Bridge Medical, a developer of bar code technology for medical applications, says it will partner with Healthcare-ID to expand the capabilities of the Bridge MedPoint system to include verification of blood transfusions and laboratory specimens. The MedPoint system features automatic checking of right patient, right drug, right dose, right time and right route – and safety features such as maximum daily dose monitoring, alerts for look-alike/sound-alike drugs and high-risk medications, and allergy checking.

LifeLinkMD (Washington), a provider of automated external defibrillator service programs, formed a distribution and marketing partnership with the National Capital Chapter of the American Red Cross. The American Red Cross will distribute and market LifeLinkMD automated external defibrillator (AED) service programs co-branded with the American Red Cross. LifeLinkMD's AED service packages address all components of an AED program and provide medical support, bundled in monthly payments and eliminating the need for up-front equipment purchase. LifeLinkMD has built a nationwide network of physicians to serve as medical directors and it provides medical oversight services to Medtronic Physio-Control, a division of Medtronic, for the Lifepak 500 AED.

PDSHeart (Stockbridge, Georgia), a provider of cardiac monitoring services and medical diagnostic devices, has formed an alliance with Cardiac Telecom (Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania), inventors of the Telemetry @ Home cardiac arrhythmia detector and alarm system, giving PDSHeart national rights to distribute the home-based product. Telemetry @ Home automatically detects and calls in heart events even if the patient is asleep, according to PDSHeart. The device can be used to monitor physicians patients suffering from syncope, atria fibrillation and other hard-to-detect arrhythmias. Cardiac Telecom develops telemedicine products that use standard telephone lines for the transmission of vital diagnostic test data.

PeopleMed.com (Denver, Colorado) and Cardiovascular Disease Management, a joint venture between National Jewish Medical and Research Center and Western Cardiology (both Denver), said they will jointly launch an advanced and comprehensive Internet-based cardiovascular disease management program combining PeopleMed.com's Internet-based disease management system with protocols developed by CVDM in collaboration with James Young, MD, medical director, Kaufman Center for Heart Failure and head of the section of heart failure and cardiac transplant medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (Cleveland, Ohio).