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In the News
Virus Particles Show Potential to Enhance MRI Capabilities

Researchers at New York University (NYU) have made chemical modifications to nanometer-sized virus particles – a process that has the potential to improve MRI techniques. Their results are reported in the latest issue of Nano Letters.

The study was conducted jointly by NYU's department of chemistry and the department of radiology at the NYU School of Medicine. The study is part of a collaborative discussion group between these departments called Molecular Imaging and Contrast Agents (MICA). MICA includes James Canary, PhD, Edwin Wang, MD, and Kent Kirshenbaum, PhD.

The protein coats of viruses provide an attractive platform for tailoring the physical properties and functions of molecular assemblies because they contain a large number of chemically reactive groups organized in a very precise array. Other researchers have recently sought to enhance MRI capabilities through the use of similar large molecular assemblies by increasing the size, and therefore signal, of MRI contrast agents. They have also tried to use this terrain to facilitate "multi-modality," in which a set of imaging probes, such as those for both MR and optical imaging, are integrated.

The NYU researchers were able to show the attachment of a large number of gadolinium chelates – the chemical compound used in MRI contrast agents – on the surface of the viral particles. This resulted in the generation of a very intense signal when Wang imaged their samples in a clinical MRI scanner.

"Our work validates some hypotheses in the field of [MRI] contrast agents," explains Kirshenbaum, the study's corresponding author. "Previous studies have predicted that as you increase the particle size of an MR contrast agent, you should see it become more effective – as the particle takes longer to tumble in solution, it should become more capable of influencing the response of neighboring water molecules. Our study provides evidence that this effect works. Since the signal that radiologists observe in MRI scans is generated primarily from water molecules within the body, we potentially have the ability to get better contrast and clearer images that can distinguish between different tissue types."

While Kirshenbaum cautions that many obstacles remain in using this process to enhance MRI for clinical applications, he says the results point to the potential of enhancing specific MRI capabilities.

"If a radiologist wants to design a versatile probe that can be used in a variety of different imaging protocols, a chemically modified virus particle now appears to be an attractive option for this type of sophisticated application," he notes. "For example, if we can decorate the particles so that they are recognized by specific receptors on cell surfaces, we may be able to use MRI to image tumors much smaller than can currently be seen."

— New York University

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business briefs
InMed Diagnostic Services, Bourne, Mass, has opened a women's breast care center offering appropriate patients an examination with the Aurora™ 1.5T Dedicated Breast MRI System with Bilateral UltraRODEO™ technology from Aurora Imaging Technology Inc., North Andover, Mass.

Philips Medical Systems, Andover, Mass., officially began the delivery of its iSite PACS service to the St. Franciscus Hospital in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

To meet demand for its sterile disposable products, Medrad Inc., Indianola, Pa., will build a new Pennsylvania manufacturing facility and expects to hire 100 employees to staff it, with potential employment at the new facility anticipated to grow to 500 in five years. The new 120,000-square-foot facility will be located in Butler County. Design of the new facility began last month, with operations expected to begin in late 2007.

Vedior North America member Clinical One National Healthcare Professionals, Wakefield, Mass., has received company-wide certification by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) under its Health Care Staffing Services Certification Program.

UltraSPECT Ltd., Haifa, Israel, announced that the United States Patent and Trademark office has granted the company the patent "Efficient Single Photon Emission Imaging" (US Patent no. 7,026,623). According to the patent, shorter scanning time and clinically diagnostic images may be obtained by resolution recovery reconstruction methods such as the UltraSPECT-patented Wide Beam Reconstruction (WBR™) technology.

Cedara Software, Toronto, announced an agreement with medavis GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany, to distribute their radiology information system in conjunction with Cedara's Fusion PACS offering to selected European markets.

Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc., Tustin, Calif., announced the installation of its Infinix™ DP-i/FD2 at St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way, Wash., and Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. The hospitals are the first to install Toshiba's latest generation of vascular imaging technology, which was introduced in March.

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movers & shakers
CCHIT Selects Siemens Employees for Industry Workgroups
Recognizing personal experiences and accomplishments within the healthcare information technology (HIT) industry, the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) has selected three employees from Siemens Medical Solutions, Malvern, Pa., to serve on its workgroups, helping to develop the criteria by which HIT products will be certified.

Gail Latimer, MSN, RN, vice president and chief nursing officer, was named to the inpatient functionality workgroup for her comprehensive work within the nursing environment. This new workgroup was created to develop functionality criteria in the inpatient electronic health record (EHR) domain.

Glen Marshall, standards and regulatory manager, will be working closely with numerous HIT issues, including HIPAA and the Security and Privacy Rules. Marchall's commitment and expertise propelled a second consecutive term with CCHIT's Security Workgroup. This group has developed security criteria for ambulatory EHRs through 2008 and will add the inpatient domain to its charter.

David Tao, information technology architect, was recognized for his interoperability skills and knowledge. Tao was reappointed to CCHIT's Interoperability Workgroup. This group, which has developed interoperability criteria for ambulatory EHRs through 2008, comprises ambulatory and inpatient domains.

A voluntary and private-sector initiative, CCHIT's mission is to accelerate the adoption of robust, interoperable HIT solutions throughout the U.S. healthcare system by creating an efficient, credible and sustainable mechanism for the certification of healthcare IT products. In September 2005, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded CCHIT a three-year contract to develop and evaluate certification criteria and inspection processes for ambulatory (office and clinic) EHRs, inpatient (hospital) EHRs and the networks through which they interoperate.

— Siemens Medical Solutions

 
Philips Donates $2.6 Million in Ultrasound Equipment

Philips Medical Systems, Andover, Mass., has agreed to donate 50 ultrasound systems, valued at an estimated $2.6 million, to the Global Ultrasound Equipment Donation Foundation (GUEDF). GUEDF is a not-for-profit organization that provides ultrasound equipment and training to needy clinics, hospitals and teaching facilities in emerging and developing countries around the world.

"Every year, we donate medical equipment to worthwhile organizations that bring modern healthcare to underserved patients," says Barbara Franciose, CEO, ultrasound and monitoring, for Philips Medical Systems. "This partnership with GUEDF will help give our efforts a significant boost."

The donation includes systems used for echocardiology, radiology and obstetrics. These systems are equipped with modern ultrasound technologies, such as SonoCT and 3-D imaging, that the benefiting institutions could not have afforded on their own. The equipment will help patients receive care that is equivalent with many developed nations.

"There are millions of people around the world who do not have access to even the most basic ultrasound technology. The donation of advanced systems like these will help adults, children and newborns survive medical conditions that may have otherwise been fatal," says Barry B. Goldberg, MD, president of the Global Ultrasound Equipment Donation Foundation.

The first system from this donation, a Philips HDI 5000, is being presented to Seoul City General Hospital, East Branch in South Korea. Used for general imaging, including Ob/Gyn, breast, vascular, abdominal and adult cardiology, the system's SonoCT compound imaging and 3-D capabilities will allow the hospital to provide underserved patients in Seoul advanced care that is not currently available to them.

— Philips Medical Systems

Siemens Completes 10,000th SRS Connection

Marking a milestone in the remote care of medical equipment, Siemens Medical Solutions, Malvern, Pa., announces the 10,000th proactive connection to its Siemens Remote Service (SRS) infrastructure. A PACS at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., will be the next to join a network of systems worldwide benefiting from being connected to the SRS infrastructure.

This proactive remote service technology makes it possible to prevent and detect potential system problems in some cases before they result in unscheduled downtimes, helping customers get the most out of their technology, while improving patient care and driving down costs.

SRS helps health facilities keep medical systems operating optimally and prevent unnecessary downtime. Whereas a traditional reactive remote service would require technologists to dial into a medical system for diagnosis and repair, services like the Guardian Program™, powered by SRS, work off of this remote technology. These services help save valuable time by enabling systems to report directly to the Siemens Uptime Service Center in Cary, N.C., in realtime, before a critical situation arises.

— Siemens Medical Solutions

Diasio Named Mayo Clinic Director

Robert B. Diasio, MD, has been appointed Mayo Clinic Cancer Center Director, succeeding Franklyn Prendergast, MD, PhD. Diasio, who will be based at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., will also direct cancer center activities at the clinics in Arizona and Jacksonville, Fla.

"Dr. Diasio is an excellent successor to Dr. Prendergast, who led the cancer center through 11 years of exceptional growth and progress," says Denis Cortese, MD, Mayo Clinic's president and CEO. "The years of research and clinical experience that Dr. Diasio brings to Mayo will be an asset to our Cancer Center. His stellar leadership capabilities will ensure that we continue to build on our position as a premier cancer center and provider of cancer care."

Diasio comes to Mayo Clinic from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham, where he was associate director of the comprehensive cancer center, chairman of the department of pharmacology and toxicology and director of the division of clinical pharmacology.

— Mayo Clinic

New Contrast Agents for Better Medical Imaging

Research by scientists based at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign may lead to the development of a new breed of "multimodal" contrast agents that could work within a host of medical imaging platforms – from ultrasound and CT to MRI and molecular imaging.

Use of these new agents may, in turn, significantly improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, according to Kenneth Watkin, PhD, a professor in the department of speech and hearing science at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois.

The findings were published recently in the journal Academic Radiology.

"The goal of this work for me was to be able to create advanced methods for the treatment of disease, specifically cancer, that reduce the toxic effects that we see with our current treatments," Watkin says. "And to do that, I had to develop really, really, really small carriers.

The tiny carriers Watkin and McDonald are proposing would, in effect, zero in on tumors in much the same way that smart bombs take aim at strategic targets.

— University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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