Apollo Telemedicine aligns with Aperio in telepathology
Long-time telepathology vendor Apollo Telemedicine is partnering with newcomer Aperio Technologies in an alliance that combines the former's market leadership with the latter's virtual slide server software.

Aperio, of Vista, CA, distributes the ScanScope ultra-fast digital slide scanner and virtual slide viewer software. Apollo will incorporate the ScanScope into its telemedicine solution set. The ability to rapidly scan an entire slide and share the resulting digital image over a network is a key advancement in telepathology, according to Mark Newburger, CEO of Apollo, based in Falls Church, VA.

Cybernet Medical lands Alabama home monitoring contract
The University of South Alabama has installed an Internet-based remote monitoring system from Cybernet Medical for patient care at home. The company is based in Ann Arbor, MI.

The company's medical database server, used in conjunction with Cybernet's MedStar interface device, will allow physicians to retrieve and view chronic patient physiologic data transmitted from a patients' home over standard phone lines. Data are collected from a range of off-the-shelf devices such as blood pressure cuffs and weight scales. Physicians can then analyze changes in a patient's condition and make appropriate action recommendations.

CardioNow expands base among West, Midwest sites
CardioNow, a healthcare information technology company specializing in cardiology image transfer and management, has inked a deal with the Holzer Cardiovascular Institute in Gallipolis, OH.

The company will provide digital image and information management services for Holzer's cardiac catheterization lab. CardioNow will install a central DICOM image and information repository of procedures performed at the institute, and provides secure access to any physician with Internet capability. The institute opened its doors in June.

The deal is one of several signed in recent months by the company. In March, CardioNow announced that the Heart Centers of Providence Holy Cross and Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, both in southern California, had implemented the company's cardiology image information systems. Also this spring, Community Health Network of Indiana, central Indiana's largest integrated health network, expanded its contract with the company to provide cardiology image management to two of its affiliates.

PolyCom partners with Medical Missions for Children
Milpitas, CA-based PolyCom is partnering with Medical Missions for Children to enhance the level of medical care available to children with severe medical conditions living in medically-underserved areas of the U.S. and in foreign countries.

MMC's Global Telemedicine and Learning Network is the result of a collaborative effort among volunteer physicians, hospitals, international agencies, and corporate partners that include the United Nations, The Brody School of Medicine, and the World Bank, and PolyCom, among others.

PolyCom will donate its ViewStation video communications systems as well as provide financial assistance and technical support to MMC as it expands its network.

The network allows participating hospitals in developing countries to contact hospitals and medical specialists in the U.S. for pediatric care assistance. Initial contact is made via e-mail or fax to MMC, which schedules a telemedicine consult with an appropriate hospital partner on its network. MMC also organizes and broadcasts educational symposia to physicians around the world to disseminate information about new procedures in pediatric medicine.

Military selects VISICU for virtual ICU in U.S. and Pacific
Tools developed by Baltimore-based VISICU are being used by two military medical facilities as part of a virtual ICU project that allows intensive care specialists and critical care nurses to remotely monitor patients at military hospitals.

Using videoconferencing equipment, software, and real-time decision support tools from VISICU, Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC hopes to maximize the reach of the Army's limited number of intensivists, with the goal of improving care for military personnel. The project at Walter Reed, which began in February, initially links that facility to military hospitals within the continental U.S.

In June, Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu announced it will also use the same package from VISICU, to allow Tripler clinicians to monitor critical care patients in Guam. The project is expected to standardize care and reduce the need to transport patients to Tripler from regional facilities.

Both projects are expansions of an original pilot that began at Walter Reed in late 2000. Congress appropriated $1.5 million for the expansion.

Andromed seeks patent for home telemonitoring tool
Montreal-based Andromed is targeting the chronic cardiovascular and pulmonary disease markets for its wireless, home telemonitoring system. The company filed for a U.S. patent for the device in June.

The Home Telemedicine System is an end-to-end product designed to provide continuous collection of biological data such as pulmonary artery pressure, pulmonary ventilation, breathing regularity, graphical representation of cardiac sounds, and ECGs. Data are collected by noninvasive sensors that patients wear while conducting day to day activities. A wireless transmitter sends data to a base unit that transfers it over high-speed DSL lines to the 24-hour telemonitoring center. Physicians can also access individual patient data via the Internet using encrypted communications protocols.