Medical Device Daily Contributing Writer
And MDDs

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institut f r Graphische Datenverarbeitung (Institute for Computer Graphics; Darmstadt, Germany) have developed an optical recognition system to compensate for patient motion during sensitive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) procedures.

The developers say they are confident the device, called Promo, will be in use in hospitals within the next two years.

The quickest procedure for fMRI takes at least 20 minutes, during which time the patient is asked to lie as close to perfectly motionless as possible. Some procedures can last up to two hours.

Even the strongest patients will twitch during the scanning procedure, creating artifacts in the image. Motion in excess of 3 mm usually results in unusable data. With young children or patients with brain dysfunctions such as epilepsy or Alzheimers, an fMRI session are especially difficult for such imaging. Patients often need to be restrained to prevent excessive motion, or it may be necessary to administer an anesthetic.

This explains why an otherwise powerful tool for examining brain function is not being used more widely for diagnosis of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, heart disease, and a large family of cancers.

More costly equipment for positron emission tomography (PET) or single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) currently deliver better data for such studies.

Jeffrey Lorberbaum, MD, neuroimaging and anxiety disorder research fellow at the Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston), said fMRI studies are useful in pre-surgical planning to map vital areas like language, motor function, and memory.

"Perhaps most important for the future clinical utility of fMRI," he said, "is that it involves only some upgrading of conventional MRI machines and, thus, may be become widely available."

Researchers at the Fraunhofer IGD recently unveiled the Promo, a system for determining the spatial position of the patient's head 60 times per second and signaling the MRI scanner.

"Before the scanner takes another picture, it adjusts the scanning image section to the current head position," said Christian Dold, Promo project manager for ICD. Promo tracks the movements of a bite bar equipped with a series of reflective markers. The slightest movement is detected and compensated for by the scanning unit.

Dold said optical tracking improves image quality even for people capable of remaining still during the procedure. "This means that fMRT could become a routine procedure," he said.

The first series of tests of Promo were conducted at the University of Freiburg, a leading German research and teaching institution. The results showed significant improvement in the quality of the fMRT images, "even for patients who had frequently moved their heads," Dold said.

Promo is patented in Germany and the developers are awaiting a U.S. patent.

Fraunhofer focuses on the development of product prototypes for virtual and augmented reality, mobile computing, and security technologies.

Merge reports contract for Fusion aXigate

Merge Healthcare (Milwaukee), a medical imaging software and services provider, reported receiving a contract from Colmar General Hospital (Colmar, France) for the company's Fusion aXigate clinical information management platform and associated software modules to create an enterprise-wide, information-based workflow in the hospital.

The contract represents a revision of the 1,339-bed medical center's image and information management systems, and includes an electronic patient record, order and prescription management, computerized prescription order, emergency management, bed and patient identity management, reporting tools, laboratory server and pathology.

Fusion aXigate is a web-based solution for patient, medical and clinical process management, that unifies the entire healthcare enterprise by integrating information from many different, previously isolated systems.

Roland Santagelo, executive at Colmar General, said, "Specifically, we want to improve tracking of patient care through an automated medical information system and increase productivity via overall computerization of information and image management functions."

European office for Palomar

Palomar Medical Technologies (Burlington, Massachusetts), a developer of light-based systems for cosmetic treatments, reported opening its first international office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to be headed by Robert Fielitz, former director of European operations for Lumenis. Fielitz is managing director of European operations to oversee Palomar's sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Fielitz said, "There is incredible growth potential that lies ahead of Palomar outside North America, and I am [pleased] to be part of the team that will foster the expansion. The fact that Palomar continues to be on the leading edge of technology, combined with the ability for a practice to grow on a single platform-based system, offers endless possibilities."

StatSure device part of DRUID project

StatSure Diagnostic Systems (Framingham, Massachusetts) reported that its SDS oral fluid collection device has been chosen as the oral fluid collection device for DRUID WP2, part of the 6th Framework Program for Research and Technological Development (FP6) sponsored by the European Commission.

The DRUID consortium will use the SDS collection devices for random road collection of saliva samples from drivers in the general driving population in 12 European countries. The countries involved are Denmark, Poland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Hungary, Finland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy and The Czech Republic. SDS has received today the first purchase order associated with this project.

StatSure manufactures rapid immunoassay tests for the detection of sexually transmitted and other infectious diseases, and also is marketing a line of patented, oral-fluid collection devices.

Q-Med receives final payment from Medicis with the FDA approval of Perlane, Q-Med AB (Uppsala, Sweden) said it has received $29.1 million (SEK197.4 million) from Medicis (Scottsdale, Arizona), the last additional purchase sum from an agreement that was entered into with that company in 2003.