I am entrepreneur, so I see the business world primarily through an entrepreneur’s eyes.  My role as CEO of BHN takes me inside many large hospitals and clinics.  I am always amazed at how capital intensive these operations are.  They have a device or machine for everything, and all the people with the right skills to operate the equipment as well.  As an entrepreneur, this just does not make sense to me.  As entrepreneur I've learned to look at capital as a very precious resource.   For hospitals, it certainly makes sense to have certain devices/equipment present for critical care needs (i.e. a defibrillator), but for other assets it does not make sense.  It would seem more logical and cost effective to share some of these capital-intensive resources with other locations or even other hospitals. 

Medtronic just released a new product called the Medtronic  NURO for treating overactive bladder (OAB).  It will compete directly with Uroplasty's incumbent product Urgent® PC. (Note: Uroplasty is now owned by Cogentix Medical)  We have been using the Urgent PC product within several partner clinics we serve, and we have had great success with it.  I am sure many will be looking for a NURO and Urgent PC product comparison, so we have attempted to compile a comparison in the bullets below and in the included video.  There are quite a few differences, but the major ones are detailed below.

Brighter Health Network (BHN), a leading medical diagnostics services company, and Medspira, a leading medical device maker, today announced a national partnership between the two companies to further market, distribute, and service Medspira’s mcompass anorectal manometry system.  BHN provides turn-key, on-site medical diagnostics that include equipment, staff, software, and supplies required to perform multiple types of diagnostic testing such as anorectal manometry.  As part of this partnership BHN will use Medspira’s equipment and supplies to service clinics and hospitals across the country that desire to offer anorectal manometry.  This partnership will enable these clinics and hospitals to offer anorectal manometry testing to their patients without having to purchase expensive equipment, train staff, or incur the other challenges encountered when providing a new service.  This will make it extremely easy for the clinics and hospitals to leverage anorectal manometry, which will in turn allow them to better diagnose and treat patients suffering from fecal incontinence, chronic constipation, and other lower gastrointestinal problems.  

I have the benefit (and sometimes curse) of having an engineering degree and a finance degree. Due to this background I tend to analyze everything.  In dealing with clinics and hospitals of all sizes, I see numerous purchase decisions being made.  Sometimes the purchase decision is related to direct purchase of medical equipment, and sometimes it's related to a rent rather than buy decision. 

We have recently released and Urodynamics Equipment Buyer's Guide.  You might want to check it out if you are involved in urodynamics testing.

I was recently having a conversation with a very successful urogynecologist that operates in on the East Coast.  We were talking about diagnostics (such as urodynamics), the cost of the equipment, and the difficulty of retaining well-trained staff.  He was surprised to learn that we served many large urogynecology practices and urology practices. He assumed that all of these large practices would perform their urodynamics testing in house.  His thinking was that the clinic would be much more profitable if it owned the equipment, trained the staff, and dealt with all the other details to be able to deliver urodynamics testing services to their patients.  This is true for some large urology and urogynecology practices, however it is certainly not true for many practices.  Also, I believe he was not considering all of the pertinent details related to outsourcing diagnostics.

Brighter Health Network, LLC  (formerly named Bladder Health Network) which offers medical diagnostic solutions such as urodynamics testing services, recently announced it has acquired INSIGHT Urodynamics, LLC for an undisclosed amount.

Brighter Health Network, LLC (BHN), which offers medical diagnostic solutions such as urodynamics testing services, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire INSIGHT Urodynamics, LLC for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings.