A Diagnostic & Imaging Week Staff Report

AFP Imaging (Elmsford, New York) said that it has signed an agreement with Easy Dental, a subsidiary of Henry Schein (Melville, New York), for the production and supply of CMOS technology intraoral digital X-ray sensors.

The Easy-Ray sensors will be marketed under Schein's Easy Dental brand, and are aimed at the roughly 20,000 Easy Dental users who already are using the company's dental practice management software.

Henry Schein has just launched a broad-based advertising and promotional campaign for Easy-Ray and initial deliveries to dentists have begun. A full Easy-Ray product kick-off is slated for the Chicago Mid-Winter Dental Show at the end of this month.

The Easy Image dental imaging software solution together with Easy-Ray is designed to fit the needs of all Easy Dental customers. The companies said the sensors, in combination with Easy-Ray and EasyImage, form the foundation for dentists to have a seamless, integrated solution for practice management and dental imaging, leading to greater productivity and enhanced ease-of-use.

The contract represents AFP Imaging's first major OEM contract for its line of intraoral dental CMOS sensors. The sensor has been engineered to Schein's exacting specifications.

Hawkins added, "AFP has assembled a great technology team that customized the sensor to our specifications. Their imaging team matches our passion for innovation, technology leadership, as well as a sense of pride in delivering great solutions to the market."

Tm Bioscience (Toronto) reported signing an agreement to supply St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Cen-ter (Phoenix) with Tag-It reagents for use in its cystic fibrosis (CF) gene assay.

"We selected Tm's Tag-It platform because we were impressed by its performance and flexibility. Tm's technology has allowed us to develop an assay testing for numerous CF-associated mutations at once in a single well, an extremely time-efficient and cost-effective solution," said John Stone, director of laboratory services at St. Joseph's. "Because the platform is open and flexible, we ultimately anticipate providing our patients with a broader menu of important genetic tests using Tm reagents."

Tm is a DNA-based diagnostics company developing genetic tests, including tests for genetic disorders, drug metabolism and infectious diseases.