Joint Innovation to Advance Endoscopic Ultrasound Systems

The Pentax Medical Co. (Montvale, NJ, USA), a healthcare company focused on endoscopic imaging, and Hitachi-Aloka Medical (Tokyo, Japan), a global company focused on ultrasound imaging, announced renewed joint collaborative efforts between the two global companies to enable further innovations in the development of endoscopic ultrasound systems (EUS).

The Hitachi-Aloka ultrasound systems and Pentax endoscopic range have formed one of the world's long-standing families of EUS systems. This agreement will continue to grow their long-standing alliance.

"For years, we have used the Pentax-Hitachi EUS platform due to its high quality imaging and performance for driving quality patient care. Their continued partnership is a great advantage to both companies and the healthcare community," explained Dr. William Brugge, MD, director of gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH; Boston, MA, USA), and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA, USA).

Hitachi-Aloka's ultrasound system can be directly rolled into GI labs or endoscopy suites alongside Pentax endoscopic systems, enabling physicians to more readily integrate EUS technology into their procedures. Together, Hitachi-Aloka and Pentax combine to give physicians a platform that helps physicians clearly visualize and potentially increase detection of abnormalities and successfully enable endoscopic therapeutic procedures. The current state-of-the-art systems were featured the first week of May 2011 at the annual Digestive Disease Week in Chicago, IL, USA.

"The use of EUS has proven to be a great asset in increasing the clinical acumen in endoscopy. With Hitachi-Aloka, Pentax looks forward to offering the technological advances in the field of EUS to our joint customers and the patients they care for," said Chris Japp, president of Pentax Lifecare, the global parent division of Pentax Medical.

"We have had a very successful 20-year relationship with Pentax, and together we will continue to innovate and bring our most advanced platform to the EUS community," added T. Kawano, deputy division manager, engineering operation division of Hitachi-Aloka Medical.

Related Links:
Pentax Medical
Hitachi-Aloka Medical