A Medical Device Daily

Lantheus Medical Imaging (North Billerica, Massachusetts) said it has signed an agreement with NTP Radioisotopes, a subsidiary of the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (both Pretoria, South Africa), to manufacture and supply Lantheus with an ongoing volume of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), a key isotope used in medical imaging procedures.

According to the company, global shortfalls of Mo-99 have recently impacted the availability of critical diagnostic imaging procedures, causing concern within the medical imaging industry. Mo-99 is the parent isotope of technetium-99m (Tc99m), the most widely utilized radioisotope in the world for molecular and nuclear diagnostic imaging procedures, Lantheus said. There are only a few major suppliers of nuclear-reactor generated Mo-99 in the world. Mo-99 is primarily imported into the U.S. from aging and increasingly less reliable nuclear reactors. Recent problems within the global reactor structure have created instability in the supply of Mo-99, affecting the availability of the medical isotope to technetium generator manufacturers. Without adequate supply of Mo-99, crucial imaging tests must be canceled or postponed with potentially negative consequences for patients.

Lantheus says this agreement underlines its commitment to investing in a supply chain diversification strategy and providing new solutions to address the "limited and fragile global Mo-99 supply chain," as evidenced by the current NRU reactor shutdown in Canada, the company said.

Lantheus is set to receive a specified supply of Mo-99 at regular intervals from NTP, enhancing the company's ability to meet and/or exceed customer demand, it said. NTP has, in turn, partnered with Belgian radiochemical producer IRE to co-supply the Lantheus requirement and thereby maximize security of ongoing regular supplies of Mo-99 to Lantheus. IRE and NTP have a "long and successful relationship as reliable and consistent suppliers of Mo-99 to key customers," Lantheus noted.

"Partnering with NTP Radioisotopes as a reliable supplier of Mo-99 will provide us with expanded access within a limited supply chain. This partnership will bring our complementary skillsets and commitment to quality and reliability together to ensure patients have uninterrupted, timely access to needed medical imaging procedures that can diagnose life-threatening conditions such as heart disease and cancer," said Don Kiepert, president/CEO of Lantheus. "Diversification of our supply chain and the introduction of new solutions in the marketplace to address the frequent worldwide medical isotope shortages is one of our foremost priorities as a company."

In other agreements/contracts news:

• DocuSys (Atlanta), a provider of systems for anesthesia information management, medication management and pre-surgical management, said it has partnered with Medusind Solutions (San Juan Capistrano, California), an outsourcing company that provides integrated healthcare business solutions. Medusind provides end-to-end revenue cycle management (RCM) services including medical coding, healthcare billing, coding documentation and coding analytics that lead into high value RCM activity, resulting in maximized reimbursements for their clients.

According to the companies, the partnership will combine the end-to-end RCM services provided by Medusind to improve the productivity and profit margin of anesthesia providers with the technology and services of DocuSys, to bring new levels of efficiencies and improvements to the surgical and anesthesia processes in the OR.

• Medical Present Value (Austin, Texas) said that six medical groups have selected MPV Contract Management, a web-based application that enables practices to audit reimbursement and payer performance based on individual client contract terms, the latest payment rules and payer adjudication logic.

The healthcare organizations, which range in size and specialty, include: Florida Cancer Specialists (Ft. Myers, Florida), a group with 63 providers in 26 locations; Will County Medical Associates (Joliet, Illinois), a 33-physician multi-specialty group; Panorama Orthopedics & Spine Center (Golden, Colorado), a practice with 23 providers; Webster Orthopaedic Medical Group (San Ramon, California), a 14-physician practice; Mid-Maryland Musculoskeletal Institute (Frederick, Maryland), a group with 11 physicians; and Vail Summit Orthopaedics (Vail, Frisco, and Edwards, California), a nine-provider practice.

According to the company, the MPV Contract Management also enables healthcare organizations to determine a patient's out-of-pocket expenses prior to service, leading to improved patient-provider communications and reduced patient bad debt.

• SAS (Cary, North Carolina) said it has partnered with the NHS Information Centre (NHS IC; Leeds, England) to build a standardized data management environment and business analytics platform that will integrate, manage and analyze information across the NHS. SAS said it will help the NHS IC to improve the level of service to NHS trusts and the department of health, resulting in better and more efficient care for patients in primary, community, hospital and social care.

"Health services worldwide face three main challenges," said Tim Straughan, the NHS IC chief executive. "Firstly, improving the quality of care to meet the expectations of patients; secondly coping with economic downturn; and thirdly – the NHS IC's focus – having access to information and using it effectively to address the first two. The NHS IC recognizes the need to make better use of information across the board to meet these challenges. Working with SAS, we can achieve a more effective end-to-end process for sharing information across the NHS, whilst ensuring information quality, security and governance."