A roundup of recent medtech strategic alliances, mergers & acquisitions and financings.

In a land of multi-modality imaging giants, OEC has more than held its own with a highly focused niche strategy. Advances in minimally-invasive surgery should further boost OEC, which offers surgeons a different kind of visualization solution. Now OEC has to convince investors of the value of steady, if unspectacular, growth.

Diagnostic imaging equipment developers are using all the tools of high technology to capture images of the body's anatomical structures and to help physicians visualize the functioning of internal organ systems.

Diagnostic Imaging: PACS. Picture Archive and Communications Systems for the cardiac catheterization laboratory. Heartlab has proprietary software which allows x-ray angiography images to be read on desktop personal computerswith fast performance. The review system also incorporates tools to enhance the diagnostic quliaty of an image.