Bruce Moore, former vice president of marketing for the Diasonics ultrasound division, was named president of the division last month. He was previously vice president of marketing for Diasonics MRI.
Moore returned to Diasonics--along with president and COO Roderick A. Young--following Toshiba's acquisition of the magnetic resonance imaging business (SCAN 8/1/90). Young had initially taken on direct responsibility for the Diasonics ultrasound business.
A replacement for Moore as vice president of marketing for the ultrasound division assumed his new responsibilities this week. William E. Richardson was formerly general manager of the information systems division of ADAC Laboratories.
While Diasonics improved the profitability of its businesses since the sale of the MRI division, ultrasound continued to lag behind expectations last year (SCAN 2/13/91). Sales of the vendor's Spectra high-end radiology ultrasound scanner should pick up now that a new color-flow Doppler architecture has been fully implemented, Moore said.
The vendor introduced its Spectra Plus color architecture at the 1990 Radiological Society of North America meeting but did not finish software revisions and begin demonstrating the package in the field until last month, he said.
Diasonics' international ultrasound sales, through its Swiss subsidiary Sonotron, were strong last year despite the fact that Spectra sales had not yet kicked in. Sonotron is expected to launch a Spectra product tailored to Europe this year.
Ultrasound sales should also get a boost from the incorporation of Diasonics' intravascular ultrasound system (IVUS) as an option on Spectra. IVUS had been sold previously only as a stand-alone device. The IVUS option on Spectra will cost about $40,000, or less than half of what the stand-alone unit costs, Moore said.
