MEMPHIS, Tenn. – (May 20, 2015) – Christie Medical Holdings, Inc., manufacturer of VeinViewer® portable vascular imaging systems, today announced the expansion of its Memphis office as a result of sales growth and future initiatives. Since the company was acquired by Christie Digital Systems in 2009, Christie Medical Holdings has seen consistent sales growth. Fiscal 2015 was the best year to date with a 42 percent growth in orders over the previous year. In mid-August, the company will move to its new Lenox Park office. The move is necessitated by a significant increase in staff to support growth in VeinViewer sales and new product development.
“Our team has made incredible strides in the past five years,” said George Pinho, president of Christie Medical Holdings. “We have expanded our support programs to bring a greater value to our customers and improved the design of VeinViewer to meet their needs.” Christie VeinViewer was the first device to utilize patented technologies to locate subcutaneous veins and project a real-time image of their location onto the surface of the skin in 2006, and in 2014, the company launched its sixth generation device. The benefits of this technology include improved peripheral vascular access resulting in significantly fewer intravenous (or IV) sticks, less time to start an IV, improved patient comfort and reduced healthcare operating costs. It is estimated that nine out of every 10 procedures within a hospital start with IV access and there are over one billion vein punctures performed annually in the U.S. alone.
The growth of Christie can be attributed to multiple factors. VeinViewer has become the gold standard for vein finders. Multiple hospital groups across the U.S. have system-wide deployments of Christie VeinViewer with over 100 VeinViewer systems across various departments. VeinViewer also leads in clinical evidence. One recent study at St. Elizabeth Healthcare showed a potential yearly savings of $238,000 in one department alone through improved IV catheter placement and reduction in central line placement due to difficult venous access.
In 2014, the Infusion Nurses Society (INS) published a position paper in the Journal of Infusion Nursing. One of the recommendations made by the seven-member task force of infusion therapy experts was to “incorporate vein visualization technology as a routine strategy for patients with difficult or poor venous access. Visualization technology can improve success rates, decrease unsuccessful insertion attempts, and improve patient satisfaction.” All three of the supporting evidence papers cited in the panel’s research regarding the recommendation of vein visualization were studies based on VeinViewer® by Christie Medical Holdings.
VeinViewer uses harmless, near-infrared light and digital light processing (DLP®) technologies to project an image of venous patterns up to 10mm deep and blood patterns up to 15mm. It is proven to increase first-stick success rates and patient satisfaction by up to 100%.
Christie’s growth plans reach beyond VeinViewer, with multiple new products currently in development.
To learn more about current Christie product offerings: VeinViewer Vision2, VeinViewer VisionXTND and VeinViewer Flex, please visit www.christiemed.com.
About Christie Medical Holdings, Inc.
Christie Medical Holdings Inc. is a global company based in Memphis, Tennessee, that discovers, develops and commercializes medical technologies. The company’s market-leading product, VeinViewer®, is a mobile vascular imaging system that allows health care providers to clearly see accessible vasculature as a real time HD image, directly on the surface of the skin. Christie Medical Holdings Inc. is owned by Christie Digital Systems Inc., a global visual technologies company and a subsidiary of Ushio Inc., Japan (JP:6925). For more information on Christie Digital Systems or Christie Medical Holdings, visit www.christiedigital.com.
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Christie® is a trademark of Christie Digital Systems USA, Inc., registered in the United States of America and certain other countries.
DLP® is a registered trademark of Texas Instruments.