B-K Medical Systems: Pioneering Imaging - Health Executive - RedCoat Publishing - Inside Healthcare

B-K Medical Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Analogic Corporation, was developed in Denmark with a focus on sound technology shortly after World War II. The company’s founders didn’t look at ultrasound until the concept’s introduction to the medical world in the 1950s, but when they did, they hit the ground running.

“B-K Medical pioneered prostate ultrasound and was the first to offer such a solution for prostate medical concerns,” said Renaud Maloberti, general manager. “From prostate imaging, we moved into the entire urology arena.”

Renaud Maloberti, general manager

As medical practices change, Massachusetts-based B-K looks at how it can offer its customers, which are any institutions using ultrasound to diagnose or potentially treat patients, a way to provide better patient care and increase efficiency and productivity—a vision that eventually moved the company into the surgical field and general ultrasound imaging.

In the past 15 years, the company has also expanded the services it offers its customers by listening to their needs. In the early days, said Maloberti, B-K was an engineering-driven company. “We’ve put more of the customer’s voice into what we’re developing and now develop, manufacture, and market our products. We’re the world leader in urological ultrasound, and you can only achieve that if you’re very intimate with your customers’ needs.”

On the pulse
In the past few years, B-K re-energized its corporate culture by focusing more on customer needs, developing products, and bringing products to market faster. In a fast-paced world, said Maloberti, agility and speed are key to a company’s success, especially in development and marketing.

To meet these standards, the company takes its customers’ requirements into account early in the development process. This allows B-K to bring its products to market faster by cutting out the back and forth compromising that often happens at the end of the process. “It not only provides much faster product development but also a faster go-to-market strategy and overall reduction in development costs,” said Maloberti.

B-K works with end users on a number of levels, including customer sessions where it asks them what they’re looking for before development begins, ensuring an idea fits the customer’s clinical needs. Throughout the course of the product’s life, customer feedback is also taken into consideration. And the strategy has paid off; B-K’s average annual growth rate has been in the double digits for a number of years.

“We need to provide the best solution to the customers so they can provide the best patient care,” said Maloberti. “This kind of cultural re-engineering has made it possible for us to maintain a high level of growth.”

Selling growth
B-K has re-energized its sales team as well. With only 65 employees stateside, its sales territories are fairly large. Rather than putting the entire burden on one employee, the company developed three-tiered teams to handle each region.

A salesperson handles the account and deals directly with the customer. A clinical education specialist handles customer education, answering any questions the customers might have. A field service engineer ensures the equipment experiences no downtime. By using a team approach, B-K refreshed the idea of territory management and gained an even closer relationship to its customers.

“If you want to be successful, particularly the medical device business, you must be close to your customers,” said Maloberti. “You have to understand what their problems are so you can better anticipate and answer their needs when they have one.”

To keep its sales force motivated, B-K invested in a CRM system capable of working with the company’s global sales force (the company has 350 international employees) and defeating any potential language or server barriers. Since rolling the system out in early 2008, B-K’s salespeople have been able to keep a better handle on their territories while removing mounds of paperwork.

“As with salespeople anywhere, we need to keep them challenged, and we need to give them the ability to make a good living while still doing what they like to do, which is selling,” said Maloberti. “Although it took a while before we decided on a product, we found a system we could customize to our needs and to the specifics and size of our business.”

Removing inefficiency
Although B-K has been focused on revamping its infrastructure and customer relations, it has not neglected the entrepreneurial spirit of its founding fathers. In January, the company announced a collaboration with Belgium-based Advance Medical Diagnostics in the development of its HistoScanning tissue characterization technology for the prostate.

By using ultrasound technology, early studies show that HistoScanning has the ability to identify potential tumors. As of March, the product was still in the research phase, but if all goes as planned, the technology will enable physicians to pinpoint any problems in a less invasive manner.

“One our customers’ biggest problems is increasing costs,” said Maloberti. “Anything we can do to help them reduce those costs helps us as well. With any type of solution we offer, we want to improve efficiency and productivity, which in turn decreases the cost of a procedure.”

Another element of the B-K advantage is that each piece of equipment is designed with simplicity in mind. In November, the company rolled out its Pro Focus OR ultrasound system, which was designed to be permanently mounted to an OR boom. A flat-screen monitor and control panel can be mounted on flexible arms to provide surgeons access to ultrasound capabilities they need quickly and easily.

“The equipment is there to help the surgeons do what they do best, which is treating the patient,” said Maloberti. “If we can remove some of the inefficiency in the OR by removing the wheels or the cables to ensure our customers can better care for their patients, it’s a big win for all involved.”

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