Refurbisher swaps for gamma cameras

Diagnostix Plus has put a new twist on the used equipment market.The New Hyde Park, NY, refurbisher will trade new imaging accessoriesfor old gamma cameras from hospitals.

"It's like going into your attic and getting rid of thethings that you know you'll never ever use again," said DonBogutski, president of Diagnostix Plus of New Hyde Park, NY. "We'reable to offer useful new items in exchange for these older items."

The bartered goods, such as lead aprons and furniture, aremade by such companies as Nuclear Associates, Capintec and DuPont, which regularly sell supplies and accessories to DiagnostixPlus.

"Because we get a discount on all the items we purchasefrom these manufacturers, we offer a 10% premium for used equipment,when we exchange new items for the used equipment," Bogutskisaid.

The used equipment that Diagnostix Plus gets is then refurbishedand sold for about half the cost of new equipment, he said.

"What we're attempting to accomplish is to recycle valuableequipment at reasonable prices and keep the cost down to the purchasinglaboratory (that buys the refurbished products)," Bogutskisaid.

BRIEFLY NOTED:

• Intraluminal ultrasound firm Endosonics is gearing downits European distribution arrangements with Dornier and EsaoteBiomedica. Charges related to the termination of existing Europeandistribution agreements and implementation of a new sales systemcreated a $4.7 million loss for the Pleasanton, CA, firm in thesecond quarter (end June) of 1993. Final agreements have beensigned to terminate the Dornier distribution agreement, Endosonicsreported last week.

Endosonics entered into a new European agreement with MedicaHospital Supplies of the Netherlands. Medica has FDA-approvedcatheter manufacturing facilities in the Netherlands that willbe used by Endosonics for manufacture of its catheters for Europeandistribution. The U.S. firm plans to combine direct sales andmarketing with use of individual national distributors. The newEuropean distribution system should be in place by the end ofthis year, the company said.

This European effort will be aided by the hiring earlier thisyear of Reinhard Warnking as Endosonics president (SCAN 4/21/93).Warnking, former president of ultrasound vendor and Dornier subsidiaryAcoustic Imaging, ran his own ultrasound sales company in Europeprior to joining AI.

• The merger of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicineand the Society for Magnetic Resonance Imaging was officiallyapproved last month by members of both societies at the SMRM'sannual meeting in New York City. The move is supported by MRIvendors, who will be able to cut exhibition costs for the conferencesin half (SCAN 6/2/93).

Effective Jan. 1, 1994 the merged societies will be known asthe Society of Magnetic Resonance. The SMR will hold its firstsingle annual meeting in the spring of 1996, and will hold itsannual meeting at a non-North American site every third year.The SMR will continue to publish two journals, Magnetic Resonancein Medicine and Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The executivedirector and headquarters office of the SMR will be selected bya committee jointly appointed by the SMRI and SMRM.