International medical device company Gyrus Group (London) will purchase ACMI (Southborough, Massachusetts) and the equity held in ACMI by Fox Paine & Co. (San Francisco) for about $500 million, 88% in cash and 12% in Gyrus shares, representing a 9% stake in Gyrus.

The companies predicted deal completion – assuming completion of customary terms and regulatory approvals – in July. Fox Paine will receive the right to appoint one member to the Gyrus board.

ACMI manufactures medical devices enabling minimally invasive urology, gynecology, general surgery, and other clinical specialties. In May, ACMI Laboratories reported that its global R&D group had developed the world’s smallest digital camera and video color sensor. The company said it will incorporate “this groundbreaking sensor” into its line of endoscopic medical devices.

ACMI’s initial development was a 1mm color complementary metal-oxide silicon digital output video sensor. “This ACMI sensor is the smallest known video sensor to have ever been developed and represents over two years of effort utilizing the best engineering talent in four countries,” Frank D’Amelio, the company’s executive vice president and chief technology officer, said at the time.

ACMI said it also manufactures a micro-miniature lens system that integrates directly into the sensor. The combination, it said, produces “a color camera that is smaller than the head of a wooden matchstick” and “uniquely suited for miniature medical, surveillance, military and industrial applications.”

“ACMI has reached a major breakthrough in digital video technology,” said Herald Chen, CEO of ACMI. “Our engineers have developed a technology that can be customized to produce the best possible image for many micro applications. We are currently integrating this technology into our own line of endoscopy products and are exploring other applications with a variety of interested parties.”

The company has 900 employees, 104 patents and sells in more than 70 countries.

Saul Fox, CEO of Fox Paine and chairman of ACMI, said, “The value established for ACMI in this transaction, which approximately triples our November 1999 investment, marks a significant milestone for ACMI. This transaction is the culmination of the efforts of many people both within and affiliated with the company who shared the vision of ACMI . . .”

“The transaction with Gyrus will enable ACMI to expand its strong market position and exciting new technologies in and beyond the urology and gynecology practice areas,” said Herald Chen, CEO of ACMI and managing director of Fox Paine.

ACMI’s operations will continue to be headquartered in Southborough.

Fox Paine & Company, described by a press representative as “broad-based” in its investments, manages funds in excess of $1.5 billion that provide equity capital for management buyouts, private transactions and company expansion and growth programs. Fox Paine said that its funds are managed on behalf of more than 75 leading U.S. and international financial institutions.

New rules to protect health records

Britain’s Health Minister Lord Warner recently rolled out new rules to ensure that patients keep control over access to their health records in databases to be launched in 2006 and appearing to parallel those provided by HIPAA regulations in the U.S. to protect health records.

The Care Record Guarantee regulation sets out rules governing information held in the NHS Care Records Service, a nationwide patient health record system.

The Care Records Service will connect more than 30,000 general practitioners and 270 acute, community and mental health NHS trusts in a “single, secure national service,” the NHS said. It said that the service will replace the existing variety of local paper and computer-based record systems. BT was awarded a contract of 620M to deliver the national elements of the service.

The Guarantee makes 12 commitments to patients about their records, including the following pledges: Access to records by NHS staff will be limited to those having a “need to know” to provide effective treatment; the ability of patients to block off parts of their records so they cannot be shared with others in the NHS, except in an emergency; and the ability to block information from being shared with those outside the organization which created the records.

Warner said: “The new electronic record system has enormous potential benefits for patients. In time, it will allow staff caring for them – wherever they may be in England – to have instant, accurate access to their essential health history, including allergies, current medication, pre-existing conditions and recent treatment.”

He added that the rules will be backed up with “tough security measures” to prevent unauthorized access to records. This will ensure, he said, that “everyone can have confidence in the new system.”

The Guarantee covers people’s access to their own records, controls on others’ access, how access will be monitored and policed, options people have to further limit access, access in an emergency, and what happens when someone cannot make decisions for themselves.

The NHS said that “the concept” of the Guarantee “arose from research undertaken with patients and the public in 2002 by the NHS Information Authority with the Consumers’ Association.” That research, it said, “showed a high level of trust in the NHS, but a concern about who uses the information in patients’ health records.”

When asked what would provide reassurance that the NHS is careful with health information, the most commonly mentioned safeguard was a published sharing agreement.

The guarantor of the rights set out in the document is the Secretary of State for Health – a move which underlines “the strength of the commitments the NHS is making to patients,” the NHS said.

NHS said the Care Records Guarantee was drawn up by its Care Record Development Board, an advisory body of patients, members of the public, healthcare professionals, social workers and researchers and is chaired by Harry Cayton, the Department of Health’s National Director for Patients and the Public.