GE Medical Systems and Guidant to combine technologies

GE Medical Systems (GEMS) and Guidant Corp. have set a mutual course to integrate GEMS' IT technology with Guidant's cardiovascular product line.

 Specifically, the two companies will develop a way for GEMS' electronic patient record technology to gather information from Guidant's implantable cardiovascular devices to aid in diagnoses, clinical workflow and patient care.

 The partnership will look to create an open standard of communication between implantable cardiovascular devices and clinical information systems through a channel between Guidant's Advanced Patient Management (APM) systems and GEMS' systems to deliver the data stream.

 APM applications are designed to monitor patient heart function remotely and automatically. Guidant currently is developing the technology to equip the company's pacemakers, defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization devices with the latest telecommunications and information technologies.

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