According to Dorsey, GE's global market in Holter monitors represents about 15 percent of its total business, ranking it Number Three of Four in the world, with Phillips Number One, overall.

Medical Electronics Co., Inc (MEDELCO), based in Boynton Beach, Fl, sells, rents, and leases pre-owned equipment such as ECG/EKG machines, patient monitors, pulse oximeters, defibrillators, ultrasound and more. Ronald Tarr, its president for 24 years, has about $400,000 worth of inventory on site at any time. And because of the imbalance of trade support, he says about 98 percent of his sales will be domestic.


"Too many global dealers care only about the cost of the equipment, they don't care about the quality or accuracy," Tarr begins. And many foreign competitors entering the US market also have unfair cost advantages. "You've got Chinese companies coming in with no overhead, offering a very low price for monitors," he adds, "That makes it very tough to compete."

The cost differential is significant. For example, a GE DASH monitor, offering high-performance and mobile monitoring that includes an integrated wireless LAN option, sells anywhere from $5500 and $8000, depending on features. Full ECG/EKG monitors can start at $20,000 and up. "Some low-end companies can offer their own monitors for half that," Tarr notes. "I've had doctors in here asking why should they pay so much more, and I answer, 'Do you ever walk into a hospital and see those low-end names? No, you don't."

Jeff Corliss, global marketing manager for Philips
Cardiography Systems, says pressure exists from Chinese, Japanese and Korean monitor manufacturers, but more for smaller sites than for hospitals settings that mandate cutting edge care.

"The individual drivers for the monitor markets are quite distinct," Corliss notes. "You have clinics and doctors' offices, where much is driven by cost, and you have hospitals where 12-lead ECG's are among the most pervasive, highest volume procedures. Hospitals are driven by three concerns: streamline workflow, maximize connectivity, and handle real clinical pressure. Philips has built our business on the hospital setting and we offer the best seamless, wireless ECG, stress and Holter integration. We're the only ones doing 16 lead ECG's for example. That is very important when it comes to adult chest pain where every second counts."

Corliss points out Philips is supporting the American Heart Association's "Door-to-Balloon" initiative which seeks to cut down the time it takes when someone walks in with chest pains to when that person receives angioplasty. "We are looking to do it within less than 90 minutes. None of our Asian competitors have the kind of seamless/integrated integration required to accomplish this."

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