Congrats on the recent approval of both a FDA 510k and the CE Mark. I have worked with what I consider this band of brothers on this project to a limited extent and I consider this a huge milestone as Gunnar has said. All of these folks have done a tremendous job pulling this off and hats off especially to Jim Moon and his team. While this does not include the "wireless" component it however does lay the foundation for the entire solution and system as a whole. What I find interesting is that this (new patient monitoring business model) is like the "ProPaQ" of then Protocol Systems (now Welch Allyn) potentially all over again. Totally disruptive. I remember back in the 80's selling the ProPaQ as a OEM to Siemens. Demo was simply...throw it down a flight of stairs.."while on'! It still worked. Then I asked the customer to tell HP to throw the Merlin down the stairs (that was the only patient monitor that they had at that time..not portable). What I find ironic is why Philips (even with their new product) and General Electric are not going down this path? Both still (GE and Philips) are still clinging to WMTS, while Welch Allyn, Draeger, and now Sotera are moving forward down the 802.11 pathway. Little companies tend to innovate and can be disruptive...while big companies..well. It is simply when you are the market leader like Philips Medical Systems, you sell by little by little piecemeal upgrades to keep your installed base...nothing revolutionary...just evolutionary. You do not want anything revolutionary because that might open the door for competition! That from my experience has been the HP way (which is now Philips). What I do not get is how Philips "portable monitoring" is sold and marketed via 802.11 infrastructure,(802.11a or 802.11g) while "patient worn" monitoring (like Sotera Wireless) is promoted using either 1.4GHZ WMTS or 2.4GHZ (DECT). (all very, very proprietary). I have no doubt with Jim Moom, Jim Welch and Gunnar, experienced folks from Spacelabs, Protocol Systems, Welch Allyn, Draeger, they will hit the market with great success. There are numerous other features of the Sotera Wireless product that I could discuss..but that is for another blog. There definitely is enough disruptive value in their offering to disrupt the evolutionary commoditization of the current patient monitoring marketplace. So GE and Philips...why are they NOT doing something like this? I feel I can speak with authority as I have 30 years of experience in this space both from sales, clinical, biomedical, technical, and IT. No doubt when Gunnar and Gary go to shows from now on..they perhaps no longer have to have that pesky sign put up that says "pending FDA approval"!
Download 2012 ViSi clearance v13-clean-20120418

