A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

DR Systems (San Diego) reported six new radiology information system/picture archiving and communications system (RIS/PACS) contracts totaling more than $5 million.

The facilities awarding the contracts include Sumner Regional Health Systems (Gallatin, Tennessee); Radi-ology Associates of San Luis Obispo (San Luis Obispo, California); St. Bernardine Medical Center (San Bernardino, California); Ivinson Memorial Hospital (Laramie, Wyoming); Marian Medical Center/Plaza Diagnostic Imaging (Santa Maria, California); and Bitterroot Imaging Open MRI (Hamilton, Montana)

The largest contracts included Sumner Regional Health Systems, nearly $1.9 million; Radiology Associates of San Luis Obispo, $1.28 million; St. Bernardine Medical Center, $809,980; and Ivinson Memorial Hospital, $800,000.

DR Systems was recently named the leading PACS vendor by KLAS, topping all other PACS providers. Respondents rated the company especially high for "implementation within budget."

KLAS is a prominent research and consulting firm that specializes in monitoring and reporting the performance of healthcare information technology vendors, including PACS companies.

DR Systems is an independent provider of scalable, film-free medical systems and paperless information systems. The company reports that its systems for RIS and PACS are in place in more than 250 hospitals and imaging centers.

Celera Genomics (Rockville, Maryland), an Applera business, said that the National Institutes of Health (NIH; Bethesda, Maryland) has awarded the company about $900,000 to develop and commercialize an in vitro diagnostic (IVD) test for the highly pathogenic influenza A/H5 virus (Asian lineage, H5N1).

The test Celera plans to develop will be based on the Primer and Probe Set and protocols used in the test from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; Atlanta) recently cleared by the FDA. The CDC assay is the only FDA-cleared assay for detection of the H5N1 virus, and its use is limited to the laboratories designated by the Laboratory Response Network.

Celera's access to the H5N1 assay information will be through a license to be obtained by Celera from the CDC. The test is expected to be sold through Celera's alliance with Abbott Diagnostics (Abbott Park, Illinois).

"Early detection of avian influenza H5N1 in humans could allow for intervention with antiviral therapeutic drugs and institution of vaccination or quarantine strategies to prevent or delay spread of the infection," said Tom White, PhD, chief scientific officer at Celera. "An accurate, standardized and robust test would enable testing in more locations, and most importantly, enable investigators to make meaningful comparisons between laboratories quickly and reliably across the globe. The assay format that we're developing is expected to be suitable for widespread testing should a pandemic occur."

The grant will partially support a multi-phased, three-year project. Performance testing and validation will be done in collaboration with the CDC, which has accumulated a large collection of influenza strains and clinical respiratory specimens as a World Health Organization (WHO; Geneva, Switzerland) Collaborating Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology and Control of Influenza, as well as with other interested laboratories.

"We have a track record of developing and commercializing molecular diagnostic tests for human viral pathogens based on real-time PCR technology, which specifically and rapidly detects and quantifies low levels of pathogens," said Michael Zoccoli, PhD, vice president of development at Celera. "The information from the CDC's FDA-cleared test and their vast influenza strain and specimen collection, combined with Celera's diagnostic product development and manufacturing expertise, should drive rapid progress on a test that could be broadly used in the event of a pandemic."

The avian influenza test to be developed by Celera is expected to run on Abbott's new m2000 instrument system for detecting and monitoring infectious diseases, using automated real-time PCR technology from Applied Biosystems. The m2000 is currently available in Europe with CE Mark certification and is pending 510(k) clearance with the FDA.

In other grants/contracts news, Toshiba America Medical Systems (TAMS; Tustin, California) reported an exclusive five-year agreement with OhioHealth (Columbus, Ohio), a not-for-profit healthcare organization providing healthcare services to 46 Ohio counties, which TAMS said further establishes its business in the Midwest.

Four OhioHealth hospitals – Grant Medical Center, Riverside Methodist Hospital, Doctors Hospital and Grady Memorial Hospital – and six diagnostic imaging centers will acquire more than 20 Aquilion computed tomography scanners, which Toshiba termed "the most advanced multislice CT technology available."

OhioHealth hospitals previously utilized technology from several different vendors, but it now req-uires a system that delivers consistency across OhioHealth's network of hospitals and imaging centers, TAMS said.