The Medipattern Corporation ("Medipattern") (TSX VENTURE:MKI), a pioneer in the development of medical software solutions that help improve imaging workflow and productivity, and PenRad Technologies, Inc. ("PenRad"), a leader in the development of mammography information systems (MIS) are pleased to announce the signing of a sales and distribution agreement for PenRad to incorporate Medipattern's B-CAD computer aided detection for breast ultrasound imaging product line.
The agreement licenses B-CAD to PenRad in several formats: as a software tool kit for direct implementation in PenRad products, and as the complete application solution; for distribution worldwide and in the United States. PenRad is a privately held company serving the mammography information system (MIS) market with an installed base in excess of 3,700 PenRad product licenses in the United States and Canada. The agreement is exclusive to PenRad in the MIS market.
"It is no longer enough for breast radiologists to just manage the images and generate reports well. The collaboration of Medipattern with PenRad is a key sign that our future needs are now being recognized and this is also an important first step in addressing those needs," comments A. Thomas Stavros, MD, FACR, Radiologist at Sutter Women's Health in Santa Rosa, CA and the author of Breast Ultrasound. "The collaboration can also lead to a needed fusion of breast ultrasound data with mammography and MRI data. The individual findings in the structured report including demographic data, history, clinical findings, risk factors, sonographic findings, and BI-RADS® categorization, can now be saved in a database that can also be exported to mammography databases, RIS (Radiology Information Systems), and HIS (Hospital Information Systems). From these standardized databases the turnkey reports we need can be generated, saved, and used on a regular basis. This holds promise that the many radiologists reading under the stress of daily practice will be able to generate data previously obtainable only at great cost and pain in "ivory tower" settings. Medipattern and PenRad are taking the first real steps toward true "evidence based breast imaging."