SEATTLE — Fun Fong practically drooled over SonoSite’s latest ultrasound machine, watching as one of the company’s staff members showed off its sharp imaging capabilities and other attributes.
Fong, a doctor who specializes in emergency medicine at a Georgia hospital, said his radiology department has a first-generation SonoSite model. The latest model, however, is several leaps ahead in performance. It was unveiled at the annual American College of Emergency Physicians convention last week in Seattle.
“It looks very tempting,” said Fong, who added that he hoped to convince his hospital to invest in a new compact ultrasound machine. “I’m more motivated than I was before.”
Bothell-based SonoSite Inc. launched the hand-carried ultrasound revolution eight years ago when the spinoff from ATL Ultrasound introduced its first model.
In the years since, competition has grown, most notably from ultrasound giant GE Healthcare. But with the two newest models introduced simultaneously during the past two weeks, SonoSite fully intends to stay ahead of the pack.
The M-Turbo isn’t a huge departure from SonoSite’s previous models. Similar in shape to a laptop computer, it’s considered the sucessor to the company’s top-selling MicroMaxx. It’s designed for a range of ultrasound exams.
But the new S-FAST looks like nothing else on the market right now. The curvy unit is designed to hang from an IV pole or on armatures mounted on walls or ceilings so that it can be used in the emergency room while taking up a minimum of space.
SonoSite’s sales staff at the convention last week wore “no footprint” buttons to brag about how the S-FAST doesn’t take up any floor space the way a cart-mounted ultrasound machine does.
While it uses the same processing technology as the M-Turbo, the S-FAST has only a dozen buttons and dials, including the on/off button. That compares to more than 60 controls on the M-Turbo.
“There’s a lot of things on that system that certain clinicians don’t need,” Tom Dugan, Sono-Site’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, said as he pointed to the M-Turbo. “What we heard from those people was to make it simple and easy, straightforward to use.”
SonoSite’s Mark Akers, who demonstrated the S-FAST on one of the “patients” who took turns lying on hospital-style beds at the medical convention, said the machine is perfect for getting critical information quickly. That includes whether someone is bleeding internally or whether a patient has fluid around the heart or lungs.
Dugan noted that the S-FAST is housed in a specially sealed casing so it can be easily wiped down, as emergency rooms can be messy places.
In an adjoining part of the exhibit hall, SonoSite rivals GE and Zonare showed off their wares. Representatives at companies’ booths insisted, of course, their compact ultrasound systems were the best.
SonoSite’s Dugan downplays the competition and how it affects the company’s strategy.
“Our goal isn’t to stay ahead of them. We focus on what the physicians and clinicians want; that’s what’s most important,” he said.
But with dueling lawsuits between the competitors and their similar products, comparisons are inevitable. In its sales pitch, Zonare touts its image quality and compactness. GE, which also is a world leader in large ultrasound systems, stresses performance and options over simplicity and size.
“Certainly, SonoSite believes in simplicity. GE believes in giving the end user, the sonographer, more to play around with,” said Harvey Klein, president of Klein Biomedical Consultants, which tracks the ultrasound industry. “(They) have different philosophies about the market and their focus.”
He noted, however, that SonoSite’s been particularly successful in selling to emerging users of ultrasound, such as cardiologists and emergency room physicians.
Bob Toomey, chief equity strategist for EK Riley Advisors Inc. in Seattle, said he thinks SonoSite’s focus on those markets and their product development are working well.
“The harder part of the puzzle for them has been the marketing side, especially overseas,” he added. The company has reorganized its sales and marketing structure domestically and internationally several times over the years.
But sales have grown impressively, putting SonoSite in the black in recent years. Last year, the company’s net income reached a record $7.2 million. The company aims to increase revenue this year by 15 percent to 18 percent.
And after raising about $200 million in convertible debt this summer to pay for future acquisitions, SonoSite bought a company specializing in catheter location technology.
The heart of SonoSite’s success, though, is still its technology, Dugan said. He pointed out that the new models are built with Texas Instruments’ DaVinci digital media processor, used in many new consumer electronics. They also are embedded with the Microsoft Windows CE operating system, which helps them boot up within seconds.
Thanks to those additions and SonoSite’s own patented processors, the new models have 16 times more processing power than the MicroMaxx, Dugan said.
“At the end of the day, the image quality is most important. It’s all about the picture,” he said.
Diku Mandavia, an emergency physician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said getting that picture easily is just as vital.
“Even novice people can get great images. These systems allow that,” he said.
After looking at SonoSite’s M-Turbo and S-FAST, Mandavia seemed impressed.
“These are completely at the cutting edge,” he said. “They have been designed from the ground up for our use, our unique environments.”
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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