Imatron takes over service of Siemens ultrafast CT scanners

Company also gets boost from JAMA article

CT developer Imatron of South San Francisco, CA, has taken over service and support responsibility in several global markets for Siemens Medical Systems' Evolution XP CT scanner, Siemens' product name for Imatron's ultrafast CT scanner.

The agreement covers the U.S., Canadian, European, and Indian markets, where Siemens has 17 Evolution XP scanners installed. At least seven more scanners will be added in those regions by the end of the year, according to Siemens. Imatron sells its ultrafast CT scanners directly to other markets, such as the Pacific Rim.

Under the terms of the agreement, Imatron will establish a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week hot line for support service to end users and local Siemens personnel. Serving as a subcontractor to local Siemens affiliates for current and future Evolution XP installations, Imatron will perform all pre-installation planning, installation and application support, and warranty and post-warranty service.

In other Imatron news, the company announced that Harefield Hospital in London is acquiring an ultrafast CT scanner for the hospital's new Patient Services Center. The scanner sale is the first for the vendor in the second quarter of fiscal 1997.

Finally, Imatron announced last week that a paper on the use of its ultrafast CT technology in detecting coronary artery disease was published in the May 7 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association. In a study conducted by the National Institutes of Health, researchers cited the case of a 34-year-old male patient with no symptoms of heart disease who was within 5% of his ideal body weight. An ultrafast CT coronary artery scan of the patient was able to detect coronary calcification, believed to be a precursor to coronary artery disease.

The JAMA article should give a boost to Imatron's ongoing effort to establish a network of HeartScan centers to offer coronary artery disease screening to asymptomatic people. The news lit a fire under the company's stock, sending it up 22% to close at $2.97 on May 8.