Johnson & Johnson's Advanced Sterilization Products arms sales force with virtual reality; company introduces high-tech marketing tool worldwide

Business Wire, Sept 18, 1996

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 18, 1996--Virtual reality, which was first introduced to be principally an entertainment vehicle, is fast becoming a sales tool for marketing high-tech products.

The entire United States-based sales force of Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP) can now call on hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers armed with a simple briefcase containing a complete virtual reality system called the STERRAD Experience. The company recently announced that much of its international sales force in Pacific Rim countries, Canada, Europe, Australia and South America has adopted virtual reality.

Advanced Sterilization Products manufactures the STERRAD Sterilization System, a fast and safe sterilization system for medical devices and surgical instruments involving the generation of a low-temperature gas plasma from hydrogen peroxide. Instead of asking customers to visualize the high-tech system from a sales description or from graphics and photos, the customer can now put on a headset and tour the inner workings of the sterilization system via virtual reality.

"Attendees of the recent Association of Operating Room Nurses waited in line for nearly an hour to experience first-hand how the STERRAD System works," said Dan Brostoff, ASP group marketing manager. "The 3-D aspect of virtual reality helps customers grasp the complicated sterilization process in an educational and entertaining manner."

Virtual reality travelers experience the STERRAD System through a colorful display of a gas plasma cloud bathed in ultraviolet light and watch electrons stripped from atoms while molecules collide, as the sterilization process progresses. The STERRAD Experience was developed by Stereomedia of Burbank, Calif. The system includes a mini video player, five headsets, electronics and distribution amplifiers -- all contained in an ordinary briefcase.

Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP), a division of Johnson & Johnson Medical Inc., manufactures and markets innovative sterilization technologies and products that provide safe, effective and economically sound solutions for the needs of health-care providers. The company is based in Irvine. -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: If you would like to see the STERRAD Experience virtual reality tour, please contact Joni Morford or Sharon Villanueva at 714/721-8081 to arrange a demonstration.

CONTACT: Communicore

Joni Morford or Sharon Villanueva, 714/721-8081