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Fujifilm earns top spot in KLAS' 2012 equipment awards

by Brendon Nafziger, DOTmed News Associate Editor | June 19, 2012
Fujifilm slipped past four-time champ Toshiba to earn the top spot in market research firm KLAS' annual medical equipment awards.

On Friday, KLAS released its annual Best in KLAS awards for medical equipment and infrastructure. Based on more than 3,000 health care provider evaluations, the Orem, Utah-based group hands out "Best in KLAS" awards to top scorers in 11 equipment and infrastructure categories.

The awards are meant to reflect excellent customer service and the ability to meet providers' needs with good product functionality, according to KLAS.

For medical equipment manufacturers, Fujifilm took home the highest overall performance of 88.7 out of 100, edging past Toshiba, which got an 87.6, and which was the overall winner since 2008. GE Healthcare rounded out the top three with an 86.5, according to the report summary on KLAS' website.

Winners

Siemens' Somatom Definition Flash earned the Best in KLAS nod for CT scanners with more than 64 slices, getting 90 points, less than one point above second-place finisher, and last year's winner, Toshiba, with its 89.2-scoring Aquilion ONE.

Digital X-ray was also an extremely close finish. Shimadzu beat Fujifilm by a mere one-third of a point to take the top spot in digital X-ray, its RADspeed nabbing a 90.3, versus Fujifilm's FDR D-EVO Suite's 90. Shimadzu's RADspeed has actually won the top spot since at least 2009.

Siemens' topped both MRI categories, its Skyra getting 88.4 in the 3-Tesla category, and its Aera getting a 90.8 in the 1.5-T category. Siemens also won the 3T last year with its Magnetom Verio. (Toshiba got first place in 2011 in the 1.5T category with its Vantage.)

In mammography, Hologic took the top three spots, with its Selenia Dimensions, the first tomosynthesis device cleared for sale in the U.S., bringing the highest score: 93.4. Hologic's Selenia line has also won Best in KLAS for the past two years.

In radiation therapy, Elekta also got the three highest-scoring products, with its Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion, a two-time champ, earning the most points, with 93.9.

And Philips led ultrasound, its iU22 getting the top score in general ultrasound imaging (90.3) and its iE33 getting the top in the cardiovascular segment (85.4). (GE won both ultrasound spots last year.)

Insights

Interestingly, KLAS said CT scanners and mammography were among the most reliable devices and radiation therapy, smart pumps and 1.5-T MRI were "most likely to deliver a lemon," according to feedback from customers. Mammography products, in fact, had the highest average overall score, at 89.3, and large-volume smart pumps the lowest, with an average 79.9 score.

KLAS said their report was based on 3,765 provider evaluations of about 187 medical equipment and infrastructure products. For the full "2012 Best in KLAS Awards: Medical Equipment & Infrastructure" report, go here: http://www.klasresearch.com/News/PressRoom/2012/BestinKLAS

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