Industry round-up: EMC, GE, Philips, SmartPill, Spring Medical
EMC Corporation at its EMC World exposition in Orlando this week gave attendees a look at the latest additions to its portfolio of backup and recovery technology, including a single system virtual tape library (VTL), the latest versions of its data de-duplication, replication and backup software, and new bare metal recovery capabilities.

The EMC Disk Library (DL) 6000 series can store up to 1.8 petabytes of information in a single appliance and can backup more than 11 terabytes of data per hour. The system is based on the company’s Symmetrix DMX-3 storage platform.

At the show, EMC also introduced the latest version of its Avamar 3.7data de-duplication software featuring integration with VMware Consolidated Backup software, reducing backup times of virtual machines by up to 90 percent. The software also now includes expanded file server support, enabling faster backups of network-attached storage systems.

The latest HomeBase software is designed to offer automated recovery of server capabilities in the event of a hardware failure or disaster. This approach captures a server's status more frequently to provide faster recoveries. HomeBase is complementary to Avamar, VMware and NetWorker software.

New features of the company’s NetWorker software include support of additional languages, improving management capabilities for multi-national customers.

Lastly, a new version of the EMC RecoverPoint software includes support for Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service.


GE Healthcare is participating in the 2007 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) scientific meeting this week in Berlin, highlighting the company’s magnetic resonance (MR) portfolio advances that help improve and speed the diagnosis of a wide range of diseases. 

GE is focusing on MR imaging technology that can help healthcare providers detect and monitor illnesses earlier. In particular they are highlighting breast MR and the 3.0T imaging system. In addition, the company is offering testimonials by known clinicians who have recently collaborated with GE on MR developments.

Jeffrey Wienreb, MD, FACR, believes the future of breast MRI belongs to 3.0T MR technology. Weinreb, who is chief of MRI and director of medical imaging services at Yale New Haven Hospital, uses GE’s Signa HDx 3.0T system extensively for breast studies and said he finds that it can provide information that is useful in making a diagnosis. In some cases, its higher spatial resolution provides crucial information that is not attainable at 1.5T.

Another physician, Scott Reeder, MD, PhD, and division chief of MRI at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hospital and Clinics, sees clear advantages for 3.0T MR imaging in a wide range of clinical studies. Reeder is a specialist in cardiac imaging and MR angiography (MRA), and has seen improvement over 1.5T imaging in procedures such as cardiac studies, renal artery angiography and peripheral vascular studies. 


Philips Medical Systems is showing its portfolio of patient monitoring systems at the American Association of Critical Care Nurses’ National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition (NTI) meeting in Atlanta this week. A particular emphasis is the company’s ProtocolWatch application that applies patient data to evidence-based care protocols.

Philips ProtocolWatch aims to improve clinical confidence by utilizing the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) protocols to define physiological parameters that indicate the onset of sepsis.  Established guidelines developed by the SSC may help hospitals reduce mortality and the significant costs associated with sepsis treatment.


Capsule-based medical devices developer SmartPill Corp. is participating in this week’s Digestive Disease Week in Washington, D.C. The company’s technology is being featured in a number of presentations at the conference. Following are some highlights: 
  • Tuesday, May 22: Oral Presentation — “Simultaneous Use of SmartPill pH and Pressure Capsule, Antroduodenal Manometry, and Gastric Emptying Scintigraphy to Assess Gastric Emptying of Digestible and Nondigestible Solids” 
  • Wednesday, May 23: Poster Session — “Non-Digestible Capsule Technology to Measure Frequency of Gastric Contractions- Comparison between Healthy and Gastroparetic Subjects”


Spring Medical Systems said its SpringReports system is now available. The system is able to electronically deliver imaging reports and other text documents securely and directly to medical practices.

SpringReports is built off the company’s SpringCharts, an EHR designed small- to medium sized doctors’ offices. SpringReports is an HL7-compliant interface and data management tool that imports virtually any medical report or document, such as those relating to radiology or medical tests, directly into SpringCharts. 

SpringReports enables doctors’ offices to view reports and other important medical documents and attach them to the appropriate medical chart in a fraction of the time it takes using conventional means. The message is received in SpringReports and presented to the SpringCharts user as a formatted, easy-to-view document. It is then stored in the relevant patient’s chart, remaining easily accessible and virtually eliminating the potential for error created by re-keying the text or scanning documents into the system.
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