According to Dave Denholz, CEO of Integrity Medical Systems, Ft. Meyers, FL, and just about every other C-arm dealer we talked to, "OEC held about 60 to 65 percent of the U.S. market prior to being shutdown. The vacuum OEC has created has sent shockwaves across both the new and used C-arm markets," Denholtz observed. Siemens and Philips were not prepared for the increased demand for their products as a result of the sudden disappearance of OEC from the equation, and are not likely to make the capital investment to increase production, as OEC could be re-certified at any time.
OEC 9400s and 9000s reconditioned, calibrated,
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and waiting for Quality Assurance testing
A temporary price spike
Historically, C-arms have been among the least expensive imaging devices. But the OEC situation has changed all that -- if only temporarily. Ted Hoover, Director of Sales & Marketing for Bighorn Biomedical, Pine Haven, Wyoming, reported that OEC's absence has caused a run on the used mobile C-arm market. "Prices have gone up across the board for equipment and parts since the OEC news hit the street," Hoover noted, "but we've been able to meet our customers' needs because we have a large inventory of meticulously refurbished equipment. And we sell to customers worldwide." Bighorn specializes in and carries a full line of refurbished OECproducts.
Reports as to when OEC will reopen its doors vary, but most people believe it will be sometime near the beginning of 2007. Leon Gugel, President of Metropolis International, Queens, NY, believes that prices will "plummet" when OEC C-arms hit the market again. "Shutting down an OEM is nothing new. The market will bounce back quickly," he stated.
Another industry veteran in the C-arm business, Bill Adkins, President of National X-ray, Sarasota, FL, said "I don't have any inside knowledge, but would bet that before the end of this year, GE/OEC will have a C-arm on the market coming out of another facility. Now that's just me speculating, but it's too big a market for GE to let is slide for long."
"C" stands for Versatility
"Every year they find a new use for a C-arm," Leon Gugel noted. Mobile C-arms are used for minimally invasive, spinal, general, and orthopedic surgeries; pain management; and cardiac, urology, vascular, and neurovascular applications. Fixed C-arms are used more for diagnostic angiography as well as interventional treatments. C-arms are used alongside MRI scans to ensure the contrast agent is placed correctly. Mini C-arms are turning up in more and more doctors' offices. Thomas Ray Becker, MD, an orthopedic surgeon in private practice in Gurnee, Ill, has had a mini C-arm in his office for 4 years. "It has allowed me to do procedures in the office that otherwise would have ended up in the operating room," he says.
