The Medipattern Corporation, a pioneer in the development of medical software solutions that help improve imaging workflow and productivity, has commenced shipments to the China Primary Health Care Foundation (CPHCF) as part of the CPHCF's purchase order for two hundred (200) B-CAD systems, as previously announced in December 2008.
The CPHCF is purchasing the equipment for a pilot breast-screening programme in hospitals throughout rural China. Training on the use of B-CAD and the ultrasound systems for the first 60 hospitals will be conducted in Beijing. Ten systems are being sent to CPHCF in this first block shipment as installation and training in the hospitals begins to roll-out.
Delivery and installation of the B-CAD software systems was delayed from the first quarter of 2009, due to a new audit policy by the National Audit Office in China for all public projects and their recent reforms to the National Health Policy.
As originally announced, Medipattern will receive a portion of the value of the contract in the form of a down payment, followed by further payments totalling 90 per cent of the value of the shipments upon receipt of the software in China. Additional financial and operational details of the transaction were not disclosed, as stated in the original agreement, to maintain price security.
"Breast density has been a limiting factor in being able to perform screening in the People's Republic of China. Recent studies show that breast ultrasound imaging is more effective on dense breast types than screening mammography. In our practice, B-CAD is a necessary part of every breast ultrasound exam and as such we include it with every ultrasound unit that we order for breast diagnosis and screening," commented Dr Tang Jie, director of Ultrasound for the PLA 301 in Beijing. "Breast ultrasound is a central part of our screening program in China."
Breast cancer is a significant issue in China. The incidence of breast cancer has increased by at least 27 per cent over the past decade, and 40 per cent of the Chinese women diagnosed with breast cancer die within five years because the cancer is already very advanced when it is diagnosed according to Lino et al, in the paper 'Effects Of Reproductive And Demographic Changes On Breast Cancer Incidence In China: A Modeling Analysis' Journal Of National Cancer Institute 2008; 100: 1339-41. According to these models Shanghai has the highest incidence of breast cancer in China and will continue to have the highest number of cases until 2021. More than sixty (60) in every hundred thousand (100,000) women in the city is diagnosed with the disease, which is three times higher than the incidence rate in the United States and Canada. Approximately 6.4 per cent of those patients who are diagnosed with breast cancer are under the age of 35.
"Medipattern continues to be an active advocate for the screening and early diagnosis of breast cancer in China through providing educational courses and participating in studies that would help determine effective means to screen for breast cancer. In a study by Dr Li et al., (American Journal of Clinical Oncology, Volume 31, Number 5, October 2008, pg. 515) performed at China's premier hospital, the PLA 301, B-CAD was found to increase diagnostic accuracy by 44 per cent in lesions less than 1cm in size," stated Jeff Collins, CEO of Medipattern. "Training is under way in China for this project and we expect to get back on track for shipments on this order as the training progresses. We congratulate our business partners at Beijing Eastwide Medical Ltd. in negotiating and facilitating this transaction."
Medipattern is a pioneer in the development of medical software solutions that help improve imaging workflow and productivity.