Criticare becomes contact for Alaris monitors

Criticare Systems (Milwaukee) reported that as of Sept. 1, the company will become the direct point of contact for the customer base of Alaris Vital Check monitors. Cardinal Health (Dublin, Ohio), provider of Alaris products, has formally notified its monitoring customers of the pending change.

The installed base exceeds 1,000 locations with a monitor population of more than 20,000 units worldwide. Criticare manufactured and has serviced these products through the Alaris organization for the past seven years.

Philips opens research center at Cleveland facility

Philips Medical Systems (Andover, Massachusetts), a division of Royal Philips Electronics, reported the opening of the ultra-high-field MRI research center at its Cleveland facility.

The Philips Achieva 7.0T (tesla) research system installed at the center is designed to respond to researchers' needs for ongoing improvements in MRI capabilities, particularly for the study of degenerative neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis.

The center will host the first whole-body 7.0T MRI system installed in a corporate environment.

Gamma Medica forms new division

Gamma Medica (Northridge, California), a manufacturer of imaging systems for both clinical and preclinical applications, reported the launch of a new division to supply accessories and related products and services to users of the company's FLEX Pre-Clinical Imaging systems. The new division, called Pre-Clinical Research Accessories, Tools and Supplies, will offer animal beds, collimators, phantoms, gating systems, and microarray scanners to enhance workflow for preclinical researchers, as well as a suite of custom-designed tools to optimize performance of the company's FLEX imaging systems.

"Our base of installed customers continues to grow rapidly," said David Wilk, Gamma Medica's senior vice president of sales. "To help these customers achieve their research objectives and provide them with top-notch service, we needed to establish a division that's dedicated exclusively to supplying the tools and accessories necessary to optimize the performance of FLEX systems."

Gamma Medica tapped Ruth Hurwitz, a pharmaceutical sales industry veteran with more than 17 years experience in the medical industry, to head the new division.