News & events
Dec 1, 2008
New software to help cardiology specialists make faster patient diagnoses
(Calgary, Alberta) - Cardiac patients may soon receive faster diagnoses when new image processing software designed to maximize physician efficiency becomes available for commercial sale.
Circle Cardiovascular Imaging Inc. (Circle) is preparing for commercial sales of its cmr42 software throughout Canada, the United States and Europe following regulatory approvals received in November from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Health Canada and the European Union.
"These regulatory approvals are significant milestones that position the company ahead of its development plan," says Greg Ogrodnick, CEO for Circle. "We are now able to completely service cardiology specialists in the advancement of patient care through enhanced diagnose.
"Our cmr42 image post-processing software was developed by physicians for physicians," he says. "cmr42 offers an easy to navigate graphic user interface and a comprehensive set of analysis tools designed to measure and calculate heart functions instantly and accurately. This has the potential to allow a physician to identify a heart's condition more quickly and decrease the time it takes to diagnose a patient."
Over the past year, Circle has developed over 45 beta sites in 12 countries that have been validating the software. The recent regulatory approvals allow these sites to now purchase the software and apply it in a live clinical environment.
"We are currently a beta site for cmr42 and are now able to consider purchasing the application for our institution," says Dr. James White, Division of Cardiology, London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario. "Circle's development of cmr42 illustrates Circle's understanding of a physician's needs and demonstrates its ability to deliver a software tool that performs image analysis efficiently without sacrificing accuracy. I can make better use of my time by completing all of my evaluations using one application."
North America's increasing demand for healthcare services, especially for cardiology specialists, has contributed to healthcare waiting times. The ability to perform image analysis with a robust tool set and optimized workflow capability will allow physicians to spend less time on the analysis and more time on meeting the increased demand for cardiac services.
Circle will officially launch cmr42 at the SCMR conference in Orlando in January, 2009.
For more information, please contact:
Kelly Sansom
Director, Marketing & Communications
University Technologies International
Phone: (403) 270-2431 Cell: (403) 612-9588
sansom@uti.ca
www.circlecvi.com
About Circle Cardiovascular Imaging:
Circle Cardiovascular Imaging Inc. is a Calgary-based company that develops third party post-processing software for the cardiac imaging industry. Circle brings together an experienced and qualified team including one of the world's leading CMR (Cardiac Magnetic Resonance) physicians, Dr. Matthias Friedrich. Dr. Friedrich is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary and Director of the Stephenson Cardiovascular MR Centre at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta.
Circle Cardiovascular Imaging Inc holds globally recognized ISO 13485:2003 certification (Certificate # FM 539204) from prestigious British Standards Institution (BSI). This certification includes Standards Council of Canada (SCC) endorsement under Canadian Medical Device Conformity Assessment System (CMDCAS) scheme. In addition to ISO 13485:2003, the company quality system is established and maintained to comply with European Medical Device Directive 93/42/EEC and US FDA Quality System Regulations, 21 CFR Part 820.
Circle is one of the first companies launched by University Technologies International's (UTI) IGNITE program. IGNITE is a company creation and incubation service that combines business and science to create investment grade companies.
Circle Cardiovascular Imaging Inc. www.circlecvi.com
University Technologies International www.uti.ca