Hartland-based Camtronics Medical Systems Ltd. is poised for growth as the baby boom generation ages. The company specializes in creating software solutions for cardiologists and cardiology catheterization labs. The firm’s products help cardiologists and hospitals store, track and manage patient medical data.
"A shortage of doctors, plus a growing number of patients, continues to allow the company to grow based on need," said Camtronics president Dan Webster said. "We have a chosen area of cardiology, and our goal is to be the best by serving the market and bringing new technologies to the market as soon as they become available."
The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Analogic Corp., a designer and manufacturer of health and security imaging equipment based in Peabody, Mass.
Camtronics has been at the forefront of cardiology information systems since it created its first comprehensive information management solution (IMS) for the cardiology catheterization lab, called Archium, in 1993.
The firm continues to revolutionize the IMS for the cardiologist and create a communication channel between catheterization labs and hospital inpatient departments with its line of Vericis products.
"The company brought the marriage of digitally available images and electronic medical records technology," Webster said. "Archium became a leadership product in the market, and Vericis is a follow-up on that product."
The original Vericis, before it became a line of products, was the first multi-modality cardiac picture archiving and communication system (PACS), said Michael Kapp, vice president of technical sales for Camtronics.
Vericis is an imaging archiving network for cardiac catheterization labs that enables cardiologists to record and manage scanned images of a patient’s heart and report the results of tests for major patient studies, Kapp said.
Vericis records vascular ultrasound, echocardiography, catheterization and nuclear cardiology images accurately and securely for the future use of cardiologists and patients.
"Cardiology patients are not cured, so it is important to track patient information and to have the patient history readily accessible," Kapp said. "When cardiologists can track multiple patient encounters with multiple specialists, and when the information is linked together
in one system, it
enhances
patient care."
When Camtronics acquired the Cardiology Systems Group from ADAC Laboratories in 2000, the company added PhysioLog and CardioWorks
to its Vericis line of products.
PhysioLog allows for hemodynamic (the physical aspects of blood circulation) monitoring and data management for a cardiology technician during a patient procedure. PhysioLog records and displays a patient’s vital signs and provides a chronological log of steps taken and the patient’s response to those steps during a cardiac catheterization procedure, Kapp said.
"We are interested in keeping the cardiologists happy," Webster said. "Our preferred way to sell Vericis is to the cardiologists. We can show them that we have the best solution for their practice. We can work closely with the cardiologist and in turn with the chief information officer of the hospital."
CardioWorks, the third product under Vericis, was the first cardio-specific electronic medical records system for the cardiology office practice and was introduced last year.
"The vision of CardioWorks was to provide single-point access to everything a cardiologist needs at their practice," Kapp said.
CardioWorks also offers remote Web access for emergency cardiology patients when a cardiologist may not be in the office or hospital, Webster said.
CardioWorks manages patient information, including prescriptions, patient history and allergies, into one electronic medical record (EMR) solution. When networked with the original Vericis system, a cardiologist has every piece of information ever recorded about a patient available through a computer, Kapp said.
The fourth Vericis product Camtronics is currently launching is a cardiology information management solution called Cardio IMS, which Camtronics sees as another piece to bringing information together, Kapp said.
Cardio IMS is similar to CardioWorks in that it is an EMR solution, but Cardio IMS is the hospital component, enabling networking from inpatient departments to cardiology catheterization labs within both single hospitals and entire hospital systems.
The networking capabilities of the CardioWorks and the Cardio IMS have increased efficiency and increased the quality of patient care for both the cardiologist and the hospital, Kapp said.
Traditionally, most hospitals are compartmentalized in their information management, and individual patient records are not integrated or able to be integrated easily between departments, Kapp said.
Several Wisconsin hospitals have implemented Vericis, including Waukesha Memorial Hospital, Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital, Community Memorial Hospital and UW Hospital and Clinics in Madison, Kapp said.
A large-scale Vericis implementation over multiple modalities costs about $1 million, Webster said.
As Camtronics evolved in product development from Archium to Vericis proper, the company’s ideas were ahead of its time and its software, Kapp said. Computer systems initially could not support the types of programs Camtronics developers had the ability to create, Kapp said.
"Our development time was prohibitive, but as the PC got faster and with the technology available now, we are able to do things we would have never been able to do in the past," Kapp said.
In 2002, Camtronics acquired Ottawa, Canada-based VMI Medical, Inc., a medical information software company that specialized in solutions for children’s heart centers. With the technology and knowledge of pediatric cardiology, Camtronics began offering an echocardiography information management solution for pediatric patients under the original Vericis system, Kapp said.
Camtronics’ ability to develop and market medical data management systems has enabled the company to post $50 million in annual sales, which have grown 25 to 30 percent in each of the past three years, Webster said.
"Our technology, our finances and our strength make us a trusted name," Kapp said.
April 15, 2005, Small Business Times, Milwaukee, WI
