints, aircasts, catheters, forceps, guidewires, blades and other surgical tools and accessories.

The contracts are available to both acute-care and continuum-of-care members of Premier (San Diego, California). Purchasing Partners is the largest unit of Premier, a healthcare alliance of more than 1,500 hospitals and 42,000 other healthcare sites.

• HealthStream (Nashville, Tennessee) reported that HCA Information Technology & Services , a subsidiary of HCA (Nashville, Tennessee), has entered into a four-year agreement with HealthStream for enterprise-wide learning services.

The agreement includes an optional one-year renewal following the expiration of the initial four-year term. HealthStream also reiterated its 2006 financial expectations that include revenue growth of 13% to 15% over 2005 and net income comparable to 2005.

HealthStream provides Internet-based learning solutions for healthcare.