Imatron Announces Nine EBT Scanner Shipments in First Quarter
Business Editors & Health/Medical Writers BIOWIRE2K
SO. SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Apr 4, 2001 (BW HealthWire) --
Includes Two Mobile EBT Systems
First EBT Scanner Shipment to Canada
First Scanner Sale in St. Louis to Metro Heart Group
Imatron Inc. (Nasdaq:IMAT) announced today that it sold nine electron beam
tomography (EBT) scanners during its first quarter ended March 31, 2001. These
nine scanner sales include two mobile EBT scanners, the first EBT scanner
shipment to Canada and a sale to the largest cardiology group in St. Louis,
Metro Heart Group of St. Louis.
VITASCAN LLC, headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, has purchased an
Imatron mobile EBT system and will be the first mobile unit in California
serving the Central Coast. The anticipated date of operation is mid-May 2001.
Dan Parker, President of VITASCAN, stated, "We are convinced that EBT is a
revolutionary imaging technology that provides individuals and physicians with
critical information to promote health and well-being. VITASCAN will serve as
only one of the important links in the chain of preventive heathcare. We are
dedicated to Imatron's EBT technology because we are focused on providing
definitive results for patients and doctors and we believe the 'gold standard'
EBT is the technology of the future. We continue to form a tremendous network of
cardiologists, radiologists and other physicians who will assist in follow-up
diagnostic procedures. We look forward to providing mobile EBT technology to
communities from Ventura, California to San Luis Obispo, California."
Great Northern Health Inc., headquartered in Reno, Nevada has purchased an
Imatron EBT scanner to be installed at Holy Cross Clinic in Calgary, Alberta.
The facility will be operated and managed by Great Northern Health Canada Inc.,
a related company comprised of Canadian healthcare professionals. The
anticipated date of operation will be the end of June 2001.
Melvin J. Howard, Chairman and CEO of Great Northern Health Inc., stated,
"Imatron's EBT technology has generated a great deal of interest in coronary
artery scanning, or heart scanning, in Canada. We have received many inquiries
from various cities regarding this 'state-of-the-art' diagnostic technology and
plan to expand the number of EBT facilities in our network across Canada. This
is just what Canada has been waiting for in terms of cutting-edge and modern
healthcare."
Metro Heart Group of St. Louis Inc., (MHG), will be the first organization in
the St. Louis metropolitan area to provide access to EBT technology. As the
premier private practice cardiology group in the region, MHG provides a broad
range of services available through six patient care offices, cardiac testing
facilities, several outreach clinics and Missouri's first freestanding cardiac
catheterization laboratory. MHG provides comprehensive adult cardiology services
that include invasive and non-invasive diagnostic procedures, as well as
therapeutic interventions. The physicians of MHG utilize all of the major
hospital systems in the St. Louis area and participate with all major insurance
and managed care organizations. The EBT system is anticipated to be operational
in July 2001.
John W. Hubert, M.D., F.A.C.C., President, MHG stated, "Our vision at Metro
Heart is to improve the quality of life." Alan D. Camp, M.D., F.A.C.C., Medical
Director of the EBT project for MHG commented, "We are focused on providing
leading edge technology as an aggressive part of our wellness and prevention
program. Our wellness program is designed to educate and empower individuals,
including our referring physicians and their patients, to maintain and improve
their quality of health. We are very pleased to be the organization in the St.
Louis area to bring Imatron's EBT technology to the community. We believe this
unique technology will significantly enhance an individual's ability to manage
their quality of health as well as expand our existing diagnostic service
programs, all of which is intended to improve quality of life."
S. Lewis Meyer, CEO of Imatron, commented, "We are very pleased to report the
sale of nine EBT scanner systems during our first quarter, which has
historically been our weakest quarter of the year. The sale of two additional
mobile EBT systems clearly confirms our commitment to the mobile EBT
configuration as a unique business opportunity and platform for delivering the
benefits of EBT to a significantly broader audience. Interest in mobile EBT
continues to accelerate and we continue to be confident that mobile systems will
account for at least 20% of our 2001 system sales. The shipment of our first EBT
system to Canada represents a major breakthrough and milestone for Imatron's
sales team. Canada is a large and sophisticated medical market with each
province representing an essentially independent single payor health system. EBT
is an ideal technology to incorporate in a comprehensive cardiac wellness
strategy that will provide important long-term coronary care related cost
savings for each provincial government. In addition to the sales described
above, we also shipped an EBT scanner to be located in St. Louis, Missouri,
which will be operated by Metro Heart Group, which is the largest cardiology
group in the St. Louis metropolitan area. These continuing votes of confidence
in EBT are gratifying and support our expectation to report strong revenues and
profits in the first quarter and accelerating sales throughout the coming
quarters."
Imatron Inc. is primarily engaged in designing, manufacturing, marketing, and
servicing high performance electron beam tomography (EBT) scanners based on the
Company's proprietary EBT technology. Imatron's EBT scanner is now in use at
more than 150 major medical facilities and imaging centers around the world,
including the Mayo Clinic, Hackensack University Medical Center, Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center, Abbott-Northwestern Hospital, Mount Sinai Medical Center,
University of Iowa, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, UCLA Medical Center, St. Francis
Hospital, Stanford University, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Edward
Cardiovascular Institute, Michigan Heart Imaging, Ohio Heart, University of
Illinois, Arizona Heart Institute, Alfried Krupp Krankenhaus, Essen,
Landeskrankenhaus in Graz, Austria, Cardiology Research Centre in Moscow,
Russia, FAU Erlangen-Nurnberg in Erlangen, Germany, Beijing Hospital in China,
BodyScan Imaging Center of Kansas City, ITG/HeartScan Imaging, Heart Savers of
Irvine, The Cooper Clinic, HealthScan of La Jolla, Holistica Hawaii, LifeScore
of San Diego and HealthScan of Plano (Dallas). |
