A Medical Device Daily

Cardiac Science (Irvine, California), a maker of automatic external defibrillators (AEDs), said it has been selected to provide AEDs and comprehensive AED/CPR training and AED program management services for a county-wide public access defibrillator (PAD) program launched by the city of Nashville and surrounding Davidson County, Tennessee.

“The Heartbeat of Nashville“ PAD program, approved by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville, Davidson County and Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell, includes a public-private partnership agreement between the metropolitan government and Cardiac Science.

The program is being coordinated by the Nashville Fire Department, which is reaching out to private citizens through a public awareness campaign on the importance of defibrillation and the use of AEDs to treat victims of heart attack.

“The program aims to dramatically improve the SCA survival rate in Nashville and Davidson County, which currently stands at 8%, to upwards of 40[%] or 50%,“ said Nashville Director-Fire Chief Stephen Halford. “[Our] goal is to deploy at least 1,000 AEDs in public facilities and highly trafficked public places throughout the county within the next few years.“

San Diego, Minneapolis and Miami are other major U.S. cities partnering with Cardiac Science on PAD programs. The company manufactures Powerheart AEDs and offers AED/CPR training and AED program management services that facilitate successful deployments.

eResearchTechnology (eRT; Philadelphia) reported entering into an agreement to provide Pracs Institute (Fargo, North Dakota), a contract research organization focusing on Phase I-related services, with a solution that includes enterprise electronic data capture (EDC), clinical data management and a web portal for access to real-time data. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Pracs will deploy eRT's Enterprise EDC platform, which includes the eResearch Community portal and eData Management clinical data management application for collecting and cleaning electronic and paper-based clinical trial information. The solution will support development of harmonized processes for Pracs, which, in addition to its Fargo headquarters, has operations in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, and San Diego.

eRT's Enterprise EDC platform will support Pracs' ability to provide sponsors with an EDC solution that can scale from a single trial to an entire development program, the companies said. Pracs also will deploy eRT's eResearch Community web portal for overall command and control, real-time analysis and decision support, and collaboration and communications across its clinical research network.

In July 2003, the companies reported a non-exclusive alliance for providing integrated solutions for Thorough QT studies, which monitor cardiac safety and a drug's impact on the QT interval. Under the agreement, Pracs conducts clinical trials at 17 Phase I units at its headquarters in Fargo and facility in East Grand Forks, while eRT performs digital collection, measurement, interpretation, review and distribution of cardiac safety data through its EXPeRT workflow-enabled data handling technology.

eRT is a provider of technology and services to the medical device, biotech and pharmaceutical industries.