Zargis enters agreement with OTN for testing of telemedicine stethoscope system

Sep 10 2010

Zargis Medical Corp., a majority-owned subsidiary of Speedus Corp. (OTCQB: SPDE), today announced that it has signed an agreement with the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN) providing for the delivery and testing of Zargis' award-winning telemedicine stethoscope system.

OTN is one of the world's largest and most respected telemedicine networks.  An independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the Government of Ontario, Canada, OTN provides access to care for patients in every hospital in Ontario and hundreds of other healthcare locations across the province. In 2010 OTN will conduct more than 100,000 patient visits over more than 2,000 telemedicine systems.

The core component of Zargis' telemedicine stethoscope system, Zargis TeleSteth™, is a component of the Zargis Cardioscan heart sounds analysis software and the Zargis StethAssist® heart and lung sounds visualization software. TeleSteth was developed to extend the practice of auscultation (listening with a stethoscope) to situations and environments where face-to-face encounters are not always convenient or feasible. This platform allows healthcare professionals to share heart, lung and airway sounds with colleagues located across the globe using the Internet or a private network. TeleSteth permits patient sounds to be remotely evaluated in real-time (synchronous) or store-and-forward (asynchronous) mode.

TeleSteth is designed to be accessed from a user's PC via a standard Internet browser. Additionally, for organizations requiring users to access stethoscope sounds from within their private network, TeleSteth can be deployed using Zargis' secure enterprise server platform. All components of Zargis' telemedicine stethoscope system are HIPAA-compliant.

"OTN is one of the world's most sophisticated telemedicine networks and we are pleased to have been selected as the vendor of tele-auscultation solutions for their vast network of healthcare professionals throughout Canada's most populous province," stated Zargis CEO John Kallassy. "Zargis' tele-auscultation platform will help OTN deliver cost-effective, expert healthcare."

"OTN depends on reliable and easy-to-use equipment. Zargis' expertise in the field and the quality of their product met our need for a superior telemedicine stethoscope solution," said Dr. Ed Brown, OTN's CEO.