ViiV Healthcare and London’s Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust have launched a digital triage service for HIV patients supported by a mobile app.

ViiV, a joint venture majority owned by GlaxoSmithKline, with Pfizer and Shionogi as minority shareholders, has been working with Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust on the service.

The new service is being gradually launched to patients at the hospital’s Kobler Outpatient Clinic, one of the largest centres of HIV care in Europe. It is then planned to expand to larger patient populations across multiple sites at the trust in the coming months.

The organisations have already run a pilot scheme through a joint working agreement, which were presented at last year’s British HIV Association Annual Congress, showing high levels of patient satisfaction and quality of care.

The service known as Klick has also been designed to respond to the current demands on HIV healthcare services brought by the COVID-19 pandemic allowing outpatient clinics to rapidly evaluate clinical needs, provide access to care remotely and communicate effectively with patients.

Design and implementation have been led by a project team comprising individuals from ViiV Healthcare’s innovation team, along with clinical and non-clinical staff from the Kobler Clinic.

The service has been designed with a focus on ensuring digital solutions can integrate with and enhance the service model, whilst delivering a positive experience for patients.

Dr David Asboe, Clinical Director for HIV at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We have made significant advances in the care of people living with HIV, but this work is not finished.

“In many regards, it has just begun. Our combined efforts have shifted HIV from an acute to a predominantly long-term condition. “It is our duty to understand the emerging needs of our patient cohort, to design care that is responsive to these needs, and to provide care in a sustainable fashion. “We must achieve these things with a backdrop of the challenges we now also face with COVID-19.

“The collaboration between the Trust and ViiV Healthcare has provided an opportunity to produce an evidence-based and practical service concept that provides a strong platform on which we can build.”

Klick service triages patients according to their clinical needs and allows them to review results, manage appointments and complete health assessments

The service, called Klick, has been developed by clinical and non-clinical staff together with HIV medicines and research company ViiV, and is intended to improve access to the most appropriate care.

The system uses digital tools to triage patients according to their clinical needs, and sits alongside a mobile app that patients can use to manage their appointments, complete health assessments, review results and communicate with healthcare professionals.

The service is being gradually rolled out to patients at one of the largest centres of HIV care in Europe, the trust’s Kobler Outpatient Clinic, and will be expanded to further sites in the next few months.

David Asboe, clinical director for HIV at Chelsea and Westminster, said there had been significant advances in care for people living with HIV.

“Our combined efforts have shifted HIV from an acute to a predominantly long-term condition,” he said. “This brings its own challenges and responsibilities. It is our duty to understand the emerging needs of our patient cohort, to design care that is responsive to these needs, and to provide care in a sustainable fashion.”

The digital service has been designed in response to the increasing demands on HIV healthcare services brought by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We must achieve these things with a backdrop of the challenges we now also face with Covid-19,” said Asboe. “Health systems are under more pressure than ever and using new technologies in a way that genuinely enables our services to evolve is absolutely critical to ensuring we can continue to improve how we deliver quality care to our patients.”

Royal Philips, a global leader in health technology, and Vithas Group, Spain’s second largest private healthcare group, today signed a 5-year innovation and collaboration agreement in the areas of precision diagnosis and image-guided intervention. The agreement will allow Vithas Group hospitals and medical centers to benefit from the latest innovations in diagnostic imaging technology, healthcare informatics, and equipment for minimally-invasive interventional procedures. Vithas Group hospitals and clinics offer healthcare and advanced medical care in thirteen provinces in seven autonomous regions of Spain.

Under the terms of the agreement, Philips will deliver a technology management model that ensures Vithas Group’s current and future health technology needs in the relevant areas are met, together with the associated maintenance, updating, and equipment and system renewal needs. This management model will enable Vithas Group to achieve better results, provide optimal care at lower cost, and deliver a better experience for its patients and healthcare professionals.

In addition, Vithas will become a ‘reference technology partner’ for Philips in Spain, which means that its hospitals and medical centers will be able to implement new advances and innovations developed by Philips, before standard commercialization of these solutions in Spain.

This new alliance with Philips integrates cutting-edge technology, healthcare excellence, innovation, and research, which are the fundamental pillars on which we support our commitment to always seek the best experience for our patients,” said Dr. Pedro Rico, CEO of Vithas Group. “Furthermore, our professionals will have the most advanced technological solutions at all times, which will reinforce the quality of care and facilitate their research work.”

“We are very excited about the trust placed in Philips and convinced that, through this collaboration agreement, Vithas will have all the technology and innovation necessary to continue achieving the best health results and the best experience for its patients and its healthcare professionals,” said Juan Sanabria, President of Philips Ibérica. “We are proud to become the technological partner and strategic ally of a group as important as Vithas.”

The most advanced diagnostic imaging technology
The agreement includes the replacement of Vithas Group’s existing MR imaging equipment with Philips’ latest innovative MR systems, which stand out for their image quality and patient comfort, and because they do not consume helium, also stand out for their sustainability. Philips will also install hybrid operating room solutions, including its latest ceiling mounted live-image guidance system for minimally-invasive interventional therapy, allowing Vithas hospitals to perform many types of procedure with maximum precision and safety. Four new hybrid operating rooms will be installed across four of the group’s hospitals.

Next to this, Philips will replace the Vithas hospitals’ CT (Computed Tomography) equipment by high-end equipment, allowing them to perform more precise cardiac diagnoses thanks to the Philips equipment’s speed, coverage, and high image quality, while also minimizing radiation dose. The agreement also includes X-ray equipment, solutions for dose management, and a Corporate Network for Diagnostic Imaging.

Benefits of the Corporate Network for Diagnostic Imaging
Through this network, and thanks to a solution for reviewing, post-processing and sharing information from advanced medical imaging studies, more than 100 radiologists will be able to work in a unified way with access to tools that speed up and improve the quality of results. Likewise, more than 5,000 referring physicians will have higher quality radiological reports directly available to them via a clinical viewer. The solution will also improve the patient experience, because they will be able to view their reports and images from any PC or mobile device via a secure web portal.

Joint scientific research
The innovation and collaboration agreement between Philips and Vithas Group will make it possible for the two organizations to collaborate in technological innovation projects in Vithas Group reference centers. These projects will involve joint scientific research in key healthcare areas, as well as the training of Vithas Group professionals in new technologies and clinical procedures.

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips is a leading health technology company focused on improving people’s health and well-being, and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum – from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2020 sales of EUR 19.5 billion and employs approximately 82,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries.

About Vithas Group

Vithas’ commitment: accredited healthcare quality, personal service and long-term vision.

Vithas’ strategic commitment is that all healthcare is endorsed by the standards of the most prestigious international quality accreditation, the Joint Commission International. Only 15 prestigious hospitals in Spain have such accreditation and recognition, and three of them are part of Vithas, in Madrid, Malaga and Granada. Every year Vithas treats more than 5,200,000 patients in its 19 hospitals and 21 Vithas Salud medical centers. The 40 centers are located throughout Spain and include hospitals in Alicante, Almería, Benalmádena, Castellón, Granada, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Lleida, Madrid, Málaga, Seville, Tenerife, Vigo, Valencia and Vitoria-Gasteiz. The 26 Vithas Salud centers are located in Alicante, Elche, El Ejido, Fuengirola, Granada, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Lleida, Madrid, Malaga, Nerja, Pontevedra, Rincón de la Victoria, Sanxenxo, Seville, Torre del Mar, Torremolinos, Vilagarcía de Arousa, and Vitoria-Gasteiz. Additionally, Vithas has more than 300 locations throughout Spain as part of the Vithas Lab laboratories network. Its PlazaSalud24 purchasing center, a benchmark in the sector, serves 39 hospitals, 35 medical centers and 20 dental clinics.

Candela, a leading global medical aesthetic device company, announced the availability of the Frax Pro™ system. The FDA-cleared, non-ablative fractional device is the first platform featuring dual-depth skin resurfacing with both Frax 1550™ and the novel Frax 1940™ applicators. The two modalities target different skin layers, stimulating growth of new collagen, revealing smoother, more brilliant skin. The Frax 1940 handpiece delivers a 1940 nm wavelength laser beam for a shallow, epidermal approach, with focal reach extending to approximately 200 µm in depth. The 1550 nm wavelength of the Frax 1550 handpiece penetrates deeper, with histological analysis showing up to 800 µm penetration. Clinical studies demonstrate high rates of textural improvement and patient satisfaction with the Frax 1550 and Frax 1940 handpieces.

“With use of both applicators achieving dual depth resurfacing, we saw a complementary effect,” says Jill Waibel, MD of Miami Dermatology and Laser Institute. “Additionally, patients treated in our clinic were extremely pleased with new Frax 1940 treatment results. The outcomes clearly demonstrated intended results of skin resurfacing with improvement in both textural irregularities and skin tone.”

The Frax Pro system revolutionizes the aesthetic space by removing limitations of earlier fractional 1550 nm, 1565 nm and/or 1927 nm laser systems. High return on investment (ROI) treatments of the Frax Pro system make it a wise approach to managing practice costs when compared to a leading competitive device. The Frax Pro system’s exclusive 100% applicator-confined diode laser technology and a reductive design, allows a lightweight, flexible umbilical for a comfortable, ergonomic reach and improved treatment visibility relative to thulium-based systems. Multiple laser scan widths enable more customized treatments. These innovations, along with magnetic roller sensing technology and integrated clinical intelligence for quick learning and data retrieval, are just some of the ways that the Frax Pro system advances the space of non-ablative fractional laser therapies, making it the “smart way to Frax”.

Both the Frax 1550 and Frax 1940 technologies are also available on, and interchangeable with, the NordlysTM platform. This addition makes the Nordlys system the first in its class to provide dual fractional 1550 nm and 1940 nm wavelengths, as well as IPL and Nd:YAG capabilities.

“The Frax Pro and Nordlys systems, both with Frax 1550 and Frax 1940 applicators, extend our legacy of innovation in non-ablative treatments,” says Geoffrey Crouse, Chief Executive Officer of Candela. “Candela has a long history of technological innovation and bringing to market best-in-class medical aesthetic energy-based devices, and we are proud to share this new offering.”

Spinal Elements, a spine technology company, announced the FDA clearance of the Lucent® XP-Curved Expandable Interbody Device. Lucent XP-Curved is the third platform in the Lucent XP family of expandable devices and the fifth expandable device within Spinal Elements’ MIS Ultra™ suite of products and procedures. The device and its instrumentation allow for the steerable placement of the intervertebral implant followed by the expansion of the implant’s height once surgically placed. The company’s line of expandable devices has demonstrated impressive adoption and growth, and the company believes this addition will continue that success.

The Lucent XP-Curved device will come in three lengths with multiple lordotic options of up to 15° to assist surgeons in restoring normal spinal alignment and balance during open or MIS TLIF approaches. The devices comprising the Lucent XP family are made primarily of polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and feature Spinal Elements’ Ti-Bond® porous titanium coating. Ti-Bond is a hydrophilic porous titanium coating with nano-scale surface features that has been used in tens of thousands of Spinal Elements fusion procedures.

Matt Colman, M.D. of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL says of the Lucent XP-Curved system, “Lucent XP-Curved contains the ideal combination of TLIF device attributes. I can perform cantilever segmental correction using a more ALIF-like footprint while taking advantage of the benefits of in-situ expandability. Additionally, the radiolucency of the PEEK and Ti-Bond construction allows me to confidently assess the healing process throughout the patient’s recovery, providing increased surface area and stability while promoting fusion.”

Wade Jensen, M.D. of the Center for Neurosciences, Orthopedics, and Spine (CNOS) in Dakota Dunes, SD adds, “With up to 15° of lordosis, I expect the expandable Lucent XP-Curved device to restore height while optimizing lordosis to achieve sagittal correction, which is critically important to long-term successful outcomes.”

“We are thrilled to add this device and procedural solution to the MIS Ultra portfolio. With the recently announced acquisition of the Orbit discectomy technology and the introduction of new expandable platforms such as Lucent XP-Curved, Spinal Elements is able to provide an increasing number of comprehensive solutions to our spine surgeon customers,” stated Jason Blain, President and CEO of Spinal Elements.

The commercial introduction of the Lucent XP-Curved device is expected in the coming months. Spinal Elements introduced the MIS Ultra platform last year. Traditionally, MIS procedures have been focused on the size of the incision required for access to the spine. The MIS Ultra product suite goes beyond small incisions to consider the implications of spine surgery after the procedure has taken place. The surgical instruments of the MIS Ultra platform have been designed to reduce the disruption of the patient’s skeletal and muscle tissue, and the implants have been designed to balance the loads shared between the implants and the body while not disrupting the patient’s surrounding healthy anatomy.

Canon Medical Systems USA, Inc. has received FDA clearance for the Aquilion Exceed LB™ CT system, giving clinicians the opportunity to see more during radiation therapy planning for accuracy, precision and speed. As cancer cases continue to increase in the U.S., providing clinicians with the latest technology for accurate simulation across treatment plans remains critical.

The Aquilion Exceed LB supports fast and efficient radiation oncology workflows without compromising on patient position, image quality, or reproducibility. Features include:

Accuracy even in complex simulations through industry-leading capabilities, like the largest bore opening (90 cm), edge-to-edge extended Field-of-View (90 cm) reconstruction and wide detector coverage (4 cm).

Better contouring powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) with sharp, clear and distinct images from Canon Medical’s Advanced intelligent Clear-IQ Engine (AiCE) Deep Learning Reconstruction (DLR) technology.

Expanded capabilities – the Exceed LB is also uniquely designed to meet the needs of radiology departments requiring the flexibility to handle bariatric patients and challenging patient positioning, and with patient access and technology designed to streamline CT interventions.

“The Aquilion Exceed LB was designed to push the boundaries of traditional simulation,” said Erin Angel, managing director, CT Business Unit, Canon Medical Systems USA, Inc. “Deep learning reconstruction will give radiation oncology teams the confidence they need for accurate and precise planning across patients.”

About Canon Medical Systems USA, Inc.

Canon Medical Systems USA, Inc., headquartered in Tustin, Calif., markets, sells, distributes and services radiology and cardiovascular systems, including CT, MR, ultrasound, X-ray and interventional X-ray equipment.

About Canon Medical Systems Corporation

Canon Medical offers a full range of diagnostic medical imaging solutions including CT, X-Ray, Ultrasound, Vascular and MR, as well as a full suite of Healthcare IT solutions, across the globe. In line with our continued Made for Life philosophy, patients are at the heart of everything we do. Our mission is to provide medical professionals with solutions that support their efforts in contributing to the health and wellbeing of patients worldwide. Our goal is to deliver optimum health opportunities for patients through uncompromised performance, comfort and safety features.

At Canon Medical, we work hand in hand with our partners – our medical, academic and research community. We build relationships based on transparency, trust and respect. Together as one, we strive to create industry-leading solutions that deliver an enriched quality of life.