MAS News...

RALS-Plus Adds Biosite Triage Cardiac Panel and BNP Test Meters to its Information Management System Menu

Charlottesville, VA and San Diego, CA – August 24, 2001 – Medical Automation Systems, Inc. (MAS; Charlottesville, VA) and Biosite^® Incorporated (Nasdaq:BSTE; San Diego, CA) announce the integration of Biosite’s Triage^® System and the RALS-Plus Information Management System for point-of-care testing in hospitals. 

The integration of the Triage^® System and RALS-Plus enables instant access to information generated through use of Biosite’s quantitative point-of-care diagnostic products.  Additionally, the integrated system enables laboratory personnel to capture and store test results and to rapidly access patient information that can be used for immediate fulfillment of billing (reimbursement) procedures.  The system’s extensive analysis and reporting tools also help hospitals comply with laboratory regulatory requirements, such as CLIA, CAP and JCAHO.

Biosite’s Triage^® System provides rapid quantitative test results for critical care applications by reducing complex immunoassay procedures to a portable, point-of-care platform. To date, Biosite has commercialized two diagnostic devices that utilize the Triage^® System platform.  The Triage^® Cardiac Panel is a one-step whole blood test that aids in the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction by providing quantitative measurements of three cardiac markers, myoglobin, CK-MB, troponin I, within approximately 15 minutes.  The Triage^® BNP Test, which measures B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), is the first objective test approved to aid in the diagnosis of congestive heart failure.

RALS-Plus is a vendor-independent information management system that manages data from point-of-care testing devices throughout a hospital or health system.  The consistent look and feel of each RALS-Plus screen, independent of device, enhances usability and reduces training and support issues.  The initial integration effort will incorporate both the Triage^® Cardiac Panel and the Triage^® BNP Test into RALS-Plus.  Biosite expects to utilize RALS-Plus with additional tests that are added to the Triage^® System menu.

 “We are pleased to expand our relationship with Biosite.  The combination of our products allows us to deliver the most innovative and advanced systems to meet hospital customers’ diagnostic information management and regulatory requirements,” says Greg Menke, chief executive officer and president of Medical Automation Systems. “Our goal from the inception of our business in 1994 was to provide data management solutions for all point-of-care testing,” he continued. 

“We started the business supporting only critical care applications, then added the glucose analyte with for our RALS-G data management system,” Menke continued. ”Now we have come full circle back to a total vendor-independent position for all point of care applications with RALS-Plus.  The addition of the Triage^® System to the RALS-Plus suite now enables laboratory managers or point-of-care coordinators to manage the results from these devices throughout the hospital, in locations, such as the ER, Chest Pain Unit, Critical Care Unit or in the laboratory itself.”

“We are very pleased to extend our partnership with MAS by adding our Triage^® System to the RALS-Plus family,” says Peter Burch, Biosite’s director of platform marketing.  “We initially worked with MAS to provide Laboratory Information System connectivity for our Triage Census™ Plus Data Management System, which is in use at several major hospitals nationwide.  RALS-Plus will increase the data management and connectivity options available to our customers, and the integration of the two systems represents an important step toward expanding the reach of laboratory medicine to point-of-care testing.”

Earlier this year, Biosite and MAS integrated Biosite’s Triage^® Census™ Data Management System with the MAS RALS^®-LIS Interfacing System, enabling automatic transfer of test results from the Triage^® System through Census and to the laboratory information system (LIS).  RALS-LIS provides automated interfacing between any point-of-care data management systems and all major LIS systems.