Optra systems, a Pune, India-based lifescience and healthcare imaginginformatics company, has partnered with Tata Consultancy Services(TCS), to jointly design and implement complete imaging softwaresolution for the life science and healthcare industry.

President George W. Bush’s budget released Monday proposedunprecedented reductions in Medicare spending for non-physicianproviders, but did not propose cuts specifically targeted to diagnosticimaging services.

Avista Capital Partners reported that the FDA has granted pediatricexclusivity for studies conducted on Cardiolite (Kit for thePreparation of Technetium Tc99m Sestamibi for Injection), which is partof its recently acquired medical imaging (MI) business fromBristol-Myers Squibb.

Six healthcare facilities in Kansas are the latest to select NovaRad’sNovaPACS, bringing the company’s installations in the state to morethan 10.

Via Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company developing compounds for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, has enrolled the first patient in its Phase 2 clinical trial that utilizes PET with fluorodeoxyglucose tracer (FDG-PET) to measure VIA-2291's ability to reduce vascular inflammation in treated patients.

Avista Capital Partners, a Houston-based equity firm, has completed its acquisition of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) Medical Imaging.

BG Medicine, on behalf of the High-Risk Plaque (HRP) Initiative, haslaunched the BioImage study, designed to discover new blood tests andto optimize non-invasive imaging of atherosclerosis to identify andcharacterize individuals that are at high-risk for coronary heartdisease (CHD) or stroke.

It’s a fact: Evidence-based medicine is improving the quality and consistency of clinical care. While uniformly applying clinical data to medical practice and carefully tracking metrics requires great effort, the rewards are even greater in terms of better patient outcomes, better use of resources and balancing of costs. Two leading cardiac care facilities show how it’s done in treating acute myocardial infarction and more.