A BBI

Jim Gee, chief executive of the UK National He-alth Service’s Counter Fraud and Security Management Service, has been named the first director-general of a new, Europe-wide network to tackle healthcare fraud and corruption.

His selection to head the European Healthcare Fraud and Corruption Network (EHFCN) came during the second annual European Healthcare Fraud and Corruption Conference in Bratislava, Slovakia. Delegates to the conference also agreed that the network’s headquarters would be based in London.

Healthcare organizations and anti-fraud bodies from all over Europe and elsewhere in the world were represented at the conference, held at the Radisson SAS Carlton Hotel.

Gee is responsible for implementing the network’s policies and its ultimate aim of reducing losses to fraud and corruption across Europe. He said, “With the signing of the first EHFCN constitution, Europe has the opportunity to take a giant step in tackling the fraudster together.”

Noting that the NHS has saved some 675 million over the last six years with its anti-fraud efforts, Gee said, “We believe the NHS approach and standards can be successfully implemented in any healthcare system across Europe.” He said that with estimates indicating more than EUR 16 billion is lost every year to healthcare fraud in Europe, “it is an area that needs to be tackled.” In the UK, there has been a 50% reduction in the largest known area of fraud – patient fraud – over the past five years.

Gee said the EHFCN will be lobbying governments, healthcare providers and European institutions such as the European Union for support. He added: “It is time for them to realize that this is a real problem and patients are not receiving the care they deserve because of it.”

A 10-person office will be the heart of the network and will coordinate its work. The EHFCN will be a non-profit organization and ultimately will investigate cases of healthcare fraud and corruption across Europe.

Conference delegates also chose Dermid McCausland, director of corporate affairs at the National Health Service CFSMS, as the first president of EHFCN. Vice presidents are Marieke Koken, director of claim control at Zorgverzekeraars Nederland, the organization of health insurance companies in the Netherlands, and Drago Kos, chairman of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption in Slovenia.

GE Healthcare to expand China plant

GE Healthcare (Chalfont St. Giles, UK) plans to invest $37.5 million to expand its production facility in Shanghai in order to meet what it said is increasing customer demand for its contrast imaging products in China and other global markets.

The company’s plant in Shanghai is currently undergoing a review process to be the first site in China approved by the U.S. FDA for contrast media. Upon approval, the plant will be able to supply product beyond China to the U.S. and other markets throughout the world, GE said.

Peter Loescher, president and CEO of GE Healthcare Biosciences, said, “This investment underscores our belief in growth in China and the broader Asia-Pacific region, a strategic market for us. It also allows us to fulfill one of our chief business priorities – to get as close to the healthcare providers there as possible.”

According to GE Healthcare, the Shanghai plant already plays a critical role in the company’s global contrast media supply chain. But it said that over the next five years the demand for contrast media in China alone is expected to grow in double digits. “In order to meet this increased demand the company is making provisions today for an increase in production capacity,” GE said in a statement.

The Shanghai facility manufactures close to 5 million units annually of GE Healthcare’s X-ray and MRI contrast media products Visipaque, Omnipaque and Omniscan, the company said.

The investment reported last week will fund a two-year expansion project to increase production capacity to 15 million units.

The company said the plant is designed with future expansion in mind to be capable of manufacturing up to 30 million units annually. It said the planned investment adds mixing and preparation, filling, sterilization, inspection, packaging and associated utility equipment, and expands the on-site storage capability for both raw materials and product.

GE Healthcare has been active in China since 1991 and has some 3,000 employees in more than 25 locations across the country, with principal sites in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuxi & Guangzhou. The Shanghai plant has more than 430 employees working on the manufacture of diagnostic contrast media and licensed production of calcium supplement tablets, as well as marketing and sales in China.

GE also reported that it has expanded its existing African healthcare initiative to improve healthcare provision and related infrastructure at two additional hospitals in Kumasi and Kintampo, Ghana.

This effort by GE Healthcare, GE Infrastructure and GE Industrial is part of the parent company’s five-year, $20 million humanitarian project to provide a combination of healthcare and power generation equipment, water filtration systems, appliances and lighting to a number of sites throughout Africa.

Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, located in Kumasi in central Ghana, is receiving a fluoroscopy unit for radiology, ultrasound equipment, incubators, monitors, lighting, electrical distribution equipment, water purification and Internet connectivity.

Kintampo District Hospital is getting ultrasound and X-ray equipment, anesthesia, incubators, power generation equipment, lighting and a water distribution and purification system that will enable the rural hospital to help reduce disease and lower maternal and infant mortality, GE said. It also has donated lab equipment and provided Internet connectivity to Kintampo’s Rural Health Training School and the Health Research Center.

CE mark for Confluent’s DuraSeal Xact

Confluent Surgical (Waltham, Massachusetts) reported at the 2005 EuroSpine Conference in Bar-celona, Spain, that the CE mark has been granted for its DuraSeal Xact Sealant System for use as a surgical sealant.

The DuraSeal Xact System is indicated for use as an adjunct to standard methods of dural repair, such as sutures, to provide watertight closure during lumbar spine procedures. The company said about 250,000 lumbar spine procedures are carried out in Europe each year and it is estimated that there is a 5% to 10% rate of incidental occurrence of dural tears that lead to cerebrospinal fluid leaks.

Confluent earlier received the CE mark for use of the DuraSeal system during pulmonary resection.

The DuraSeal Xact Sealant System uses Confluent’s DuraSeal technology, a patented, synthetic, absorbable hydrogel delivered by the MicroMyst applicator, an air-assisted sprayer that the company said allows the spine surgeon precision control of the location and quantity of the sealant application.

The DuraSeal Xact Sealant System can be stored at room temperature and prepared in less than two minutes. “When sprayed on the dura,” Confluent said, “a strong, adherent sealing layer is produced and effectively seals the suture line within seconds.”

A unique feature of the DuraSeal Sealant is the blue colorant that provides the spine surgeon with what the company said is “excellent visualization of coverage and thickness of the material upon application to the spinal dura.”

Postoperatively, the DuraSeal Sealant continues to seal the suture line as healing progresses under the gel. After several weeks, the hydrogel breaks down into water-soluble molecules that are absorbed and cleared through the kidneys.

MastaScope System approved in China

Lifeline Biotechnologies (Reno, Nevada) said it has been granted regulatory clearance for its MastaScope Mammary Ductoscopy System in China.

Jim Holmes, company chairman, said, “We have been working diligently for almost a year now on obtaining approval and are delighted that we are now able to commence our marketing effort in [that] country in earnest.”

Holmes said it has been reported that the incidence of breast cancer among Chinese women has been rising at a rate of at least 27% over the past decade, with some 40% of those diagnosed with breast cancer dying within five years because the cancer is already advanced at the time of diagnosis.

“We believe as the MastaScope can help in the early detection and diagnosis of cancer and other abnormalities of the breast,” he said.

Distribution of the MastaScope in China is being handled by Shanghai Science Medical Equipment Ltd., a subsidiary of International Medical Consulting Group (Dallas).

Other Lifeline Biotechnologies products, including the First Warning System for assisting in the early detection of breast cancer and the OvaScope for assisting in the early detection of ovarian cancer, are continuing to be developed by the company.

Peacock system gets China OK

In another China product approval, North American Scientific (Chatsworth, California) said its Nomos Radiation Oncology Division has received regulatory approval from China’s State Food and Drug Administration to sell its Peacock serial tomotherapy system, designed for the treatment of various types of cancer with intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT).

The company said the approval provides the opportunity to immediately sell the Peacock system in China. It said it has established relationships with distributors and maintains service personnel in China who are prepared to market, sell and service the system. Nomos said it believed that sales in China could occur before the end of its fiscal year on Oct. 31.

L. Michael Cutrer, president and CEO of North American Scientific, said, “While we ramp up sales of Peacock in China, our registration efforts for our other products in China will continue and I am hopeful that we will have our full range of products available [there] during fiscal 2006.”

The Peacock system consisting of Nomos’s Corvus treatment planning software and its MIMiC multi-leaf collimator. Nomos also is in the process of registering in China its BAT family of products for image-guided radiation therapy, as well as Prospera I-125 brachytherapy seeds for the treatment of prostate cancer.