ALOKA

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Roberta Speyer:  “This is Roberta Speyer reporting from the RSNA – Radiological Society of North America meeting 2000 in Chicago.  I’m reporting on new technologies in the field of ultrasound, obstetrics, and gynecology.  I’m talking to Lee Oppegaard who is the Vice President of Marketing for ALOKA.  Lee, why don’t you tell us a little bit about this machine that we’re sitting in front of and the new technologies that you have at ALOKA?”

Mr. Oppegaard:  “Certainly, we’re sitting in front of the ALOKA ProSound 5500, which is the top of the line of ALOKA’s products and the top of the ProSound series of products that we’re very proud to introduce.  There are a few technology differentiators in this product line; first of all, they utilize what we call ‘hemispheric sound technology transducers’ which are a new generation of transducers that really gives better signal to noise performance and, therefore, better images which is the bottom line for the clinician.”

Roberta Speyer:  “How long has this particular line been out, and what’s the new functionality that the physician can get out of it?”

Mr. Oppegaard:  “The 5500 was the first in the series and then after that came the 5000, and at this meeting we’re actually previewing the 4000 which is not yet on the market.  So the technology is being driven down to different price performance levels in the product line to try to provide something for everybody’s needs.”

Roberta Speyer:  “What are the different reasons one would move up or down that scale?  What is the functionality’s and what type of practice do they have to have to be interested in the ProSound series?"

Mr. Oppegaard:  “The ProSound series will actually do just about any type of ultrasound exam that you want, for example, it has linear array capability, convex array capability, and phased array.  It will do harmonic echo, for example, and one of the things of interest to perhaps those that look at fetal hearts a lot is a feature called ‘real-time free angular M-mode’ where one can look at the heart and get an M-mode trace angle independent which is a unique feature in the world.”

Roberta Speyer:  “That’s something that’s quite new then.”

Mr. Oppegaard:  “Yes, it’s quite new and it’s actually a unique feature to the ProSound series of products.”

Roberta Speyer:  “So that’s a feature that you can only get from ALOKA?”

Mr. Oppegaard:  “That’s correct.”

Roberta Speyer:  “So if someone is looking for a maternal fetal medicine application or is this also for people in obstetrics and gynecology that would be interested in that?”

Mr. Oppegaard:  “The people that do a lot of the high-end fetal heart stuff and that would probably be the maternal fetal medicine doctor, although everyone’s certainly interested in looking at the fetal heart and making sure everything is okay, and it’s a good tool for that.”

Roberta Speyer:  “This whole ProSound series is very good but especially good for maternal fetal medicine settings and then you have another line of products that would be, perhaps, better priced point and provide the functionality for an in-office setting typically for obstetrical and gynecology applications only?”

Mr. Oppegaard:  “Yes, absolutely, the ProSound series is a high-end series of products that has all the functionality including color Doppler and so forth but we have products such as the model 1000 and 1400 that are gray-scale only imaging products that are quite suitable and priced well for one’s office practice.”

Roberta Speyer:  “So if you had to give the doctors on OBGYN.net that are watching this just to sum up for when they’re making their next equipment purchase, why should they come to ALOKA and talk to you folks?  What would you kind of encapsulate as the message that you’d like them to take away from this interview?”

Mr. Oppegaard:  “I think what a lot of people don’t realize is ALOKA has been in the ultrasound business longer than anyone and from that we’ve learned how to build very reliable products and we have products that can go all the way up and down the price performance scale.  So if you’re really looking for an ultrasound solution, we probably have one for you, and we have one that will be reliable.”

Roberta Speyer:  “Thank you so much, Lee.”

Mr. Oppegaard:  “You’re welcome.”