Lumedx Seattle, Washington) and Acuson (Mountain View, California), a Siemens company, reported the integration between Lumedx's Apollo32 cardiovascular data management system and the Acuson KinetDx Solutions Network at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. The import interface for the KinetDx system and Apollo32 was developed specifically for the UCSF Medical Center's adult echocardiography lab to enable the Apollo32 system to import and display the echocardiogram reports generated by the KinetDx system. The interface allows clinicians to review all cardiac reports from anywhere in the hospital. The Interface acquires rich-text format reports generated by the KinetDx system and creates patient records in the Apollo32 cardiac database. The reports can then be exported to the hospital information system. This new interface will enable physicians and administrators to access all the necessary information generated from an echocardiography exam, including measurements, calculations, patient demographics, previous and current diagnoses and indications. Lumedx plans to make the interface available to its installed base and future customers. The Apollo32 product line is a modular suite of clinical-data repository products focused on cardiovascular medical specialties and subspecialties.

Thoratec (Pleasanton, California) has entered into an agreement with C. R. Bard's (Murray Hill, New Jersey) Impra subsidiary to distribute Thoratec's Vectra Vascular Access Graft (VAG). Impra will receive exclusive U.S. marketing and distribution rights to the device. The agreement runs through December 2006, with opportunities for extensions. Thoratec and Impra remain in discussions for the international distribution rights, with the exception of Japan. Other terms and conditions of the agreement have not been disclosed. The Vectra VAG is used to provide vascular access for patients suffering from end-stage renal disease who are undergoing hemodialysis. The agreement with Impra replaces an agreement between Thoratec and Guidant (Indianapolis, Indiana), which has been terminated.

UGS (Cypress, California), a supplier of collaborative product lifecycle software and services, has signed a contract with St. Jude Medical's (St. Paul, Minnesota) Cardiac Rhythm Management Division for the supply and implementation of 300 licenses of i-Man, UGS' collaborative product definition management software solution. i-Man will be used to manage engineering and manufacturing documents. UGS said i-Man eliminates barriers by providing control of all product and process information shared by a variety of cross-functional teams, including company personnel, suppliers, partners and customers.