A Medical Device Daily

Philips Medical Systems (Andover, Massachusetts), a division of Royal Philips Electronics, and the medical and engineering schools of Dartmouth College (Hanover, New Hampshire), reported they have entered into a multi-year research agreement to develop innovative imaging capabilities that aim to better enable earlier detection and treatment of heart disease, cancer and neurological diseases.

For Dartmouth, this is the first of its kind collaboration that brings together world-class academic and clinical researchers from Dartmouth Medical School and the Tha-yer School of Engineering with industry-leading technology and scientists from Philips to develop and expedite novel diagnostics and therapies to improve clinical care.

Researchers will utilize a range of Philips imaging solutions, including using targeted molecular imaging to help visualize newly formed blood vessels in the cardiovascular system. Through functional and metabolic imaging, researchers may be able to measure the impact of these new vessels on tissue function and blood perfusion (the ability to force a fluid through an organ). Additionally, by utilizing modalities such as magnetic resonance and positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, researchers may be able to develop new techniques for diagnosing and treating of patients with cardiac and peripheral ischemia.

Dartmouth's Advanced Imaging Center is housed at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (Lebanon, New Hampshire), the principal site for research in-cluding clinical trials in cancer, cardiology, and neurology.

“Improving diagnosis and treatment options for cardiovascular disease, cancer and neurological conditions represents one of the biggest challenges in medicine,” said Dartmouth Medical School Dean Stephen Spielberg, MD. “The role of medical imaging in these areas has grown exponentially in recent years, with groundbreaking work taking place in imaging the brain, the heart, and other organs. Working with our colleagues from the Thayer School and Philips, Dartmouth sees the opportunity to combine the intellectual strengths of academia with an industry leader as a key to further unlock advances in medical imaging.”

In the studies being conducted at Dartmouth, resear-chers will employ a multi-modality approach that may impact diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease and various cancers in the breast and brain. For example, an enhanced ability to assess tissue viability in a reliable manner would be an important clinical tool in cardiovascular disease. The combination of imaging plaque in new vessels with PET imaging would increase the reliability of non-invasive detection of fatty substances along the artery wall.

“Philips Medical Systems is deeply committed to advancing the diagnosis and treatment of diseases to en-hance patient care through innovative research,” said Diego Olego, senior vice president and chief technology officer, for Philips Medical Systems. “Working side-by-side with a prestigious medical school like Dartmouth, we will establish ways to improve and develop imaging solutions that address some of the world's more prevalent diseases.”

The Alternative Breast Cancer Imaging Center at Dartmouth develops and evaluates alternatives to current imaging methods to increase the accuracy of breast cancer detection and diagnosis, and monitoring of breast cancer progression and regression.

Through this collaboration with Philips, Dartmouth will have the ability to perform research with micro positron emission tomography, as well as other imaging technologies over the course of the relationship. These new imaging technologies will enable scientists to test and define new molecular imaging technologies, which may allow the identification of changes in the structures and functions of myocardial tissue, as well as tumor cells for brain, breast and prostate cancer.

For example, The Neuroscience Center and Neuro-imaging Research Center at Dartmouth focuses on how advanced imaging technology can help detection and assessment of early neurological disease. Key research objectives include enhanced understanding of basic disease processes, recognizing risk factors, and identifying mechanisms of treatment among prevalent brain disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and drug addiction. Special emphasis is placed on imaging of the brain as it correlates to cognitive, emotional and behavioral processes relevant to early diagnosis, patient characterization and treatment monitoring.

In other agreements news:

• Misys Healthcare Systems (Raleigh, North Carolina), which focuses on healthcare IT, said that it has signed a marketing agreement with Keane 's (Melville, New York) Healthcare Solutions Division, a provider of software and services for healthcare organizations across the entire continuum of care. The agreement packages industry-leading products from both companies – Misys CPR, a leading clinical information system with CPOE and clinical decision support, and Keane's EZ-Access Patcom revenue cycle management solution.

• BD Diagnostics (Baltimore), a unit of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Co.; Franklin Lakes, New Jersey), reported the signing of an agreement with BioReference Laboratories (BRLI; Elmwood Park, New Jersey) for BD to supply BRLI with instrumentation and reagents for testing and diagnosis of sexually transmitted infections.

Testing for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae will be run on the SCARA robotic automation platform of the BD Viper System. BD will be the primary supplier to BRLI for testing of these two infectious diseases.