Rhythmia Medical Maps A Better 3-D Picture Of A Beating Heart--From The Inside

Boston Scientific's new heart mapping and navigation tool is the first sign of its larger interest in electrical mapping systems for the human body.

Heart conditions show up as irregularities in the organ's electrical routine. Heart surgeons and physicians sometimes check in on that routine by using catheters with electrodes at their tips. They winds up a vein or artery in patients legs or arms and into their heart chambers where they record electrical signals thundering through the muscle.

But as insightful as the procedure can be, it results in a picture that's flat--a sketch of what's going on at best. Now a company called Rhythmia Medical is developing a system for translating mere pings into pixels to give doctors a clearer picture of the heart's architecture and electrical activity--in 3-D--as it pumps. Rhythmia’s researchers have been able to cut the time taken to map the heart's electrical activity by at least half in preclinical and clinical tests, Peter Sommerness, general manager of Boston Scientific's electrophysiology division, tells Fast Company.

The first part of Rhythmia's new two-part system involves a new kind of catheter with 64 electrodes. It’s designed to track electrical signals coursing through the heart as it beats, as well as sketch its geometry and internal shape. Part two involves making sense of all the data that the souped-up catheter is collecting. The company has designed software that translates the electrical signals into 3-D visualizations.

For patients with irregular heartbeats, or arrhythmias, the sensors and the mapping software are designed to give physicians an unprecedented view of a patient’s heart chambers, helping them not only identify that there's a problem but spot which sections of muscle could be the source of irregular beats.

Electrophysiology and 3-D visualization is an area Boston Scientific is getting serious about, and Rhythmia is part of a larger plan. “We want to increase the size of this venture and this partnership. And that means growing our footprint in the Boston area with these critical skill sets,” Sommerness says. Though non-cardiac applications for Rhythmia’s tech have yet to be developed, it’s entirely possible that it could be adapted for use outside the heart.

“Electrophysiology is a $2.5 million space, and it’s growing rapidly. This tool is an essential strategic piece,” he explains, adding that Rhythmia's high-data density electrodes and visualization tech, presented as a complete package, was what was appealing to the higher ups at Boston Scientific.

Rhythmia, based in Burlington, Massachusetts, was founded in 2004 by two business school graduates, Leon Amariglio and Doron Harlev. They were looking to start a successful business, but “one that had a greater good other than the commercial one,” Harlev tells Fast Company. They were sure of one other thing: The way to go was to build something new. “We felt that innovating our own technology was something that would bring value,” Harlev explains.

With experience in finance behind them, Amariglio and Harlev were in the unique position of starting a high tech venture without any personal experience in the medical device space.

So they spent the first year together researching and brainstorming, sitting in at labs and hospitals in the Boston area. They developed a handful of ideas in that time, many of which needed to be abandoned sometimes after months of effort. Until Rhythmia finally stuck. “No one makes perfect decisions and neither did we, but that was the process,” Amariglio tells Fast Company.

Where building a business is concerned, Amariglio says that entrepreneurship is less about taking risk and more about managing risk. For the two partners, their plans seem to have paid off.

Rhythmia was scooped up by Boston Scientific earlier this month. Boston Scientific bought the company for $90 million and intends to pay another $175 million over the next five years if the company meets certain targets. It comes at a crucial time for Rhythmia, which is looking to get its diagnostics checked out and greenlit for use by the FDA. Clearance permitting, Boston Scientific expects to begin limited market launches of the system in 2013.

Nidhi Subbaraman writes about technology and health. Follow on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

Source : fastcompany[dot]com

Keeping Your Marketing Customer-Centric #rdm12

As the world moves from a product-centric economy to a customer-centric economy, marketers must move in tandem to ensure the customer experience is always at the heart of their efforts. Tim Gilbert, Chief Marketing Officer of Campus Management, a provider of enterprise software for the higher education industry, addressed this issue during a session at today’s Revenue-Driven Marketing Summit
held by Aberdeen Group in Boston, MA.

Appropriate for a presentation involving college, Gilbert took the stage to the strains of hard rock superstars AC/DC and began his explanation of customer-centric marketing by using Apple as an example. “Apple used to be a product category for graphic designers in the art department,” he said. “Now I don’t know an executive who doesn’t check their iPhone regularly.”

Gilbert said Apple made this marketing breakthrough with an iterative process that kept the needs of customers at its core, developing services such as iTunes as well as devices such as the iPhone to provide a complete branded experience.

Marketing in the Age of Self-Advocacy

In the customer-centric economy, Gilbert said the entire experience from seller to buyer has changed. “There must be a meaningful interaction,” he advised. “We’re in an age of self-advocacy. Complaints go on Facebook. And our customers must compel college students. It’s a strange relationship where the customer pays a lot of money, gets judged every term, and incurs a lot of debt when they’re done. Colleges are having trouble maintaining that relationship.” (also read: Customer Experience: Serving the Customer, Building the Brand)

To help higher education clients place their customers (students and parents who often foot part or all of the bill), Gilbert said Campus Management helps them create a single, unified view of a student across all channels of interaction. In addition, since rejecting applicants is not good for the school’s brand (although necessary), Gilbert said Campus Management software helps colleges locate, attract and maintain relationships with the “right” students who possess the “right” qualifications, such as SAT scores in a specific range.

In a specific example of how colleges can put the customer at the center of their marketing efforts, Gilbert said the University of Ottawa collects testimonials from current students in the local area of a prospective student and compiles them in a personalized e-book.

CRM Case Study: Ball State University

Gilbert concluded his remarks by reviewing the CRM objectives of Campus Management client Ball State University in Indiana, perhaps best known as the alma mater of late night talk show host David Letterman:

• Enhance recruitment/admissions efficiency by X, Y and Z within 12 months.
• Improve student experience by A,B,C.
• Train and empower non-IT users to do segmenting, prospecting and targeting of prospective students via automated and integrated marketing communications programs.

“Job number one is buy-in from C-level executives,” stated Gilbert. “Dream big, then write it, When you budget it, get real. Know the risks and prepare for the ‘domino effect.’ Use small steps rather than a ‘Big Bang’ approach. Set milestones and celebrate success. And always be transparent, whether good, bad or ugly."

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com