Originally Published MX May/June 2003
COVER STORY
Running in Place—Not!|
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Generally speaking, the whole idea of a treadmill is to remain in one place—but don't tell that to the new breed of product developers at Quinton Cardiology Systems (Bothell, WA). Over the past five years, Quinton's management team has been on a mission to revitalize the 50-year-old company and recapture market leadership.
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| Introduced earlier this year, Quinton's Q-Cath hemodynamic monitoring system (version 5.0) provides real-time cath lab results for both adult and pediatric patients. |
During 2002, Quinton's revitalized investment in product R&D began to bear fruit with the launch of eight new products. In the cardiac rehabilitation area, for instance, the company launched the Q-Tel RMS, a Windows-based telemetry system for managing patient information, facility work flow, and results reporting. In the stress-testing area, the company released an updated version of its Q-Stress cardiac stress monitor, featuring networking and improved connectivity.
In the Holter-monitoring area, the company supplemented its Q-Track II Holter product by adding a compact recorder to improve patient comfort and reliability. And the company also introduced a cross-platform feature, QExchange, which serves as an interface between stand-alone systems and data management and HL7-compliant information systems.
In December, Quinton closed the year by announcing the purchase of Burdick Inc. from Spacelabs/Instrumentarium for $24 million, further expanding its market reach, revenue potential, and market share. The acquisition closed January 2, 2003.
Company officials expect to continue last year's success in 2003. Short-term plans announced by the company include the following.
- Integrating the Burdick acquisition.
- Enhancing presence in the primary-care segment.
- Introducing a completely revamped cath lab monitoring system.
- Updating products in the stress, rehab telemetry, and ECG product lines.
- Developing partnerships to support the QExchange initiative.
- Building on the company's customer-support infrastructure.
- Expanding presence at clinical programs.
- Improving financial performance.
With such an ambitious set of goals, it's a pretty fair guess that Quinton employees won't be running in place this year either.
Copyright ©2003 MX
