It's been a busy five months for Siemens Ultrasound and Acuson. Since the former closed its blockbuster acquisition of Mountain View, CA-based Acuson in November, the two companies have succeeded in integrating their sales, marketing, R&D, and service teams worldwide.
The firms now operate under the umbrella of a newly created Siemens Medical Solutions Ultrasound division. By rearranging their previous sales organizations, separate sales forces have been created for general imaging customers and for cardiology clients, according to John Pavlidis, president of the division, now based in Mountain View.
The representatives will sell both Siemens and Acuson systems, and Acuson's brand and product names will be retained.
Research and development activities at both the Issaquah, WA, and Mountain View locations will continue. While current development activity is focused on each vendor's specific product line, integration and product migration activities will take place shortly, said Pavlidis, who also serves as president and CEO of Acuson.
"In the mid-term, we'll be exploring product migration possibilities," he said. "Customers can expect the first fruits of technology migration within the next 12 to 18 months."
Down the road, the company's R&D unit will look for ways to expand ultrasound's clinical applications, develop added productivity tools, and improve contrast imaging, Pavlidis said.
In the meantime, Siemens Medical Solutions Ultrasound believes it has a product to meet every price point. In general imaging, the vendor now offers:
- Sequoia: $200,000 to $300,000 (depending on configuration)
- Elegra: $150,000 to $230,000
- Aspen: $110,000 to $160,000
- Omnia: $80,000 to $120,000
- Sienna: $50,000 to $75,000
- Adara: under $35,000.
While Sequoia and Elegra were widely seen as competitive scanners prior to the merger, Siemens executives say each product offers different advantages.
Sequoia will serve as the vendor's super-premium system, offering advanced technology such as tissue equalization and coherent image formation, Pavlidis said. Siemens is positioning Elegra as a versatile premium system, offering added features such as compound imaging, 3-D, extended field-of-view imaging, and multidimensional array transducers.
Siemens had stopped selling two of its other scanners, Prima and Versa, for about a year prior to the merger, according to the firm.
The vendor's echocardiography portfolio will comprise three Acuson systems:
- Sequoia: $180,000 to $260,000 (depending on configuration)
- Aspen: $100,000 to $150,000
- Cypress: $50,000 to $80,000.
Acuson's AcuNav intracardiac ultrasound catheter will also continue to be sold, Pavlidis said.
Acuson also participated in the PACS sector via its KinetDx ultrasound PACS technology. Siemens has retained a dedicated sales force for KinetDx, rather than transferring KinetDx operations over to the Siemens PACS organization.
"There will be cross-selling with the Siemens PACS, but we have kept KinetDx within ultrasound, because ultrasound PACS requires special features such as digital dynamic clips and color," he said.
As the integration has progressed, both companies have continued to release new ultrasound technology. At the 2000 RSNA meeting and 2001 American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) show, Siemens put the spotlight on SieClear, its version of spatial compound imaging. The technique creates an ultrasound image by scanning from multiple angles around the region of interest.
Siemens is offering SieClear on all its Elegra transducers, and the process can also be used with other imaging modes such as SieScape and color Doppler. The vendor believes its technique is useful for removing some artifacts, like shadowing, that are often created by conventional techniques.
SieClear is part of Elegra 6.0, which is shipping now. Other enhancements in Elegra 6.0 include a new version of SieScape Panoramic Imaging that will allow users to erase a part of the ultrasound image by reversing the scan and then rewriting an area of interest. Siemens believes this feature will make it easier for users to stay on target anatomically. Other SieScape advancements include a pause-and-continue feature, a flexible on/off ruler setting, and an interval color mode.
In addition to Elegra's enhancements, Siemens also demonstrated new features for its Omnia and Sienna scanners. The company's 3D Express technique has been added to Omnia and Sienna, while Sienna is also now available with the Crescendo dedicated hardware board, which improves graphics performance.
At the RSNA and AIUM shows, Acuson showcased tissue equalization technology (TEQ), a push-button capability for Sequoia that identifies whether the ultrasound echoes are coming from soft tissue or artifacts, and sets the correct brightness for the study. Acuson also rolled out its Cadence contrast agent package for general imaging.
Cadence features two developments in contrast imaging: Cadence Coherent Contrast Imaging and Cadence Agent Detection Imaging. Acuson also featured eUltrasound, an ultrasound scheduling and reporting software package that tracks patients from the time they enter the ultrasound department until the final report is generated and billing is notified.
Another new feature, Coherent Pulse Formation, shapes the transmit pulse to extract more information from the ultrasound echo. Acuson has also incorporated CHIRP-encoded ultrasound that allows for 15 MHz imaging down to a depth of 8 cm. These enhancements, part of Sequoia's Ultrasound in Revolution upgrade package, will begin shipping in the second quarter.
In other integration news, Siemens recently announced the management team for the Siemens Medical Solutions Ultrasound division. In addition to Pavlidis, the lineup now includes Roland Jaksch as senior vice president and CFO, and Jim Kim, Ph.D. as senior vice president and chief technology officer.
Lars Becker has been tapped as vice president and COO, while Rick Smith has been appointed senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing. Lourens Steger has been appointed vice president of the worldwide service business organization, and John Allison, Ph.D., has been named vice president of product creation. Bill Carrano will serve as vice president of worldwide marketing.
By Erik L. RidleyAuntMinnie.com staff writer
April 12, 2001
Related Reading
Acuson gets OK for Cypress in Europe, Japan, March 20, 2001
Siemens/Acuson deal changes face of ultrasound industry, November 16, 2000
Siemens adds 3D Express to Omnia, Sienna, October 4, 2000
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