A provision of the Affordable Care Act that ties patient satisfaction to reimbursement has been a boon for medical device maker Christie Medical Holdings Inc.

2. VeinViewer Evaluated in Peer-Reviewed Journal - Friday, December 3, 2010

The findings of the first peer review of a vein-viewing device manufactured by Memphis-based Christie Medical Holdings Inc. reports the device improves vascular success and is well-received by patients and staff.

3. Christie Medical Debuts New VeinViewer - Thursday, May 6, 2010

Christie Medical Holdings Inc. has updated the vascular imaging device it acquired from Luminetx Corp. with the VeinViewer Vision, a more compact model that has a broader range of options.

4. Snowflake Technologies Breaks Away - Friday, March 5, 2010

Snowflake Technologies Corp. has emerged from the ashes of Luminetx.

The former subsidiary of Luminetx Corp., which was not part of the deal when Christie Digital Systems Inc. acquired the company in December, is now a free-standing company with its own board of directors.

5. Medical Imaging Makes Gains In Memphis - Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Medical imaging is a fast-growing component of the health care industry, but one that has been slow to take root in Memphis.

That could be changing. SurgiVision Inc., which has quietly been filing new patents for MRI technology and attracting millions of dollars from research partners, is about to go public.

6. Christie to Keep VeinViewer Operations in Memphis - Thursday, January 7, 2010

Christie Digital Systems, the new owner of the VeinViewer technology, will keep jobs associated with the medical imaging device in Memphis, company officials said Wednesday.

Christie announced it had acquired “substantially all the assets” of Luminetx Corp. and will create a new medical products business called Christie Medical Holdings Inc. Luminetx shareholders approved the acquisition last month.

7. Christie to Keep VeinViewer Operations in Memphis - Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Christie Digital Systems, the new owner of the VeinViewer technology, will keep jobs associated with the medical imaging device in Memphis, company officials said today.

Christie announced it had acquired “substantially all the assets” of Luminetx Corp. and will create a new medical products business called Christie Medical Holdings Inc. Luminetx shareholders approved the acquisition last month.

George Pinho, previously the company’s senior director for business product development, is now the president of Christie Medical.

Pinho is in Memphis this week but will oversee operations here from the Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc. headquarters in Kitchener, Ontario. The company also has a U.S. headquarters in Cypress, Calif.

“We’re excited by the potential of this acquisition,” Pinho said. “Christie’s goal is to diversify into emerging markets and we saw a unique opportunity to enter the medical imaging industry.”

The VeinViewer allows medical practitioners to easily see subcutaneous veins by projecting a real time image of their location onto the surface of the skin. Christie, a global visual technologies company that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ushio Inc. of Japan, has expertise in projectors and visual technologies used for entertainment and educational purposes.

Medical imaging will be a new product line for the company.

“Our combined teams will create exciting growth opportunities through our collective capabilities and complementary technologies,” Pinho said.

Although the headquarters for the newly created Christie Medical Holdings Inc. will not be in Memphis, that does not mean jobs will be moved from here, said Dorina Belu, senior manager of media and communications for Christie.

“There is no change to the service, support and distribution of the VeinViewer business,” Belu said. “Customers are going to get the continued service, support, distribution and all of that, which began in Memphis. There is no change to that at all.”

Luminetx employed less than 100 people in Memphis.

Herb Zeman, a now retired professor from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, invented the VeinViewer technology and founded Luminetx. The technology was heralded as one of “the Most Amazing Inventions of 2004” in Time magazine.

But the company was hurt by management turnover, boardroom conflicts, the downfall of one of its major investors, Stanford Financial Group, and legal fights with a new competitor.

Luminetx was running out of operating cash and was losing money when shareholders approved its acquisition. Christie, which had already loaned Luminetx $1.5 million, paid $15 million for the company and forgave the loan.

It did not acquire all of Luminetx’s patented technologies. Luminetx shareholders retained the company’s Snowflake Technologies Corp. subsidiary, which is developing a biometric identification product.

Luminetx last month terminated the employment of Richard Kindberg, who had been the company’s chief executive officer for nine months, when the board of directors voted in favor of the acquisition. Kindberg has filed suit against the company because of his dismissal.

Chris Schnee, who took over as interim chief executive officer, will remain on board with Christie Medical Holdings Inc. He will serve as general manager and vice president of sales and marketing.

Schnee said new opportunities arise with the new ownership.

“Christie’s extensive history and expertise in visual displays will offer exciting opportunities and applications for the VeinViewer technology platform,” Schnee said. “Christie’s global presence and world-class manufacturing and engineering know-how in visual display technology will enable us to expand our products into multiple new markets and to continue advancements in bettering patient care the world over. We look forward to finding new and better ways to improve health care delivery.”

8. 2010 - Monday, January 4, 2010

Is it over yet? That may be the most frequently asked question in the New Year. “It” is the worst national economic recession since the Great Depression.

Accurately reading the indicators will not be easy. Some will predict the recession is about to end, just as new indicators point to continuing economic agony for thousands of Memphians.

9. Fired CEO Sues Luminetx - Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Richard Kindberg, the former chief executive officer of Luminetx Corp., is suing the company after being fired this month following the announcement of a buyout.

10. Shareholders Approve Luminetx Acquisition - Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Shareholders of Luminetx Corp. voted Friday to sell the company for $15 million to Christie Digital Systems Inc., said Herb Zeman, the company’s founder and one of its largest shareholders.

11. Luminetx Sale To Christie Approved - Friday, December 11, 2009

The shareholders of Luminetx Corp. voted today to sell the company for $15 million to Christie Digital Systems Inc., said Herb Zeman, the company’s founder and one of its largest shareholders.

12. Sale of Luminetx Proposed as Company Flounders - Friday, December 4, 2009

Luminetx Corp. is operating in the red and may soon run out of money unless its shareholders agree to sell the company to Christie Digital Systems Inc.

13. Sale of Luminetx Proposed as Company Flounders - Monday, December 7, 2009

Luminetx Corp. is operating in the red and may soon run out of money unless its shareholders agree to sell the company to Christie Digital Systems Inc.

14. Luminetx to Be Acquired by Christie Digital Systems - Friday, December 4, 2009

Luminetx Corp. announced Thursday that its board of directors has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Christie Digital Systems Inc., which has already loaned money to the Memphis-based company.

15. Luminetx to Be Acquired by Christie Digital Systems - Thursday, December 3, 2009

Luminetx Corp. announced today that its board of directors has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Christie Digital Systems Inc., which has already loaned money to the Memphis-based company.

16. Luminetx Uses Patents as Loan Collateral - Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Memphis-based Luminetx Corp. has signed over the patents for the technologies behind its VeinViewer products to a Japanese company that has loaned it money.

The company assigned its “Contrast Enhancing Illuminator,” “Imaging System Using Diffuse Infrared Light” and “Imaging System Using Diffuse Infrared Light” patents over to Christie Digital Systems Inc., according to the U.S. Patent Office online database. The “security agreement” conveyance occurred after Luminetx announced this summer that it had settled a lawsuit alleging infringement on those same patents by another company, Accuvein LLC of Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.

Chris Schnee, executive vice president of global marketing and international sales for Luminetx, said the conveyance was to secure a loan.

“When a technology company such as ours enters into a loan secured against the assets of the company, the creditor is given a security interest in the company’s assets, which includes the intellectual property and therefore the patents,” Schnee said. “The security interest in the physical assets is established with a filing at the Secretary of State’s office and the security interest in the IP, which requires a filing at the USPTO. This is an ordinary course transaction, and the intellectual property remains an asset of the company but is pledged to secure the repayment of the obligation as and when due.”

He did not disclose the amount of the loan. Luminetx is not a publicly traded company so its finances are not public record.

Herb Zeman, the inventor of the patents and the founder of Luminetx who was fired from the company in 2007, remains one of its major stockholders. He said he did not like the company going into debt with Christie. Christie is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ushio Inc., a Japanese company.

“At the stockholders meeting, there was a group of us who wanted to change the board and take over and get investor money,” Zeman said. “We failed at that effort. The group that was going to try to take over the board was going to essentially pay off the Christie loan.

“Christie lent the company money, and we were going to put up other money to pay off that loan. I suppose, then, the people lending the money would have gotten that same kind of listing on the USPTO Web site. That doesn’t mean that they really have the patent. It means they would get the patent if the loan defaulted.”

Under terms of the settlement agreement between Luminetx and Accuvein LLC, Accuvein agreed to license the Luuminetx technology that allows veins to be viewed easily underneath the skin. Other terms of the agreement were confidential.

Luminetx sued Accuvein last year after it announced it was launching a competing product. Luminetx began selling the VeinViewer in fall 2006 for about $25,000 a unit.