West Virginia has created a paperless records system for its state-run hospitals and nursing homes by using an EMR system built by the Veterans Administration (VA) with taxpayer dollars, saving millions in software licensing fees charged by commercial software vendors, according to the Boston Globe.

Royal Philips Electronics has acquired Traxtal, a Toronto-based developer of minimally invasive instruments and software for image-guided intervention and therapy.

A mother-daughter study that used MRI to measure breast density in younger women shows that the percentage of breast water could be linked to the risk of breast cancer in middle age and older, according to a study published online April 29 in Lancet Oncology.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in collaboration with other international organizations, is developing a series of measures aimed at strengthening patient radiation dose protection. The focus of recent efforts is a Smart Card project, to log how much radiation a person receives in the course of a lifetime.

Philips Healthcare has released its wireless portable direct radiography (DR) detector, the FD-W 17, in the United States.

Mayo Clinic and Microsoft have launched Mayo Clinic Health Manager, a privacy- and security-enhanced online application for storing personal medical information, where consumers can receive individualized health guidance and recommendations based on the clinical expertise of Mayo Clinic.

While the economic slowdown impacted Agfa-Gevaert's graphics and specialty products division for the first quarter of 2009, Agfa HealthCare performed "in line with the company's expectations," with only a 1 percent decline in sales.

Revolutions Medical has signed a worldwide exclusive license with Strategic Product Development for an image-guided navigation system that incorporates a breast biopsy system with conventional mammography systems.