Second-generation Symphony system is music to Nellcor's ears

Health Industry Today, August, 1995

Advanced signal processing and alarm management technology are the most noticeable properties of what Nellcor senior product manager Hans Stover calls the next-generation pulse oximeter. Traditional pulse oximetry has worked well in areas such as operating rooms and intensive care units. However, in general care floor areas, patients are frequently moved, and that motion often produces both misleading data and nuisance alarms. Using Oxismart[TM] advanced signal processing and alarm management technology, the N-3000 is designed to identify and reject possible bad data and reduce nuisance alarms, resulting in high-performance oximetry in high-motion, low-perfusion patient environments.

Nellcor's N-3100 blood pressure monitor offers advanced non-invasive blood pressure monitoring employing oscillometric technology. The unit measures systolic, diastolic and mean arterial blood pressure as well as pulse rate in automatic, manual and stat modes. Both units work either as individual stand-alone monitors or as one unit. Combined, they work to give an indication of patient malaise in seconds rather than minutes, as with traditional heart rate and blood pressure monitoring equipment.

In this country, both the N-3000 and the N-3100 made their pre-clearance debuts late last year at the American Assn. of Respiratory Care and the American Society of Anesthesiologists annual meetings. The rollout was in New Orleans at the American Assn. of Critical Care Nurses in May. Between 10 and 12 journals aimed at those practitioners will carry advertisements for the new products, and a 20,000-name direct mail piece was launched in early June. In addition to product decision makers from those clinical areas, Nellcor is also aiming marketing efforts at biomedical engineers and materials managers.

The company is using its 50-member direct sales force and supplementing that with 25 to 30 clinicians who make up Nellcor's clinical education group, though no special training is required to use the new system. Sales through distributors are not emphasized. The company has established a list price of $3,500 for the N-3000 and $3,600 for the N-3100, though discounts through national agreements are available.

As patient care moves outside the hospital, the U.S. market for the new system has been expanding. According to Stover, the 180,000-bed pulse oximetry market in the O.R., the I.C.U. and the critical care areas are all saturated. However, the market for the 680,000 general care floor beds is not. He estimates the U.S. oximetry market (not including sensors) at approximately $125 million ($250 million worldwide). He says that at least for now, Nellcor's new generation products set it apart from the field. But Ohmeda, Liberty Comer, N.J.; Criticare Systems, Inc., Waukesha, Wis., and Novametrix Medical Systems, Inc., Wallingford, Conn., are competitors that are surely waiting in the wings.