Company news

The Indiana Heart Hospital will change its name to Community Heart and Vascular Hospital on Oct. 1 to make sure patients know the hospital is part of the Community Health Network hospital system. “Patients no longer will have the potential to confuse our heart and vascular hospital with our competitors’ facilities, some of which have ‘Indiana’ in their names,” wrote Tom Malasto, president of the heart hospital, in a memo to employees. The St. Vincent Heart Center of Indiana is the other heart hospital in the Indianapolis area. Also, the 2011 name change by Clarian Health to Indiana University Health may have proved confusing to patients. The Indiana Heart Hospital, in Castleton, opened in 2003 with 56 beds. It had net patient revenue last year of $130.2 million, producing net income of $36.6 million.

Bloomington-based PartTec Ltd. has signed an agreement to manufacture and market a neutron detector system that may help researchers identify the underlying causes of human diseases. The Neutron-Sensitive Anger Camera (named for inventor Hal Oscar Anger) was developed by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Biologists can use the neutron detector to discover a wider variety of proteins, some of which may be useful in battling such diseases as AIDS or cancer. Previous neutron detectors struggled to identify protein crystals smaller than 2 millimeters, but new cameras made by PartTec can clearly detect 1-millimeter and smaller crystals.

The St. Vincent Health hospital system has negotiated a discounted rate with iSalus Healthcare to help independent physicians around Indiana adopt electronic medical record systems. Indianapolis-based iSalus will make its Web-based OfficeEMR service available, as well as its staff’s support to get a physician practice transitioned to the system within 60 days. iSalus has had a similar discounted agreement with the Indianapolis Medical Society since 2010. Using electronic medical records for e-prescribing and electronic swapping of patient information can earn doctors bonus payments from the federal Medicare program through 2016. Failing to use such records will lead to cuts in Medicare payments, beginning in 2015.

Purdue University and Indiana University Health Arnett in Lafayette announced a new research study on colorectal cancer, focused on broadening participation from patients in more rural parts of the state. Research teams from Purdue and IU Health will use colorectal cancer data to improve statistical and engineering simulation models that predict how to treat and possibly prevent cancer. This research partnership, with a goal to include 100 cancer patients, expands Cancer Care Engineering project, which was launched by Purdue in partnership with the Indiana University Health Simon Cancer Center in 2006 through $5 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, the Walther Cancer Foundation and the Regenstrief Foundation.