The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) may recommend a fairly dramatic expansion of the populations that would be eligible for coverage for lung cancer screening, a bit of news that might be expected to cheer makers of CT imaging systems. However, compliance with the existing recommendations is already quite low, suggesting that an expansion of eligibility is likely to exert a negligible effect at best on utilization.
Reflexion Medical Inc. appears to be on a roll. A little more than a month after unveiling a tie up with Merck & Co. Inc., it now has reported a collaboration with Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd., a radiopharmaceutical company developing molecularly targeted radiation products.
RapidAI, which focuses on imaging for stroke, has received the U.S. FDA’s nod for Rapid ASPECTS. According to the company, it is the first neuroimaging analysis device to gain clearance in the computer-assisted diagnostic software category.
Researchers working as part of the Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers Alliance (QIBA) have recently validated an open-source algorithm that can be used to measure blood flow using existing 3D ultrasound technology from major manufacturers. They published their results in the June 30, 2020, issue of Radiology.
Hong Kong – Vuno Inc. is looking to access more markets after inking a partnership with Japan’s M3 on June 19. The partnership with M3, a medical data platform which is 34% owned by conglomerate Sony Corp., allows Vuno to tap into the Japanese market. The M3-Vuno tie-up aims to encompass all Vuno’s existing products.
PARIS – Agfa-Gevaert Group NV, of Mortsel, Belgium, has sold parts of its health care information technology (IT) business to Italy’s Dedalus Holding SpA for $1.1 billion. The divested interests include health care information solutions activities and integrated care activities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Brazil, as well as certain IT imaging activities in these territories. It represents about half of Agfa Healthcare’s business.
TORONTO – Vancouver, B.C.-based Sonic Incytes Medical Corp. is giving MRI a run for its money assessing chronic liver disease following a successful, CA$3.5 (US$2.6 million) seed round. That brings total funding to CA$8 million (US$5.92 million) for a hand-held ultrasound device that quantifies liver disease using 3D tissue sampling and analysis in approximately five minutes in a doctor’s office.
TORONTO – Seven years after setting up shop in downtown Toronto, high resolution, surgical imaging med-tech company Perimeter Medical Imaging Inc. (PMI) is still wrestling with a statistical heartbreaker: 1 in 4 patients told to return for a second surgery to remove cancerous breast tissue after the first surgery failed to get it all. Now PMI has said it can cut that number down dramatically thanks to a $7.44 million investment from the Austin, Texas-based Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to identify wayward breast cancer cells using artificial intelligence technology.
Doctors are reporting a proliferation of dangerous blood clots in the lungs and other major organs of COVID-19 patients, raising the risk of stroke and other life-threatening complications. While anticoagulant medications can reduce that risk, patients need careful monitoring to ensure their blood is neither too thick nor too thin. To that end, Los Angeles-based startup Neural Analytics Inc. is deploying its robotically assisted transcranial doppler (TCD) system for real-time identification of blood clots and disruptions in blood flow to the brain.
TORONTO – Vancouver, British Columbia-based Izotropic Corp. has inked a deal with Victoria, British Columbia-based based Starfish Medical Inc. to commercialize a CT scanner Izotropic CEO Robert Thast said will be a major disruptor of the breast imaging industry. Izotropic has spent approximately $20 million over the past 15 years to develop the system and is counting on Starfish to help translate this into a market-ready 3D breast CT imager by the end of 2020.
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