Navidea has signed an agreement with Siemens’ PETNET Solutions that grants PETNET Solutions the right to manufacture Navidea’s Fluorine-18 labeled NAV4694, an investigational beta-amyloid PET imaging agent, which is currently being evaluated in Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials evaluating subjects with signs or symptoms of cognitive impairment such as Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.

RadNet Inc. (Nasdaq:RDNT), a national leader in providing high-quality, cost-effective, fixed-site outpatient diagnostic imaging services through a network of 248 subsidiary-owned and/or operated outpatient imaging centers, announced its participation in a clinical trial to evaluate the biomarker effects of the investigational drug E2609, a BACE inhibitor, which is being developed for the potential disease modifying treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease: 2013 Update. The first-ever National Alzheimer's Plan, initially released in May 2012, was mandated by the bipartisan National Alzheimer's Project Act (P.L. 111-375), which Congress passed unanimously in 2010. The 2013 Update includes a new timeline for achieving its first goal – prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer's disease by 2025 – and a review of progress over the past year.

IBA Molecular North America, Inc. (IBA Molecular) and MIM Software Inc. (MIM Software™) have announced an agreement to co-develop enhancements to the IBA Molecular PETLinQ™ suite of products.

What consistently gets the worst marks on hospital patient-satisfaction surveys? You guessed it: Noise. A short article in this morning’s WSJ describes how some hospitals and health systems are bringing the noise level down. Strategies include replacing paging systems with electronic wristbands or headsets, allowing patients to close doors and post Do Not Disturb signs, installing sound-absorbing tiles, raising the “white noise” level, and designating sleep times during which patients are not disturbed.

MIM Software Inc., a leading global provider of medical imaging software, announced they will be showcasing a new version of MIM Encore that provides a single platform for viewing PET, CT, MRI and Nuclear Medicine exams at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) 2013 Annual Meeting.

An 18F-FDG positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scan illustrating the effectiveness of radium-223 dichloride in treating bone metastases in breast cancer patients with bone-dominant disease has been selected as the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging’s (SNMMI) 2013 Image of the Year. Researchers selected this image from more than 2,000 studies presented over the course of four days during SNMMI’s 2013 Annual Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

With increasing prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease threatening to bankrupt Medicare and Medicaid by 2050, the fiscal pinch of the sequester could extend decades into the future and compromise already-limited progress on Alzheimer’s disease prevention and treatment. A letter in the New York Times detailed the data.