American Shared Hospital Services Announces Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee Gamma Knife Contract

Business Wire, June 3, 1999

SAN FRANCISCO--(BW HealthWire)--June 3, 1999--

American Shared Hospital Services (AMEX:AMS)(PCX:AMS) Thursday said that it has signed an Agreement to provide a Gamma Knife unit to Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, an affiliate of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

Ernest A. Bates, M.D., Chairman and CEO of American Shared, said, "We are very pleased that our 11th Gamma Knife will be located at the leading hospital in Wisconsin for treatment of neurological disorders."

Dr. Thomas Gennarelli, Chairman of Neurosurgery at Froedtert Hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin, said, "Only a few years ago, the outlook was bleak for many traditional patients with these conditions. Now, these patients, and others for whom surgery is not an option, can be treated with this non-invasive procedure that involves little discomfort."

Dr. J. Frank Wilson, Director of the Cancer Center at Froedtert Hospital and the Medical College, calls the Gamma Knife, "a revolutionary tool which allows us to use the most advanced technology available for these previously hard to treat patients. This is the perfect complement to the arsenal of sophisticated tools presently used by our team of physicians, nurses, and technologists to provide the best care available."

The Gamma Knife is a stereotactic radiosurgical device which has proven highly effective for treatment in the brain of certain tumors, vascular malformations, and functional disorders such as trigeminal neuralgia (facial pain), without invasive surgery. It uses three dimensional computer modeling to precisely target a high dose of radiation at abnormal tissue. More than 100,000 patients worldwide already have been treated with Gamma Knife units.

American Shared Hospital Services is a medical services company, with interests in radiosurgery services and its program for The Operating for the 21st century(sm). Headquarters are in San Francisco.