New telemetry device designed for cardiac rehab - Quinton Instrument Co.'s Q-Tel

Health Industry Today, June, 1991

Quinton Instrument Co., Seattle, will sell Q-Tel, its new digital telemetry product line for cardiac rehabilitation units, through its 80-person sales force.

From a base in the cardiac telemetry marketplace, the company hopes to expand its sales into other areas of the hospital starting with step-down intensive care units and critical care units.

"We will be the market leader within two years and grow into other areas from this base," said Jim Culpepper, product manager. He estimated Quinton's current market share at 8% to 9% of the $6 million to $8 million cardiac rehabilitation telemetry market.

Marketing efforts for Q-Tel were kicked off with a mailing in April or May to between nearly 2,500 readers of a major cardiac rehabilitation journal. The target audience will be directors of cardiac rehabilitation units, who have 80% to 90% of the decision-making authority for purchasing telemetry devices.

The company also plans to advertise in three or four of the top cardiology journals, including Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, Circulation and Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

Q-Tel lists for $17,950 to $38,450, depending on the configuration. The highend models can monitor eight channels. The system differs from competitors' telemetry devices in that Q-Tel is designed specifically for the rehabilitation environment, according to Culpepper.

Other monitors used in cardiac rehabilitation units are designed for different purposes. For example, they may be designed to monitor patients who are immobile and supine. Q-Tel, on the other hand, features individual patient timers, metabolic calculations, perceived exertion scale, audio and visual alarms, and a display of target heart rate.

The fact that Quinton's treadmills are known to directors of cardiac rehabilitation units and therapists will help spur sales of Q-Tel, according to Culpepper. He also maintains that Quinton will dominate the cardiac rehabilitation telemetry monitoring market because the market is too small to warrant major investments by Quinton's competitors, which tend to be larger companies, such as Hewlett-Packard Medical Group, Andover, Mass. Culpepper said H-P is the market leader with an estimated 15% market share.