SKANEATELES FALLS — A recently announced arrangement that has Welch Allyn distributing another company’s patient-monitoring system is rare but not unheard of for the Skaneateles Falls–based medical-device manufacturer.
“We don’t tend to have more than a few, three to four, of these types of arrangements going on,” says Doug Linquest, Welch Allyn’s senior vice president of global category marketing. “In general we try to find them so they’re very strategic and fit well in matching a need we have or a solution we want to deliver to our customers.”
Welch Allyn is distributing patient-monitoring technology aimed at hospitals under a collaboration and distribution agreement with EarlySense Ltd. That company, founded in Israel, has its U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Mass.
The two companies revealed details of their distribution agreement Jan. 30. They are already operating under it after negotiations stretched over most of 2012.
Under the agreement, Welch Allyn employees will sell the EarlySense system. The Skaneateles Falls company’s clinical-support staff members have also been trained in the system. They will provide tier one support — handling customer support and only passing issues on to EarlySense if Welch Allyn cannot resolve them.
But the technology will still be sold under the EarlySense name.
“In this case, we’re not going to rebrand the actual device,” Linquest says. “We’re going to be co-branding across the different support materials that our customers will see, whether it’s the website, sales brochures, or collaterals.”
EarlySense’s system uses a sensor placed under a patient’s mattress to measure vital signs like heart rate and respiration. It also measures how much a patient moves in bed and how many times a patient enters or exits bed.
By doing so, the system can identify safety risks or warning signs that a patient’s health is deteriorating. The system can then alert clinical staff members through a bedside monitor, a central nursing station, hallway displays, or mobile devices.
It is designed for medical surgical floors that are not intensive-care units. Nurses on those non-intensive-care floors usually only check patients once every four hours, according to EarlySense.
Neither Welch Allyn nor EarlySense is sharing financial details of their agreement. EarlySense wants to install the system in over 1 million acute-care beds, while Linquest declines to share any hard sales projections.
“We do see this as a significant growth opportunity,” he says. “We strive to develop our own technologies and drive innovation. But the world is very large, and in many cases new innovation is happening all over the world. When you see a breakthrough from an outside party, I think most companies strive to be open to both internal development and outside partnering.”
EarlySense’s product was in a market to which Welch Allyn caters, making it attractive, Linquest continues. And the company’s technology was desirable because it is unobtrusive and does not require direct contact with a patient, he says.
“It was targeted at trying to solve clinical pain points that our customers are experiencing, such as making sure the patient is safe 24 hours a day,” Linquest says.
Other products Welch Allyn has distributed through partnership deals in the last 15 years include tympanic ear thermometers from Braun. It also has such an agreement with a Swiss company, Schiller AG, that makes cardiovascular and monitoring products.
For EarlySense, the distribution agreement was the best way to sell to a wide audience.
“As a relatively small company, we looked for a partner to help us make this technology a standard of care across hospitals,” says Avner Halperin, EarlySense CEO. “We cannot reach every hospital in the United States on our own.”
EarlySense will also continue to sell its products directly in the United States. It has been doing so for a little over a year, according to Halperin.
The need for patient-monitoring systems is growing, he adds.
“As regulators give more scrutiny to outcomes, as nurses become more overworked, there was a real need to identify patient-risk solutions early on,” he says. “The clinical outcomes show that when patients are continuously monitored, when alerts are given to nurses, patients experience fewer falls and pressure ulcers.”
EarlySense has 65 employees between Massachusetts and its headquarters in Israel. Welch Allyn employs nearly 2,700 people in 26 countries. It has over 1,200 at its Skaneateles Falls headquarters at 4341 State Street Road. Both companies decline to share any revenue details.