Medistim’s VeriQ™ System Recommended by NICE for Routine Clinical Use

“The VeriQ system is associated with an estimated cost saving of £115 per patient compared with clinical assessment, when it is used routinely for assessing coronary artery bypass grafts during surgery.”

(Oslo, November 16th, 2011)
Medistim announces that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) today has accepted the health economics derived from routine usage of the VeriQ system for assessing graft blood flow during coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, compared to clinical assessment alone. NICE reports an estimated cost saving of more than £115 per patient. NICE also support the clinical evidence, suggesting reduction of early graft failure, stroke, myocardial infarction or recurrent angina.

The Medistim VeriQ system is using two well established ultrasound principles to measure graft patency in CABG; transit time flow measurement (TTFM) and Doppler velocity. The technology has been widely and successfully implemented in many countries, including Germany, Spain, the Nordic countries and Japan.

In order to assess the impact of the adoption of this technology in the UK, the Medical Technology Advisory Committee of NICE has conducted a review of the clinical evidence published on VeriQ and also carried out a full economic assessment of the impact of its use within the British national health system (NHS).

The findings of this review have now been published (http://guidance.nice.org.uk/MTG8) and indicate that adoption of this technology in the NHS will have positive clinical and economic benefits.

In their recommendations, NICE says that “ The case for adopting the VeriQ system in NHS for assessing graft flow during coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery is supported by the evidence. The evidence suggests that intraoperative transit time flow measurement is effective in detecting imperfections that may be corrected by graft revision. This may reduce the incidence of graft occlusion and may reduce perioperative morbidity and mortality. The VeriQ system is associated with an estimated cost saving of £115 per patient compared with clinical assessment, when it is used routinely for assessing coronary artery bypass grafts during surgery.”

” There are tremendous differences in clinical practice between European countries when it comes to graft patency verification during CABG, and the lack of utilization of clinically proven, cost effective technology in many countries must be a concern, not only to patients and surgeons, but also to the payers”, says Kari E. Krogstad, Medistim’s President and CEO.

”It is our hope that the NICE recommendations will enable UK surgeons to adopt the objective and reliable measurements offered by the VeriQ system. We also believe this endorsement has the potential to impact practice in many other countries, including the USA. Medistim is very encouraged by this news and continue our journey towards making blood flow measurement the standard of care in treating CABG patients all over the world.”


For more information, contact:

President & CEO, Kari E. Krogstad, Medistim ASA
Tel: + 47 918 38 110,
Email: kari.krogstad@medistim.com

CFO, Thomas Jakobsen, Medistim ASA
Tel: + 47 906 59 940,
Email: thomas.jakobsen@medistim.com


About NICE
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is a National Health System (NHS) organization based in London and Manchester. NICE was set up in 1999 to ensure everyone has equal access to medical treatments and high quality care from the NHS - regardless of where they live in England and Wales. Today, NICE is being recognized as being a world leader in setting standards for high quality healthcare and are the most prolific producer of clinical guidelines in the world. All of NICE’s recommendations are devised by independent committees. The Medical Technology Advisory Committee (MTAC) is comprised of 25 independent specialists with a broad range of medical technology and evaluation expertise.

- For more information about NICE, please visit www.nice.org.uk