Coverage of corporate news and updates

GE Healthcare Centricity RIS-IC Earns Certification

GE Healthcare’s Integrated IT Solutions (IITS) business has announced that its Centricity RIS-IC services organisation has achieved certification under the Service Capability & Performance (SCP) Standards programme.

GE Healthcare’s IITS business achieved certification under the SCP Support Standard after an extensive audit of its Burlington,Vermont support centre. SCP Standards quantify the effectiveness of customer service and support and represent best practices in the industry.

The Service Capability & Performance (SCP) Standards are designed to improve the quality and effectiveness of technology service and support operations. A consortium of leading technology companies, along with the Association for Services Management International and Service Strategies Corporation, created the internationally recognised standards, which define best practices, quantify performance levels and establish a foundation to build on existing quality processes. Certification against the standards requires comprehensive audits and annual recertification to confirm that companies continue to meet the requirements of the programme.

Carestream Health

Carestream Health Establishes Founding Board Of Directors

Carestream Health, Inc. has announced members of its Founding Board of Directors, in order to drive the company's growth as an independent healthcare technology leader. The new Board is charged with overseeing the company's strategy and supporting its vision "to change the landscape of healthcare by providing solutions that dramatically improve the quality and cost of care."

Robert M. Le Blanc, a Managing Director of Onex Corporation, will serve as the Board's Chairman. Other Board members are Robert M. Haft, Kevin J. Hobert, James T. Kelly, Michael C. Pomeroy, and Eliot L. Siegel, M.D.

Carestream Health began operations as a standalone entity in May this year, when Onex Corporation acquired Eastman Kodak Company's Health Group in a transaction valued at US$2.35 billion. Onex, with annual consolidated revenues of US$27 billion, is one of Canada's largest corporations, with operating companies in a variety of industries, including electronics manufacturing services, aerostructures manufacturing, healthcare, financial services and more. Carestream Health today is a health imaging and IT company with more than US$2.5 billion in revenue and approximately 8,100 employees worldwide.

Barco

Barco Partners with Medicsight

Barco and Medicsight PLC, a developer of Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) technologies, have signed a partnership agreement to incorporate Medicsight's 'ColonCAD' image analysis software tools within Barco's 'Voxar 3D ColonMetrix' virtual colonography application. This enables Barco to expand the functionality of its ColonMetrix software solution, thereby enabling faster and more efficient recognition of suspect lesions during virtual colonography.

Medicsight's ColonCAD is an image analysis software tool designed to be used with CT colonography (virtual colonoscopy) scans designed to support the detection and segmentation of abnormalities within the colon that may potentially be adenomatous polyps. ColonCAD can be seamlessly integrated within advanced 3D visualisation and PACS platforms of imaging equipment partners.

Agfa-Gevaert

Agfa-Gevaert Announces Management Changes in HealthCare

In view of the second quarter results of its HealthCare business group, the Board of Directors of Agfa-Gevaert has decided to end its collaboration with Philippe Houssiau, President Agfa HealthCare, effective immediately. Carl Verstraelen will join the company as Vice President Finance and Controlling.

An executive search process for the replacement of Philippe Houssiau has been started, which will consider internal as well as external candidates. To assure continuity, Andrea Fiumicelli, Executive Vice President IT Solutions, and Luc Thijs, Executive Vice President Imaging, will report to the Group's Executive Committee. Their focus will be on growing the business while improving operational performance.

Furthermore, the HealthCare management team will be strengthened by the appointment of Carl Verstraelen as Vice President Finance and Controlling. He will functionally report to the Group's Chief Financial Officer until the planned demerger of the Group. It is intended that he will be proposed for appointment as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in Agfa HealthCare's Executive Committee after the demerger.

Hologic

Hologic Announces Third Quarter Operating Results

Hologic, Inc. has announced its results for the quarter ended June 30, 2007. Highlights of the quarter include:

• Record revenues of $191.5 million.

• Record earnings of $24.7 million.

• Record 328 Selenia® full field digital mammography systems installed and recognised as revenue.

• Record backlog of $222.1 million.

• Cash balance increases to $93.8 million.

Third quarter fiscal 2007 revenues totaled $191,505,000, a 60% increase when compared to revenues of $119,685,000 in the third quarter of fiscal 2006. For the third quarter of fiscal 2007, Hologic reported net income of $24,748,000, or $0.45 per diluted share, compared with net income of

$12,017,000, or $0.25 per diluted share, in the third quarter of fiscal 2006. The improvement in quarterly earnings primarily reflects the increase in product sales of Selenia® full-field digital mammography systems in the current quarter as compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2006. Included in the current quarter’s results are the operations of (i) AEG Elektrofotografie (“AEG”), acquired on May 2, 2006, (ii) R2 Technology, Inc. (“R2”), acquired on July 13, 2006, and (iii) Suros Surgical Systems, Inc. (“Suros”), acquired on July 27, 2006.

Siemens

Siemens Collaborates on Imaging Biomarker Study

Siemens Medical Solutions announced that it has been granted an Investigational New Drug (IND) Exemption by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct a Phase I clinical trial of [F-18] 3'- fluoro-3'-deoxythymidine (FLT), a molecular imaging biomarker that has shown promise in monitoring the proliferation of cancer cells, which could help physicians quickly determine the effectiveness of cancer therapies.

To broaden the scope of FLT research, Siemens will support the FLT Phase I clinical trial that will be conducted at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre located in New York City, with whom Siemens has signed a research collaboration agreement focused on the co-development of imaging biomarkers that will be used in PET imaging.

FLT may allow researchers and physicians to detect the rate of the proliferation of cancerous cells through a molecular imaging technique like PET/CT by enabling visualisation of key steps in the replication of DNA, which precedes cell division.

Cytyc

Cytyc & Xoft Settle Intellectual Property Dispute

Cytyc, a provider of surgical and diagnostic products targeting women's health and cancer diagnostics, and Xoft, a pointof- care radiation therapy company, said they have settled an intellectual property dispute involving balloon-based brachytherapy technologies developed by both companies for the treatment of breast cancer patients.

Although specific financial terms were not disclosed, the agreement calls for Xoft to make royalty payments to Cytyc. The agreement allows Xoft freedom of operation in the ongoing sales of its Axxent electronic brachytherapy system. The companies reported that they have also agreed to discuss potential collaboration in the development of technologies in several areas, including women’s health.

Philips Medical

Philips Medical to Acquire XIMIS

Philips Medical Systems has announced that it will acquire El Paso, Texas-based RIS developer XIMIS with the transaction expected to close in the third quarter this year. Financial details of the transaction were undisclosed. XIMIS will be incorporated into Philips’ Healthcare Informatics business group upon completion of the transaction.

XIMIS’ key product is XIRIS (Extended Internet Radiology Information System), a multilingual RIS capable of scaling from community hospitals up to multiple facility healthcare systems. Philips said the XIRIS product is complementary to its iSite PACS offering and will further strengthen the firm’s iSite PACS market position.

Matrox Imaging

Matrox Imaging Releases Iris E-Series

Matrox Imaging has announced the Matrox Iris E-Series with Design Assistant, a smart camera/software package. "The Matrox E-Series with Design Assistant allows OEMs and systems integrators to develop vision and imaging applications without programming," says Fabio Perelli, Product Manager, Matrox Imaging.

The Matrox Iris E-Series is a family of smart cameras that support the flexibility of PC-based machine vision systems, and feature hardware for image sensing as well as software for image capture, processing, and analysis. Matrox Iris E-Series is powered by an Ultra Low Power (ULP) Celeron®, an embedded Intel® architecture processor, and runs the Windows® CE .NET real-time operating system. Available as a single body or remote head plus processor design, Matrox Iris ESeries smart cameras offer customers a number of options for camera resolution, sensor type, and speed.