Facility Management

HCFA reimbursement move slams peripheral studiesThe dramatic surge of the U.S. bone densitometry market in 1996is helping to propel the development of new bone measurement systemsdesigned to ride the growth wave. The trend was evident at

Niche extremity scanners exempted from initial testingAmerican College of Radiology officials returned from their holiday break to face the prospect of distributing application packets to some 700 facilities that have lined up for the college's

Center consolidation continues with USDL deal to buy American SharedConsolidation of the imaging center business took on new dimensionsthis month with the signing of two major acquisition agreements.Both combinations signal a broadening of how

Questar buys 10 Siemens Magnetom Open scannersAs the imaging services industry consolidates, smaller centercompanies are beginning to look like little fish swimming in anocean of imaging center mega-chains. The conventional wisdom dictatesthat

InSight Health Services of Newport Beach, CA, has completed itsacquisition of Open MRI of Hayward, CA. The deal gives InSightrights to the imaging center's trademark for the term "openMRI," and InSight intends to form a new imaging

Are long FDA review times making products too expensive?The nuclear medicine community appears cautious in its attitudeabout the new radiopharmaceuticals just entering or about to enterthe U.S. market: Verluma, Myoscint, CEA-Scan, and

InSight to form separate open MRI subsidiaryWhat's in a name? Ask that question of InSight Health Services.The Newport Beach, CA, imaging services provider believes it'sgetting more than just an imaging center with its proposed acquisitionof

Company retools business plan after healthcare reformLinear accelerator developer PracSys is planning to develop anetwork of PET imaging centers using linear accelerators ratherthan cyclotrons to produce fluorodeoxyglucose. The company hasalso

Medical Resources announced last week that it has completed itsacquisition of NMR of America (SCAN 5/22/96). NMR of America,of Murray Hill, NJ, will become a subsidiary of Hackensack, NJ-basedMedical Resources, which as a result of the deal now

Positive industry factors may help open financing tapBuddy, can you spare $118 million? Any imaging center chain lookingto expand two or three years ago wouldn't have gotten far withthat line on Wall Street. But it might be time to try again.

Deal would make USDL largest imaging center chainU.S. Diagnostic Labs this month displayed again why it has developeda reputation as the most aggressive consolidator in the imagingservices industry. Just as it was completing its acquisition

GE MedicalSystems will enter the market for positron emission tomographyscanners on Jan. 1 with the acquisition of Scanditronix's PETcamera business. This endorsement of PET by the world's largestmedical imaging vendor should boost clinical acceptance of

Vendors show new scanners at ICR show in BeijingA battle royal is looming in international markets among CT vendorsthat are introducing new spiral scanners at price points unheardof just a few years ago. The competition is likely to reach afever

Nuclear medicine vendors look to high-energy imagingto createcustomer incentives for buying new equipmentDoom and gloom of 1995 show dissipates at Denver meetingRenewed optimism characterized last month's 43rd annual Societyof Nuclear

Vendor to focus on breast imaging and MDI unitMRI developer Advanced NMR has announced that it will halt itsmarketing effort for its InstaScan echo-planar imaging product,due to slow sales for the fast-scanning package. The move endsa long and

Imaging center companies Medical Resources and NMR of America have signed a definitive agreement covering the merger of their respective firms (SCAN 5/22/96). Medical Resources of Hackensack, NJ, appears to be in the driver's seat of the merger, with

New biopsy products enter competition with coreReporting on the breast biopsy wars might make one want to sortout the competing factions in Bosnia instead. Just when observersthink they know who is on top, alliances shift and new weaponsare

Firm to have 31 centers if pending deals close U.S. Diagnostic Labs may not be a household name in the imagingcenter industry yet, but that could change if the company is ableto realize its ambitious aspirations. The West Palm Beach, FL,firm

Imaging center firm Medical Resources is making good on its promiseto carry out acquisitions in 1996. The Clifton, NJ, company saidlast week that it has completed agreements to buy three more imagingcenters, which bring the total number of facilities in

Scanner's high price may run afoul of managed careUltrasound vendor Acuson sees shades of 1983 in the release ofits new Sequoia ultrasound platform. That was the year that theMountain View, CA, vendor burst onto the ultrasound scene

Systems connectivity developer DeJarnette Research Systems isopening its first branch offices in response to healthy demandfor the company's products. The firm said last month that it hasopened offices in Milan, Italy, and Palm Beach, FL, and has

Sales efforts to focus on women's health servicesA year and a day after filing its 510(k) application with theFood and Drug Administration, Advanced NMR of Wilmington, MA,gained regulatory clearance to commence U.S. marketing effortsfor Aurora,

New policy raised the ire of radiologistsThe budget negotiations that snarled the U.S. government in Januaryalso caused the Health Care Financing Administration to postponeits technical advisory committee meeting from early February toMarch 26

Centocor withdrew Myoscint's PLA in 1993A Food and Drug Administration panel in January recommended approvalfor Centocor's Myoscint, a monoclonal antibody-based imaging agentthat was pulled from FDA consideration two years ago after

The expansionist trend of imaging services provider MediTek Healthcontinues. The Miami company announced this month that it willopen its 14th center, a multimodality facility to be built nearBirmingham, AL. The new center will be called Greystone

Imaging services provider MediTek Health of Miami is planningto open its 13th imaging center through an agreement reached witha New Jersey hospital, according to MediTek's parent, Heico ofHollywood, FL. The new facility, United MRI, will be located onthe

Damadian sees many routes to company comebackLess than a month after its first major exhibition in seven years,MRI pioneer Fonar has announced the receipt of five signed andfunded orders for its new Quad series of open-style MRI scanners.Another 10

Osteoporosis drug raises all corporate boatsLunar and Hologic aren't the only firms benefiting from increasedinterest in bone densitometry. The same good news that has ledto improved sales for the two bone densitometry segment leadershas

PET camera developer Positron is experiencing a shortage of workingcapital as it moves to fill a surge of orders it has receivedthis year for its PET technology. Positron received five orders for PET cameras this year, thehighest number in one year in

Positron has received an order for a Posicam HZL PET camera, thefourth such order the Houston company has won since April, whenthe Health Care Financing Administration granted Medicare reimbursementfor rubidium-82 studies (SCAN 4/12/95). The order was