UCLA P.E.T. Leader Joins MBPT Medical Advisory Board
SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--March 25, 1999--Mobile P.E.T. Systems Inc. (OTCBB:MBPT - news), the first provider of mobile state-of-the-art Positron Emission Tomography (P.E.T.) technology, announced that Johannes Czernin, M.D., has accepted a position on the company's Medical Advisory Board.
Czernin is Director of Nuclear Medicine and Positron Emission Tomography at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical School. MBPT integrates state-of-the-art P.E.T. imaging equipment and the technician necessary to provide diagnostic P.E.T. services into a specially designed mobile coach. The service is made available to medical institutions on a negotiated contractual basis.
''The addition of Dr. Czernin to our Medical Advisory Board adds further strength and expertise to the company,'' said David C. Frakes, M.D., F.R.C.P.C., Medical Advisory Board Chairman for MBPT. ''Dr. Czernin is widely published in cardiovascular P.E.T. research, and is a well-known expert in the field both in the USA and in Europe. We are delighted to add his experience to our team.''
About Johannes Czernin, M.D.
Czernin serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology as well as Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at UCLA's School of Medicine. Czernin earned his medical degree from the University of Vienna Medical School. He is Board Certified in both internal medicine (Austria) and nuclear medicine (U.S.).
Latest Research Demonstrates P.E.T.'s Advantages
''Studies we have conducted at UCLA with lung cancer patients show that, in conjunction with computed axial tomography (CT), P.E.T. is more cost-effective than CT alone,'' Czernin said. ''P.E.T. can result in avoiding unnecessary surgery, or in some cases, can indicate surgery for patients whose conditions had been suggested by CT alone to be inoperable.''
In interviewing over 100 physicians, Czernin's team found that the use of P.E.T. had led to significant changes in the staging of disease, and that the P.E.T. scans had actually resulted in a change in patient management in over 25 percent of cases. ''The bottom line is that the addition of P.E.T. resulted in patients getting better, and
more cost-effective care.''
White House Announces P.E.T. Inventor As Winner of Fermi Award
Last month, the White House named Michael E. Phelps, Ph.D., inventor of P.E.T. and Chairman of the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at UCLA as a winner of the prestigious Enrico Fermi Award, given for a lifetime of achievement in the field of nuclear energy. The Fermi Award is the oldest science award in the U.S.
An Idea Whose Time Has Come
''The recent White House award exemplifies the fact that P.E.T. is finally being recognized for the benefits and power that it can bring to society,'' Czernin said. ''The Fermi Award not only underscores Dr. Phelps' personal accomplishments, it recognizes P.E.T. as an invaluable clinical tool.''
Czernin went on to state that Phelps also supports the concept of mobile P.E.T. wholeheartedly. ''Mobile P.E.T. technology is an idea whose time has come. It is the first step to bringing P.E.T. into the community in a very cost-effective fashion.''
Insurers Cover Scans -- Mobile P.E.T. Provides Access
MBPT's service brings advanced P.E.T. imaging technology to hospitals that may not have sufficient patient volumes to purchase their own equipment. The contract arrangement safeguards hospitals from financial exposure and technological obsolescence. As its clinical value continues to be recognized, P.E.T. is gaining wider
reimbursement to make it even more accessible.
Some 70-percent of all insurance companies now pay for P.E.T., and this month, the Health Care Finance Administration (HCFA) announced expanded Medicare reimbursement to include P.E.T. scanning in the diagnosis and management of some of the most common cancers: colon and rectal cancers, lymphomas, plus malignant melanoma (the leading cause of death from skin cancer), as well as the previously approved lung cancer P.E.T. indications.
About P.E.T. Technology
Positron Emission Tomography (P.E.T.) is an advanced imaging technique that assists in the diagnosis and management of numerous diseases. P.E.T. allows the physician to examine the whole patient at once, by producing images of the body based on functional rather than anatomic characteristics. These images show body metabolism and other functions rather than simply the gross anatomy and structure revealed by conventional x-rays, CT or MRI scans.
Whole-body P.E.T. imaging uncovers abnormalities that might otherwise go undetected. Physicians may then apply the most appropriate treatment for the detected disease. For example, P.E.T. can detect tumors unseen by other imaging techniques, or detect Alzheimer's Disease one to two years before the diagnosis would be
made clinically.
The unique ''shared service'' provided by MBPT allows hospitals the ability to offer P.E.T. imaging services to their own communities through their own medical staffs, and in a cost-effective manner. Patients who previously might have to travel hundreds of miles for a P.E.T. scan can now be studied at their local hospital. To
learn more about MBPT, visit the company's web site at www.mobilepet.com.
Certain information included in this communication (as well as information included in oral statements or other written statements made or to be made by Mobile P.E.T. Systems Inc.) contains statements that are forward-looking, such as statements relating to the future anticipated direction of the health care industry, plans for
future expansion, various business development activities, planned capital expenditures, future funding sources, anticipated sales growth and potential contracts.
These forward statements are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual operations or results to differ materially
from those anticipated.
For more information on the Enrico Fermi Award: pub.whitehouse.gov 2/18/11.text.1. Click on White House
Electronic Publications to access document and type in pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1999/2/18/11.text.1 in the PDI Document-ID Section.
Contact:
Mobile P.E.T. Systems Inc.
Paul Crowe, 619/226-6738
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