Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Confirma And GE Healthcare Expand Strategic Partnership

for MRI, announced today that Confirma and GE Healthcare, the $17 billion global leader in medical imaging and information systems, have expanded their strategic partnership to offer Confirma service to GE Healthcare customers with CADstream. Under the new agreement, Confirma will offer program consultation, experienced applications training, customizable educational courses, and marketing and reimbursement consultation to GE Healthcare customers with CADstream, the standard in CAD for breast MRI.

Since July 2004, Confirma and GE Healthcare have partnered to bring the industry’s leading MRI technologies for breast cancer detection to healthcare providers. Under the agreement, GE Healthcare will continue to distribute CADstream to its MRI customers while Confirma will install, train and support CADstream. The expanded relationship marks significant progress in their mutual goal to advance MRI technology for breast cancer detection. Currently, over 200 CADstream systems have been installed at GE Healthcare customer sites worldwide.

“As physicians begin to offer breast MRI to their patients, there is increasing demand for a truly complete solution. In addition to providing excellent imaging and intervention capabilities, productive workflow and interpretation efficiency are critical to a complete offering. CADstream has been a key component of our solution for the past several years,” said David Handler, General Manager, MR Global Marketing, GE Healthcare. “We look forward to continuing to advance breast MRI together under the new arrangement.”

“This amendment demonstrates our commitment to GE Healthcare and its customers,” said Wayne Wager, President and CEO, Confirma. “We will offer customers expertise and support that continue to improve confidence in breast MRI.”

About Confirma Customer Support

Program Consultation and Experienced Applications


Confirma’s experienced customer service team provides expert consultation for early and advanced breast MRI programs. Additionally, Confirma’s customer support team provides comprehensive training at the customer’s site.

Using remote technology, Confirma’s customer service team can instantly access CADstream systems for service and updates. Confirma expert support is available via telephone 24 hours per day.

Customizable Educational Courses

Confirma supports a variety of CME-accredited breast MRI with CAD educational programs, including didactic and hands-on courses, online case reviews and fellowships led by experienced faculty.

Marketing and Reimbursement Consultation

Confirma offers marketing and reimbursement consultation to customers, including development of direct mail, physician referral brochures and press releases. Reimbursement consultation includes recommendations on program development, coding and appeals.

Advances in Breast MRI

Confirma and CADstream help imaging centers improve confidence in MRI and meet the rapidly-increasing demand for MRI studies. Recently-published clinical studies support breast MRI for improved breast cancer detection and in March 2007, the American Cancer Society started recommending that women with a 20-25 percent or greater lifetime risk of breast cancer undergo an annual MRI in addition to mammography.

It is becoming increasingly important to improve the analysis of these complex, time-consuming studies. CADstream is advancing breast MRI by improving efficiency of study interpretation and reporting. The system automates analysis, reporting and interventional planning of studies and promotes standardization with the incorporation of the American College of Radiology’s Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS®), which guides the breast cancer diagnosis and decision-making process. Confirma’s next-generation version of CADstream for breast MRI, launched at the RSNA 2007 meeting, includes a customizable BI-RADS®-centric user interface that accommodates a variety of experience levels.

CADstream was first introduced at the RSNA meeting in 2002 and is currently in use by thousands of physicians at hundreds of breast MRI programs around the world.

The July 2007 issue of Radiology published research from the University of Washington and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance indicating that CAD for breast MRI may improve standardization, as well as the analysis of benign and malignant lesions. CADstream was the only CAD system used in this study.

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies that will shape a new age of patient care. GE Healthcare’s expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, disease research, drug discovery and biopharmaceuticals is dedicated to detecting disease earlier and tailoring treatment for individual patients. GE Healthcare offers a broad range of services to improve productivity in healthcare and enable healthcare providers to better diagnose, treat and manage patients with conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular diseases. GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) that is headquartered in the United Kingdom. Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit www.gehealthcare.com.

About Confirma, Inc.

Confirma develops and markets application-specific CAD systems and accessories for magnetic resonance imaging studies (MRI). CADstream is the standard in CAD for MRI, with more than 800 installations and 2,500 users worldwide. Confirma’s approach to CAD is unique: CADstream is developed with specific tools for each application in order to streamline workflow and standardize study analysis. CADstream automates the analysis and interventional guidance of MRI studies, providing higher quality imaging studies, lower costs for radiology practices and improved communication tools for physicians and patients. In its initial application, CADstream was developed to assist in the analysis, interventional guidance and reporting of breast MRI studies. CADstream can be integrated into any workflow scenario, and is compatible with all MRI scanners and PACS.

Confirma supports professional development in MRI and CAD technology through its extensive medical education program, including a newly launched continuing medical education (CME) program for breast MRI through the International Center for Postgraduate Medical Education (ICPME).

Confirma has established partnerships with companies including GE Healthcare, Philips Medical Systems, Bayer HealthCare, Medipattern, Vital Images and Carestream Health. Confirma has partnered with hundreds of imaging centers and corporate partners worldwide since 2003, helping develop more standardized, high performance breast MRI programs that deliver premium patient care. Confirma Europe GmbH opened operations in Berlin to further develop the European market. Frost & Sullivan recently recognized Confirma with the 2006 Industry Innovation and Advancement Award for the U.S. CAD market. For more information, visit www.confirma.com or call 877-811-2356.

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