A Medical Device Daily

Masimo (Irvine, California) said that it has signed a three-year, multisource agreement with Premier (San Diego), a group purchasing organization.

The agreement covers Masimo SET pulse oximetry and Masimo Rainbow SET Pulse CO-Oximetry, including stand-alone monitoring devices, hand-helds and sensors.

Masimo is the inventor of read-through motion and low-perfusion pulse oximetry, a technology called Masimo SET, which has been “proven more accurate and reliable in the most challenging clinical settings by over 100 independent clinical studies,“ the company said.

Building on this technology platform, Masimo has recently introduced Masimo Rainbow SET, a new technology that uses eight wavelengths of light designed to allow clinicians to capture and monitor an unprecedented array of patient physiological data noninvasively. Rainbow SET capabilities will be available in Masimo monitors and in multi-parameter patient monitors produced by leading manufacturers.

The Rad-57 Pulse CO-Oximeter, the first FDA-cleared Rainbow SET product from Masimo, is a hand-held device that allows clinicians to detect and monitor carbon monoxide levels in the bloodstream non-invasively. In clinical studies and in the field, Rad-57 is already proving itself effective in detecting carbon monoxide poisoning in seconds, allowing accurate diagnosis and early treatment of a life-threatening problem that is frequently misdiagnosed as flu or migraine.

• Emageon (Birmingham, Alabama), a provider of enterprise visual medical systems to hospitals and healthcare networks, reported that it has entered into a digital healthcare information management agreement with H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center , a National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, Maryland) Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of South Florida (Tampa, Florida).

Edward Martinez, vice president and chief information officer of Moffitt Cancer Center, said, “Emageon's EVMS system will provide a robust environment for logically consolidating DICOM images and delivering advanced visualization toolsets to our clinicians. This parallels our vision to have a seamless relationship among clinical results, genomic and scientific data, and images [2-D, 3-D, and 4-D], allowing clinicians and researchers to properly review all the data associated with the case at hand.“

He added, “Emageon understands the practical application of diagnostic tools across the healthcare system and is strongly committed to open standards, supporting our enterprise objective for a continuum-of-care in a digitally-based work environment.“

• invivodata (Pittsburgh), which focuses on electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePRO) solutions for global clinical research, reported an exclusive agreement with Enfora (Plano, Texas), a provider of wireless voice and data devices.

The agreement allows invivodata to incorporate Enfora's custom wireless modem cradle into DiaryPRO, its electronic patient diary (eDiary) system, to deliver a global ePRO solution to its medical device, pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients.

Using Enfora's wireless modem cradle, invivodata supplies trial sponsors with a single eDiary device that can upload patient data regardless of the country in which it is being used or the type of phone connection the patient has at home.

• Clarient (San Juan Capistrano, California), a technology and services resource for pathologists, oncologists and the pharmaceutical industry, has entered into an agreement to sell $2.3 million of ACIS (Automated Cellular Imaging System) cost-per-test lease units to Med One Capital (Sandy, Utah), with an option for Med One to purchase additional units worth up to $1 million.

Under the agreement, 10% of the purchase price will be held in escrow and may be recoverable by Med One to the extent that any units returned to Med One prior to the expiration of the applicable equipment lease are not successfully remarketed.

Clarient also said it has entered into an agreement to extend the maturity date of its working capital credit facility with Comerica Bank until Feb. 28, 2007.

Additionally, Clarient has received approval for the renewal of a $3 million equipment financing line from GE Healthcare Financial Services. Each draw under the financing agreement is subject to GE's approval.

ASAPS issues cosmetic procedure stats for 2005

Nearly 11.5 million cosmetic surgical and non-surgical procedures were performed in the U.S. in 2005, according to statistics recently released by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS; New York).

Compared to 2004, surgical procedures increased 1% to 2.1 million; non-surgical procedures declined 4% to 9.3 million. The most frequent procedure was Botox injection, and the most popular surgical procedure was liposuction.

Women had 91% of cosmetic procedures. The number of procedures (surgical and non-surgical) performed on women was nearly 10.5 million, a decrease of 2% from the previous year. Surgical procedures increased 2%; non-surgical procedures decreased 3%.

Men had 9% of cosmetic procedures. The number of procedures (surgical and non-surgical) performed on men was nearly 1 million, a decrease of 15% from 2004. Surgical procedures decreased 9%; non-surgical procedures decreased 18%.

The organization said that the number of cosmetic procedures has increased 222% since it began collecting the multi-specialty procedure statistics in 1997.