Acuson market share remains peppy

Acuson gave new meaning to the concept of premium ultrasound imagesfor a premium price when it introduced its 128 system in 1983.But the vendor never had the high-end radiology market all toitself, said Samuel H. Maslak, Acuson president and CEO.

The imaging executive disputed the notion that Acuson facesan onslaught of competitors trying to carve away its dominantmarket position in radiology ultrasound.

"We have never had the field to ourselves," he said."If we had, our sales in 1984 through 1986 would have beengreater than our sales right now. However, our sales are continuingto increase and so is our (market) share. We have always had competition."

Acuson's share of the U.S. hospital-grade radiology ultrasoundmarket is about 40% to 45%, he said.

"Our market share has increased every year in our history,"he said.

Some might dispute the market share figures, but Acuson's rateof revenue growth is a matter of public record, he said.

"One way we know that our share is increasing is to compareour rate of revenue growth with the generally accepted rate ofgrowth of the industry. Ours is considerably higher than the industryrate," he said.

BRIEFLY NOTED:

• Advanced Video Products of Littleton, MA, has signed anOEM supply agreement with Olicon Imaging Systems of Louisville,KY. Olicon purchased the rights to Raytel's picture archivingand communications systems product line last month and indicatedit was negotiating an agreement with AVP to provide PACS equipmentthat will interface with the Raytel line and allow for productupgrades (SCAN 12/12/90).

Olicon's nationwide sales organization will sell the AVP productsunder the Raytel brand name.

• ADAC Laboratories had positive news for the financialcommunity and its medical imaging customers last week. The vendorrealized a 28.7% rise in revenue for its first quarter (end-December)of fiscal 1991 from $17.4 million in the same period of 1990 to$22.4 million. Net income rose only 8%, however, from $1.2 millionin the first quarter of 1990 to $1.3 million (see graph). Incomegrowth was hampered by tighter margins in a competitive imagingmarket and shipment of Pegasys nuclear medicine workstations astrade-ins for previous equipment, said Michael O. Preletz, chairman.

ADAC also initiated shipments of its Pegasys+ workstation thismonth, which is an upgraded version of the original Pegasys system.The vendor's dual-head Genesys nuclear medicine camera, introducedlast year, is in beta-site testing at an unnamed medical researchhospital, he said.

Stanley D. Czerwinski has taken over as president and COO atADAC. The position was left vacant following the resignation ofRobert L. Deinhammer last month (SCAN 1/16/91). Czerwinski waspreviously executive vice president and general manager.

• Sterling Drug, a Kodak subsidiary, has provided a grantof undisclosed value to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.The funds will be used to establish a Sterling Winthrop visitingprofessor in diagnostic imaging at AFIP and to support eight SterlingWinthrop national guest lectureships. The Winthrop DiagnosticImaging division of Sterling is a supplier of medical imagingcontrast media.