A Medical Device Daily

The former Bruker Biosciences (Billerica, Massachusetts), presently being renamed Bruker, said that it has closed on the previously reported acquisition of the Bruker BioSpin group (Medical Device Daily, Dec. 4, 2007). Nearly 57.5 million new unregistered shares of BRKR common stock were issued for the stock component of the acquisition consideration.

At the closing price per share of $10.86 on Monday, the stock portion of the aggregate consideration for the acquisition was about $624.9 million.

As of Tuesday, the renamed Bruker Corp. has become the parent company of the entire Bruker group of companies. After the closing of the acquisition of the Bruker BioSpin Group, Bruker Corp. now operates in two segments, the life science and analytical (LSA) systems segment, and the international advanced superconductor (IAS) segment.

In other dealmaking news:

• WiFiMed Holdings (Marietta, Georgia), whose holdings are providers of physician workflow solutions reported yesterday that it has signed a definitive asset purchase agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of CyberMedx Medical Systems (Dana Point, California).

The company said it is expected that CyberMedx Medical Systems will become its third wholly-owned subsidiary. The company first reported this deal last fall (MDD, Nov. 7, 2007).

CyberMedx provides patient data management, communication and information systems for the hospital, home care, and alternate care industries. Collectively these technologies are the Cyber-Medical Exchange, or “C-ME,” because they allow the devices and patients to be “seen” by the other stakeholders having responsibility for the patient’s care or payment for that care.

C-ME is available for a host of different bedside devices (e.g., oxygen tanks, oxygen concentrators, CPAP and BIPAP devices). A small wireless data transmitter attached to each patient device allows the transmission (through telephone lines) of the device’s data to a data collection center, where the data is reformatted and transmitted to software applications for use by vendors who maintain the devices and the health care providers who care for the patients.

WiFiMed Holdings, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries WiFiMed and EncounterPRO Healthcare Resources, offers proprietary solutions enabling physicians and other healthcare providers to document the physician-patient encounter through continuously updated state-of-the-art technologies.

• National Surgical Care (NSC; Dallas) reported the acquisition of a majority interest in Coral Springs Surgical Center (Coral Springs, Florida) and the formation of a joint venture with Stamford Health System (Stamford, Connecticut) to acquire a surgery center in Wilton, Connecticut.

Coral Springs Surgical Center is a multi-specialty outpatient surgery center with primary emphasis in gastroenterology, ophthalmology, pain management and orthopaedics. Similarly, Wilton Surgery Center focuses on ophthalmology and pain management. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed.

Sami Abbasi, CEO and chairman of NSC, said, “We are pleased with our investment in Coral Springs Surgical Center, and in our partnership with the center’s talented surgeons. Coral Springs Surgical Center is a multi-specialty facility with a longstanding reputation for excellence. It serves a vibrant community and, with its 26 physician partners and over 50 surgeons on the medical staff, it is positioned for future growth. We look forward to realizing these opportunities with our new partners.”

• StemCyte (New York) and Rutgers (New Brunswick, New Jersey) reported that they have entered into a research and licensing agreement for a spinal cord injury therapy being developed by Wise Young, MD, PhD, that uses StemCyte’s human umbilical cord blood stem cells in conjunction with lithium.

StemCyte will provide financial sponsorship for Young’s work at Rutgers’ W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience (Camden, New Jersey) and receive exclusive commercialization rights to the therapy. If the product or other assets resulting from the collaboration are successfully commercialized, Rutgers will receive royalties.

• MediNotes (West Des Moines, Iowa) a leader in electronic health records (EHRs) with more than 20,000 users nationwide, reported that it has signed a letter of intent to acquire Bond Technologies (Chaska, Minnesota).

Bond’s integrated .NET-based EHR and practice management (PM) solutions include e-prescribing, patient portals, patient kiosk, image management and more. MediNotes’ strategic addition of complementary healthcare technology solutions includes a full range of integrated, single-vendor and best-of-breed EMR and PM solutions to enhance patient care and workflow, as well as the patient experience.

“Physicians want the best technology now, but need assurance that the solution they choose today can evolve to meet their needs,” said MediNotes president/CEO Donald Schoen. “When this acquisition is complete, MediNotes will have the ability to provide a full range of scalable solutions ranging from a best-of-breed interoperable EMR offering to a fully integrated, single-database, .NET-based EHR and PM solution with image management, e-prescribing, patient portals, patient kiosks and many other popular features. Instead of the cookie-cutter approach some vendors employ, we help practices leverage their IT investment by allowing them to develop the ideal configuration to address their current needs with a cost-effective migration path to fully support change and growth.”