A Medical Device Daily

IntelliDOT (San Diego), focused on patient safety and workflow management solutions for healthcare, reported signing a three-year agreement with Amerinet (St. Louis).

IntelliDOT said it will provide “optimized pricing” for its handheld bar code patient safety technology, the CAREt System, to more than 2,100 Amerinet member hospitals nationwide.

The CAREt System is the first nurse-centered workflow manager to connect caregivers with the information systems they need at the point of care, the company said. Built on a design that complements the way nurses work, the CAREt System is expected to provide a straightforward user interface that supports a comprehensive approach to medication safety and documentation at bedside, in a variety of healthcare settings.

In other agreement news:

• Bio-Optronics (Rochester, New York) a workflow solutions provider, reported that the company has signed a distribution agreement with Ingram Micro (Santa Ana, California), a technology distributor. Bio-Optronics’ suite of hospital workflow solutions, Dynamic Hospital Suite, to be distributed through Ingram Micro’s Nimax Division, a distributor of automatic identification/data capture (AIDC), point-of-sale (POS) and mobile computing products.

Nimax will distribute all four components of Bio-Optronics’ Dynamic Hospital Suite including, IdentifiOR, the complete patient, staff and visitor identification solution; SchedulOR, the enterprise-wide scheduling solution for the OR; DirectOR, the suite’s smart patient and staff workflow manager; and AdministratOR, the company’s bar-coded point of care solution, which ensures compliance with the “5 Rights” of medication administration.

• Bovie Medical (Melville, New York), a maker of electrosurgical products, reported that it has entered an agreement with Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) for the exclusive distribution and marketing by Boston Scientific of an electrosurgical device for use in Boston Scientific’s Oncology business.

Bovie will manufacture the product. The product will be co-labeled with both the Boston Scientific and Bovie names displayed. Additionally, Bovie will receive funding from Boston Scientific as part of its manufacturing start up.

• Synovis Life Technologies (St. Paul, Minnesota) and Caldera Medical (Agoura Hills, California) have signed an agreement under which Caldera will distribute Synovis Veritas, a collagen matrix, under the Caldera brand Hydrix XM.

The agreement covers the urology, gynecology and urogynecology markets in the U.S. and all regions outside of U.S. where Synovis does not have distribution.

Caldera is expected to begin offering Hydrix XM in Synovis’ first fiscal quarter ending Jan. 31, 2007. Caldera has over 100 sales managers and independent sales representatives focused on the gynecology, urology and urogynecology markets.

Veritas is an implantable biomaterial which Caldera will sell as Hydrix XM for the surgical treatment of pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence (SUI), both common conditions in post-menopausal women. The product is a collagen matrix biomaterial derived from bovine pericardium, a material known to have characteristics for surgical applications. Veritas, or Hydrix XM as it will be branded, is not resorbed by the body, but rather provides a scaffold upon which the body’s own tissue can grow into, effectively “remodeling” the implant into the host, the company said.

• Aldagen (Durham, North Carolina) and Innovative Micro Technology (IMT; Santa Barbara, California) reported forming an alliance to co-develop a version of IMT’s Rare Cell Purification System for clinical cell therapies.

The system, called the Aldesorter, will be used with Aldagen’s Aldesort product and is designed to isolate stem cell populations for the treatment of chronic heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, leukemias, genetic enzyme deficiencies and other diseases. The first Aldesorter is scheduled for completion in early 2007, with clinical trials planned to begin in late 2007.

Aldesort is a set of reagents that can be used with cell sorting systems to isolate a potent population of stem and progenitor cells from human bone marrow, peripheral blood and cord blood. The chemistry incorporated into Aldesort allows the isolation of stem and progenitor cells based on the elevated expression of an intracellular enzyme, aldehyde dehydrogenase.