Sonora Medical Systems Inc. is a leading supplier of aftermarket products, service, and test equipment to the medical imaging market, and a leader in development of computer-aided detection products. G. Wayne Moore, President and CEO, started the Longmont, Colorado company in 1996.

"He [Mr. Moore] was aware that it would not be easy to be successful in this business, so the name and company logo represent extremes and tenacity," noted Bruce Smith, vice president of multi-vendor service. In the Sonoran desert -- which straddles the U.S.-Mexican border -- life seems impossible at first glance, but nevertheless flourishes in the harsh environment. It's a fitting metaphor for the scorching competition of the medical equipment industry where Sonora Medical Systems enjoys a leadership role in depot repair of ultrasound and MR for customers including third-party service organizations, refurbishers and even OEMs.
Sonora is the world's only independent ultrasound company certified to ISO 9001 and EN ISO 13485. "What sets us apart is systems knowledge on the part of our people. We have hired the best technicians in medical electronics," Smith said.

The company also makes special testing equipment and recently announced a joint project with Medical Diagnostic Technologies Inc. to develop FirstAssist(c), a patent pending device to troubleshoot diagnostic ultrasound equipment. "This new product will obviate the need for hospitals to rely upon the ultrasound OEM for after-warranty service contracts thereby saving tens of thousands of dollars annually," Moore said. "The combination of Sonora's hardware design and the sophisticated image processing algorithms developed by MDT will set a new standard in ultrasound quality control and really empower hospital biomedical engineers to troubleshoot and effect repair on even the most technologically intense ultrasound system."

FirstAssist joins Sonora's popular Nickel™, a hand-held ultrasound test device that allows hospitals to be less dependent on the OEM or third-party service provider.

Sonora Medical Systems also performs depot repair for refurbishers, remanufacturers and third-party service organizations that send in MR parts.

"The biggest trend we see is more people interested in coming off OEM service contracts trying to save some money," Smith said. "We'll fix below what the OEMs call the field replacement unit (FRU) level. We fix FRUs and in many cases there are circuit boards and subassemblies below what the OEMs define as the FRU level, and we can actually repair those to save customers more money....The goal of the [service technician] in the hospital, clinic or imaging center is to get the equipment back up and running now," Smith added. "More people are realizing MRIs are no different than anything else and they can service it themselves."

Once that realization is made, the next call is often to Sonora Medical Systems. The company's logo is a bristlecone pine tree that grows at the mountain tree line and can survive for a thousand years. It looks like Sonora is positioned for the long haul.

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