• Amicas (Boston), focused on radiology and medical image and information management solutions, reported that San Diego Imaging (SDI) has chosen Amicas as its information technology partner for its new imaging center. Amicas’ Vision Series RIS and Vision Series Document Management will complement Vision Series PACS, which is deployed at Children’s Hospital of San Diego where the SDI radiologists practice. SDI’s new imaging center, located near Children’s Hospital, will be completely digital and feature the latest in diagnostic imaging technology.

• AGA Medical, the University of Minnesota Medical School and the Minnesota Medical Foundation (all Minneapolis) said they have agreed to establish the Amplatz Chair in Radiology, a permanently endowed chair at the medical school, with AGA making a donation of $2 million for the initial funding of the chair. The Amplatz Chair in Radiology honors Kurt Amplatz, MD, professor of radiology at the university, co-founder of AGA and a contributor to the field of interventional radiology and pediatric cardiology. Its purpose is to attract and retain outstanding faculty in the field.

• Envisioneering Medical Technologies (St. Louis), developer of the TargetScan system, and BrachySciences (Oxford, Connecticut), a maker of brachytherapy seed products, have signed a distribution agreement focused on improving prostate cancer treatment. TargetScan brings together 3-D imaging and stationary probe design to improve brachytherapy treatment outcomes via precise radioactive seed placements. Developed in partnership with Washington University School of Medicine-affiliated physicians in St. Louis, TargetScan will now be distributed to radiation oncologists through an agreement with BrachySciences to introduce it to more than 1,500 radiation oncologists and urologists who perform brachytherapy procedures in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. TargetScan provides physicians with a stationary probe to eliminate prostate movement during treatments and reduce procedure times. The device also offers improved 3-D imaging, with views of both sagittal and transverse planes, to ensure that the seeds are accurately placed at physicians’ pre-planned targets.

• GE Healthcare (Waukesha, Wisconsin) said it will offer wCareAssist, a wireless application developed by Care Fusion(McLean, Virginia), on the Dinamap ProCare and Pro Series monitors to hospitals nationwide. Dinamap monitors are designed for a patient population that includes neonatal, pediatric and adults. By combining the Dinamap monitor with Care Fusion’s wCareAssist, GE expects to better provide workflow benefits by helping to eliminate transcription errors and reduce chart time.

• iCAD (Nashua, New Hampshire), a provider of computer-aided detection (CAD) solutions, and GPO MedAssets Supply Chain Systems (Atlanta) reported an agreement that enables MedAssets’ customers to purchase iCAD products at preferred pricing. The agreement includes all iCAD film-based mammographic CAD solutions and the new TotalLook system, which acquires prior film mammograms at full image fidelity for use in comparative reading with digital mammography.

• Patient Safety Technologies (Los Angeles) said its subsidiary, SurgiCount Medical, has entered into a three-year national distribution agreement for its Safety-Sponge System with Professional Hospital Supply (Temecula, California), a provider of medical and surgical supplies and custom procedure kits to healthcare facilities. Terms were not disclosed. The Safety-Sponge System, 510(k)-cleared in March, is an integrated turnkey program of thermally affixed, data matrix tagged surgical sponges, line-of-sight scanning technology, and documentation that offers surgeons and hospitals a solution to surgical sponges accidentally left inside the body after surgery. The Safety-Sponge System is the first computer-assisted program for counting sponges cleared by the FDA, the company said.

• Positron (Houston) reported that it has formed an agreement with the University of Texas at Houston and the Weatherhead PET Center (Houston) headed by Dr. K. Lance Gould granting Positron a license to develop a comprehensive software system developed for diagnostic and management needs in coronary artery disease. The system includes the quantification of coronary blood flow images by PET Longitudinal Gradient Analysis and Homogeneity Algorithm (LGA/HA) to determine severity of coronary disease as the objective noninvasive basis for or against coronary bypass surgery or stent procedures and the automated objective analysis of CT or invasive coronary angiograms and a comprehensive database management system. The addition of the LGA/HA enables the Positron device to identify early coronary artery disease before clinically significant blockages develop.

• R2 Technology (Sunnyvale, California), which focuses on CAD technology for the earlier detection of breast cancer and other medical conditions, reported that HealthTrust Purchasing Group (HPG; Brentwood, Tennessee) has awarded the company a two-year contract for its ImageChecker CAD systems for use with mammography. The GPO will make R2’s ImageChecker Mammography CAD systems available to its members – about 1,200 hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and alternate care sites around the country. R2’s ImageChecker system was the first CAD system approved by the FDA for use with film-based mammography in 1998 and for digital mammography in 2001.