A Medical Device Daily

Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical Imaging (BMSMI; North Billerica, Massachusetts) reported that Premier Purchasing Partners, the group purchasing division of Premier (San Diego), has awarded it a three-year, sole-source contract for Definity (Vial for Perflutren Lipid Microsphere Injectable Suspension), an echocardiography contrast agent.

BMSMI will offer Definity to Premier’s 1,500 hospital facilities and other affiliated sites throughout the U.S. The agreement continues through Dec. 31, 2007.

In patients with suboptimal echocardiograms, Definity is designed to enable clearer visualization of the borders of the heart. Improving the visualization of the primary pumping chamber of the heart, Definity-enhanced echocardiography may improve the ability to evaluate left ventricular wall motion, according to BMSMI.

Haemonetics (Braintree, Massachusetts) said that the U.S. Department of Defense has awarded Fifth Dimension Information Systems (5D), a Haemonetics company, a five-year contract to provide Tier III technical support to the program office of the Defense Blood Standard System (DBSS).

DBSS manages the acquisition, inventory and distribution of blood products as well as transfusion services for the medical system of the U.S. military.

5D will be responsible for the daily operation of DBSS and also will address new configurations for the software and support the regulatory requirements of the system. The company assumed responsibility for the system in January.

Harry Winn, president of 5D, said, “This contract recognizes 5D’s experience in creating software and managing information systems for the highly regulated blood collection industry.”

5D is a member of the IBM D/SIDDOMS-III Team, which includes IBM (Armonk, New York) and Anteon (Fairfax, Virginia). The team provides technical support to the Department of Defense DBSS users.

Siemens Medical Solutions (Malvern, Pennsylvania) reported it has been awarded three-year contracts with HealthTrust Purchasing Group (HPG; Brentwood, Tennessee) to provide its network of 1,500 participating hospitals and healthcare systems access to Siemens magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound technologies, effective through March 31, 2008.

HPG members now can select from Siemens’ full portfolio of MRI systems, including the Magnetom Avanto, Symphony, Trio and Espree, all available with Tim (Total imaging matrix) technology, and its advanced ultrasound technologies, including Acuson Sequoia ultrasound platform, as well as the Sonoline Antares, Sonoline G60 S and Sonoline G50 ultrasound systems.

Strategic Diagnostics (SDI; Newark, Delaware), a provider of biotech-based detection solutions for food, water, agricultural, industrial and environmental applications, reported signing a distribution agreement with US Bio-systems (USB; Boca Raton, Florida), a provider of environmental testing and data management services.

USB receives preferred marketing rights to SDI’s line of environmental test kits when sold through an analytical laboratory channel.