The Daily Scan

Dirk Soenksen recognized as one of the 100 most notable people in the medical device industry

Aperio's very own Dirk Soenksen was recently named one of the 100 notable people in the medical device industry as reported in the June edition of Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry publication. Congratulations to Dirk for recognition of his leadership, success and contributions over the years. This is truly a special honor when you consider the many thousands of business leaders, entrepreneurs, physicians and scientists in the medical device space.

Quantum Dots for Cancer Diagnosis

Medscape has an interesting article on Quantom Dots for Cancer Diagnosis

Quantum dots (QDs) are semiconductor nanocrystals that emit fluorescence on excitation with a light source. They have excellent optical properties, including high brightness, resistance to photobleaching and tunable wavelength. Recent developments in surface modification of QDs enable their potential application in cancer imaging. QDs with near-infrared emission could be applied to sentinel lymph-node mapping to aid biopsy and surgery. Conjugation of QDs with biomolecules, including peptides and antibodies, could be used to target tumors in vivo. In this review, we summarize recent progress in developing QDs for cancer diagnosis and treatment from a clinical standpoint and discuss future prospects of further improving QD technology to identify metastatic cancer cells, quantitatively measure the level of specific molecular targets and guide targeted cancer therapy by providing biodynamic markers for target inhibition.

This is really cool; quantum dots have been around for a while now, but their promise has gone somewhat unrealized. The potential is great for really low-level biomarker identification, and it would be excellent if these new silicon QDs end up as a practical technique.

GE, Pittsburgh hospital establish imaging business

Yahoo reports GE, Pittsburgh hospital establish imaging business.

General Electric Co., the international conglomerate with a stake in everything from jet engines to network television, is investing $20 million in technology that will allow doctors to share and transmit images of microscopic human tissue.

The partnership with a Pittsburgh hospital marks GE's entrance into a $2 billion market and could help expand its GE Healthcare division.

GE Healthcare and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center are each putting up $20 million to establish Omnyx LLC, a business to develop and commercialize technology allowing doctors to store and display on computers, digital images of human tissue from microscope slides, allowing colleagues anywhere to participate in consultations.

We had been expecting this for some time and eagerly welcome a major heathcare provider like GE to the market. It obviously validates our view that this is a large and important market, and that digital pathology has significant value for pathologists and patients.

Other companies, such as Aperio Technologies Inc. in Vista, Calif., already are in the business of scanning biopsies and transforming computers into virtual microscopes. Aperio CEO Dirk G. Soenksen welcomed GE's new venture.

"It will do tremendous things to accelerate the market. It's a major move on the chess board," he said. "There's certainly enough business for everybody. It won't take business away from others, it will make the market bigger."

Pretty exciting!

Hospitals Allowed to Pay for EMR Interfaces and Not Violate Stark

NeoTool's blog reports Hospitals Allowed to Pay for EMR Interfaces and Not Violate Stark.

"Specifically, a hospital system can pay for the creation of an electronic interface between unique electronic health record (EHR) systems of individual physician practices and the hospital network’s EHR system. The interface would allow physicians, from their practices, to order and communicate the results of tests and procedures performed.

This is a good thing, and will be a good precedent for digital pathology. Hopefully hospitals will be able to pay for digital pathology interfaces without violating Stark too.

Vaccine May Boost Survival of Brain Cancer Patients

Forbes reports Vaccine May Boost Survival of Brain Cancer Patients.

An experimental cancer vaccine is showing promise against the same general type of brain tumor diagnosed in Sen. Edward Kennedy, researchers are reporting.

The vaccine, when given with chemotherapy, more than doubled progression-free survival in patients with glioblastoma multiforme tumors. Kennedy was diagnosed last month with a malignant glioma, a class of brain tumor that includes glioblastoma, and underwent surgery Monday for the tumor.

The study results were to be presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, in Chicago. The study was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and Celldex Therapeutics, which has licensed the rights to the vaccine.

Good news...  interesting that vaccines are effective against these types of tumors; it implies the stimulation of antibodies, which later trigger an immune system response against the tumor cells, essentially treating the bodies own cells as foreign.  A powerful but difficult to control mechanism, but evidentally effective in a range of situations...

McKesson unveils medical imaging reference site

HealthImaging reports McKesson unveils medical imaging reference site.

McKesson unveiled MyPACS.net, a medical imaging reference site, during the 2008 Society of Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) meeting in Seattle. The website debut came as a result of the company’s purchase of Vivalog, which was announced during the show.

The web-based tool allows radiologists, cardiologists and other imaging specialists to organize and share image and reference case information, George Kovacs, senior marketing manager at McKesson, told Health Imaging News.

The number and variation of different personal medical data sites available is amazing.