ST. LOUIS, May 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Stereotaxis, Inc. (Nasdaq: STXS) announced today the first ever bi-directional live case transmission and training course recently conducted via the Stereotaxis Odyssey(TM) Network. The Odyssey Network connected electrophysiologists at San Raffaele University Hospital in Milan, Italy with their colleagues at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, Georgia. Using the Odyssey Network, clinicians in Milan and Gainesville transmitted consecutive live cases performed on their respective Stereotaxis Niobe(R) Magnetic Navigation Systems, enabling the viewing of the cases at both locations in real-time.
Prof. Carlo Pappone, M.D., Ph.D., FACC, Director of the Department of Arrhythmology at San Raffaele University Hospital, Milan, Italy, commented, "I believe that Odyssey represents a breakthrough in EP lab information management, and this recent procedure collaboration with our colleagues at Northeast Georgia Medical Center highlights the capability of the Odyssey network to enable live case transmission, remote procedure sharing, and even remote training."
"The capabilities of the Odyssey platform have exceeded my expectations," said Karthik Ramaswamy, M.D., FACC, Director of Electrophysiology Lab, Northeast Georgia Medical Center. "Network events such as these can greatly enhance progress in our specialty by allowing physicians to share information in an unprecedented way."
"Our Odyssey Network is the culmination of our drive to fully integrate all of the systems in a typical EP lab around our information management platform, and to connect lab-to-lab within, and between hospitals," said Bevil J. Hogg, Chief Executive Officer of Stereotaxis. "With more than 20 Odyssey Workstations presently ordered, and a robust pipeline of prospective customers, we expect the global Odyssey Network will quickly gain momentum and contribute significantly to our revenues over time. We believe our vision for a fully integrated, automated, and networked electrophysiology lab has the potential to be adopted worldwide as the standard of care for the interventional treatment of arrhythmias. As events like the San Raffaele/Northeast Georgia collaboration occur across the network, we expect network content such as remote collaboration, training or consultation, to multiply independently of Stereotaxis, and we anticipate Odyssey playing a major role in advancing physician technique and related patient outcomes, while improving procedure workflow efficiency."
Stereotaxis will demonstrate the remote capabilities of Odyssey at Heart Rhythm 2008, to be held from May 14 to 17 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Using the consolidated display of the Odyssey(TM) Workstation installed in Stereotaxis' Booth # 304, visitors will be able to remotely drive a Niobe Magnetic Navigation System located at Stereotaxis' St. Louis, Missouri headquarters.
New remote viewing and archiving capabilities for Odyssey will also be highlighted at HRS, with the introduction of Odyssey Cinema(TM). This will enable physicians to receive a real-time high definition view of a procedure from any point in the network, thereby providing them with a significant new tool for sharing information independently, and/or providing remote consultation or training. Odyssey Cinema includes a powerful archiving capability that will allow clinicians to store and subsequently replay entire procedures, or segments of procedures. Odyssey Cinema will be available for sale toward the end of 2008 in conjunction with the currently available Odyssey Workstation, and the two products will have a combined list price of approximately $450,000 and are expected to generate for Stereotaxis incremental annual software license, service, and network connection fees.
About the Odyssey Network
The Odyssey platform is an innovative new information management and networking technology that consolidates the systems in an electrophysiology lab, greatly improving the ergonomics for the physician and increasing their focus on critical patient information. Typically, interventional physicians are faced with the challenge of interacting simultaneously with multiple systems and diverse sources of diagnostic and imaging information during a procedure. Odyssey consolidates all of these sources of information into a single, manageable format, dramatically simplifying the interventional lab and potentially bringing greater simplicity and efficiency to electrophysiology procedures. The system also features a network transmitter that sends the real-time integrated display of the lab through a network connection leveraging experiences from around the world to maximize clinical effectiveness.
Stereotaxis is building an international Odyssey Network which is capable of supporting the transmission of real-time lab information. Stereotaxis currently markets and sells Odyssey to its Niobe customers, but expects, over time, to expand sales of Odyssey beyond the Niobe installed base. Stereotaxis plans to build on its initial Odyssey offering with additional products which leverage unique networking features with its next major offering to be announced at Heart Rhythm 2008.
About Stereotaxis
Stereotaxis designs, manufactures and markets an advanced cardiology instrument control system for use in a hospital's interventional surgical suite to enhance the treatment of coronary artery disease and arrhythmias. The Stereotaxis System is designed to enable physicians to complete more complex interventional procedures by providing image guided delivery of catheters and guidewires through the blood vessels and chambers of the heart to treatment sites. This is achieved using computer-controlled, externally applied magnetic fields that govern the motion of the working tip of the catheter or guidewire, resulting in improved navigation, shorter procedure time and reduced x-ray exposure. The core components of the Stereotaxis system have received regulatory clearance in the U.S., Europe and Canada.
This press release includes statements that may constitute "forward- looking" statements, usually containing the words "believe," "estimate," "project," "expect" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that would cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, continued acceptance for the Company's products in the marketplace, competitive factors, changes in government reimbursement procedures, dependence upon third-party vendors, and other risks discussed in the Company's periodic and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. By making these forward-looking statements, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release. There can be no assurance that the Company will recognize revenue related to its purchase orders and other commitments in any particular period or at all because some of these purchase orders and other commitments are subject to contingencies that are outside of the Company's control. In addition, these orders and commitments may be revised, modified or canceled, either by their express terms, as a result of negotiations, or by project changes or delays.
SOURCE Stereotaxis, Inc.
