Diagnostics & Imaging Week
and D&IWs

Following hard on the heels of sweeping actions taken by the French Ministry of Health to quell a national crisis of confidence in radiotherapy treatment, a new scandal involving almost 7,000 patients was revealed this month.

Five radiology centers in Normandy were at the center of a new investigation by the Health Ministry which said patients receiving routine exams were exposed to over-radiation, diagnostic errors for mammographies, and viral contaminations for both AIDS and hepatitis C.

A telephone hot line was set up to field calls from 6,791 patients believed to be at risk who will be re-examined to determine if they were victims of the negligence in radiology practice that was apparently routine at the five centers. The number of patients could be as high as 8,000, according to the regional newspaper Paris-Normandie.

The health ministry said employees at the centers revealed their concerns at the end of November, and an investigation confirmed that there were “serious disfunctions,” including unqualified staff operating radiology equipment, unqualified staff reading radiology images, failure to maintain controls and quality procedures for the equipment, and a failure to respect procedures for basic hygiene for transrectal ultrasound and endopelvic echography probes.

The centers, owned by Farid Alsaïd, MD, were closed in early December and are now running a gauntlet of investigation that includes the Inspection Générale des Affaires Sociales, the Autorité de Sureté Nucléaire and experts from the Société Fran aise de Radiologie.

Following an assessment of the risks and injuries to patients, the ministry said “complementary investigations” will determine damages owed to patients, penalties, as well as steps necessary to re-establish safe and secure radiology services for the region.

The physicians practicing at the centers have been suspended subject to a review by the regional board of physicians.

“It’s a nasty business run by insensitive doctors,” said blunt-speaking Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot, using the French word “crapuleux,” which suggests the doctors were only interested in financial gain.

10% stake acquired in Molecular Vision

Acrongenomics (Geneva, Switzerland) said it has acquired a 10.9% interest in Molecular Vision (London), the value of that stake not disclosed.

The cash consideration will be used by Molecular Vision said that the acquired cash will be used for further technology development.

Molecular Vision is developing what it describes as “low-cost, easy-to-use, credit-card sized devices for medical testing designed to extend the in-house tools available to the general practitioner.

It said that the devices are being developed to allow “near patient” quantitative diagnosis, with a focus on key areas of high disease burden, such as kidney function and cardiovascular disease. The company says that the technology also has applications outside the diagnostics market (for instance, for forensic science, homeland security and environmental monitoring).

Molecular Vision is a spin-out company of Imperial College (London), founded in 2002 to meet a demand in the medical diagnostics, biosensors and analytical instrumentations markets and the need for miniaturized chemical and biological detectors. The company says it focuses on applying its technology to medical diagnostics.

Acrongenomics invests in technology platforms in the life sciences.

Adept secures foothold in European markets

Adept Technology (Livermore, California) acquired privately held Cerebellum Automation (Chavanod, France), a specialist in robotics and motion-control solutions for the medical imaging and medical packaging. Adept will purchase all outstanding shares of Cerebellum for a total estimated at $1.2 million over two years.

The French start-up, founded in 2004, has built a strong base of manufacturing customers in France and Western Europe. Adept was eager to acquire the company’s product CIDE, a robotic and motion-control software development package, and ApproFlex, a feeding and small-part-handling system designed for manufacturers.

“Cerebellum complements our strong position in Germany and gives us a greatly expanded footprint in the French automation market, which is the third-largest in Europe,” said Adept CEO Robert Bucher.

Med-tech manufacturers using Cerebellum motion control architecture for medical imaging products include Sanmina-SCI (San Jose, California), Stereotaxis (St. Louis) and the European diagnostic imaging division of GE Healthcare (Waukesha, Wisconsin).

For three years Cerebellum has developed products for use under Adept strategic alliances that targeted new markets and applications for the U.S. firm’s automation controller platform.

Cogenics in accord with UK research center

The Cogenics division of Clinical Data (Newton, Massachusetts) reported the signing of a multi-year agreement with the John Innes Centre (JIC; Norwich, UK) for Cogenics to provide the JIC with gene expression and other genomics services in a solutions-oriented approach that will help the center enhance its plant science and microbiology research.

JIC and Cogenics revealed the first result of their collaboration – a custom Brassica gene expression microarray – at the Plant and Animal Genome Conference in San Diego in mid-January.

Ian Bancroft, project leader in the JIC Crop Genetics department and head of the JIC Genome Laboratory, said, “Our partnership with Cogenics provides us with exciting opportunities to bring more advanced genomics technologies for plant and microbial research into the reach of the wider plant and microbial science community.”