Cardiac Science was out in force for this year’s Heart Walk, with representation in Heart Walk Seattle, Heart Walk Orange County, and is readying a team for the October 23 Heart Walk Madison.

The totals aren’t completely tallied yet, but Cardiac Science raised somewhere between $17,500 and $20,000 for the American Heart Association. Funds will be used for:

• Putting up-to-the-minute research into doctors’ hands so they can better prevent and treat heart disease among patients.
• Groundbreaking pediatric heart and stroke research. About 36,000 babies are born with heart defects each year —research is the key to saving babies’ lives.
• Getting life-saving information to those who need it most – information that can save a life, like how to eat better, how to recognize the warning signs of heart attack, and how to talk to a doctor about critical health choices.

Great job, everyone. Enjoy the photos (click on any to enlarge).

Cardiac Science won the national 2009 IMCO Winner’s Circle Vendor of the Year award. Independent Medical Co-Op, Inc. (IMCO) is a premier association for independent medical distributors.

IMCO functions as a full-service marketing group, uniting the best medical products in the industry with independent distributors located across the nation.

Accepting the award for Cardiac Science are (from left): Brian McCarthy, Manager of Distribution Training & Education; Darryl Lustig, Vice President of Distribution; Jim Craig, Director of Sales Operations & Analytics; Toni Baumann, Senior Manager for Primary Care

“Cardiac Science has always been an important vendor for IMCO, but the unwavering support from Cardiac Science through these challenging times is what earned them the Winner’s Circle Vendor of the Year award,” said Phil Childrey, IMCO director of equipment development. “Cardiac Science makes the IMCO Winner’s Circle Program a component of its overall sales strategy, and its sales force does a remarkable job supporting our individual members.”

“The Winner’s Circle Vendor of the Year award is an important achievement for Cardiac Science since IMCO represents a significant distributor network for Cardiac Science products,” said Darryl Lustig, Cardiac Science vice president of distribution.

“We work very closely with IMCO and value the relationship we’ve developed over the years,” Lustig said. “This award demonstrates the sales possibilities when IMCO, its independent distributor members, and Cardiac Science work together.”

Meet our Brand Heroes.
Ordinary citizens, these extraordinary Cardiac Science employees embody our core value of dependability — our customers can count on us, no matter what.

Jim won.
Primary Care District Manager Jim Watson was the number one manufacturer’s rep in the USA at PSS recent national sales meeting.

The Eagle Award is handed out annually to those select individuals that excel in performance. Nominees are submitted by the various PSS reps and branch sales leaders and voted on by PSS upper management to decide the winner. With more than 600 PSS sales reps and 44 branches nationwide to be voted #1 is nothing shy of extraordinary. Jim is a Superlative Brand Hero.

Tom walked.
Field Sales Representative Tom Johnson disassembled an old unit, unpacked boxes, and programmed 24 Q-Tel transmitters to keep customer Scripps happy. But it was when Tom hooked himself up to a lead set and walked the La Jolla bluffs at 8:30 at night to confirm the coverage area with a live signal that he became a Brand Hero.

Toni saved.
Technical Support Rep Toni Conkin’s fast action may have saved a life. Toni sent a loaner Atria 3100 out immediately – getting there in time for a patient with a history of hypertension and chest pain. He was immediately sent to the hospital where he coded and will recover. Toni is a Life-Saving Hero!

Lucy demonstrated.
International Sales Director Carsten Roth nominated International Customer Care Rep Lucy Mason as a Brand Hero. “She is dedicated to her job … Lucy really shows the way of demonstrating true dependability, living up to our Corporate Ideals where the customer should always be in focus.” Lucy is a Dependable Brand Hero.

Peggy and Joyce reported.
Validation Specialist Peggy Peters and International Customer Care Rep Joyce Loveall are on the ball. I can count on them to be among the first to find the (rare) typographical error or (rare) Web site glitch. They take the time to document their findings and give me the chance to fast fix it. Peggy and Joyce are Eagle-Eyed Heroes.

Greg ran.
Director of Business Development Greg Newman is all about the brand, missing no opportunity to get the word out. So it came as little surprise when sent me a picture of his sockless feet in new running shoes. Always on the go, Greg is an Athletic Brand Hero.

Marti elevated; Kevin shipped.
Primary Care distributor PSS ordered pressure tubes for the SpiroCard/SpirOxCard and requested they ship next day to their customer – but we were out of stock. Customer Care Rep Marti Langland was not satisfied. She phoned District Manager Kevin Cangelosi to see if he had any demo supplies he could send. He did, and drove to a shipping company to keep the distributor and customer happy. Marti and Kevin are Resourceful Brand Heroes.

Congratulations and thanks to all our Brand Heroes!

EKG expert Mike Hedrick has an extra bounce in his step today.

“I received from a non-profit group that travels to Haiti to provide free health care. I was contacted by a lady named Liz and she received a donated Burdick ECG machine from a clinic in Iowa that was going out of business.

Liz contacted me to see if I had a manual for the machine. I sent Liz the owner’s manual and a free case of EKG electrodes.

This made my day, knowing we can make a difference.”

The letter reads,

Dear Mike,

Social service physicians learning an older Burdick ECG machine model

This is a belated, but all the same, sincere thank you for your kindness in generously donating EKG lead samples to the St. Vincent DePaul clinic in Grand Bois, Haiti.

I recently returned from a June trip to our clinic in Grand Bois and wanted to share a couple of pictures with you. These were taken during a patient evaluation during which Dr. Leopold was also able to train two Social Service physicians who are doing their year of Social Service at the clinic.

A ServeHAITI patient using Burdick EKG electrodes

You may not realize it, but the donation has a huge impact not only on our patients, but on the physicians who are able to learn from providing this service.

Thank you so much for your willingness to send these supplies on to ServeHAITI. It may not seem like much to you, but it really is making a difference for so many.

I don’t have feedback for you on how many of the supplies you donated have been used – we got a little busy! I’ll check with Dr. Leopold and let you know if we are running low.

I’m also sending a picture of the clinic since the second story construction has been completed. The volunteers have affectionately dubbed it “The Pink Palace.” It sure beats the heck out of the small curtained area in the back of a church that Dr. Leopold used to have to practice out of!

The Pink Palace, home to Burdick equipment and supplies

Thanks again and God Bless!
Liz McDermott

Anita Kohn of Buffalo, New York called us a few weeks back. “I have the first Quinton treadmill ever sold in my house,” she said.

“That’s 1953,” I replied.

“Yes,” she said. “And it’s sitting in the middle of my bedroom!”

Meet retired cardiologist Dr. Robert Kohn

Anita and Dr. Robert Kohn with their prized Quinton treadmill in their bedroom, Buffalo, NY

Dr. Bob purchased a Quinton 1727 treadmill and used it for his practice every day for 46 years! Same motor, same everything (albeit a little rusted).

When he retired 10 years ago, “he brought half of his office home with him!” Anita cried. “The cardiac treadmill is in the bedroom and the rest of his office is downstairs!”

We got Dr. Bob on the phone. “You realize you have an angel in your wife,” I teased. “Why do you have the Quinton treadmill in the bedroom?”

“I brought it home because I thought she would use it…,” he began; but Anita interrupted, “It’s easier to go to the gym. Now the thing’s a big clothes rack for us and I want to get it out of the house.”

56 years with the same Quinton treadmill

That our products are durable is not new to us. We see “aged” equipment in physician offices and hospitals all the time. We guesstimate the average life of our products to be in the 10-15 year range.

But 46 years in use and 10 years in the house? That’s a new record.

“I knew Dr. Quinton,” Dr. Bob said. “I’d see him at heart conventions and I had a terrific amount of respect for the man.”

Dan Riley met the Kohns and brought the treadmill home

“As for the equipment, it worked perfectly the whole time,” Dr. Bob said. “I had no need to replace it. I hardly even had it serviced. It still works today.”

A new home for the cardiac stress treadmill

So Cardiology Sales Executive Dan Riley visited the Kohns and had movers retrieve that piece of history from the Kohn’s home. It now lives in our Deerfield, Wisconsin facility. We have a number of nostalgic pieces of Quinton and Burdick pieces of equipment there.

“The whole facility came out to see the treadmill,” said vice president of operations Feroze Motafram. “It’s a piece of our history. It’s exciting to think, ‘One day in 2065 someone may write a similar story about something we made today!’”

Dr. Bob and his Quinton treadmill

The stress machine comes home to our Deerfield, WI facility

Director of Manufacturing Gary Brown (blue shirt, right) tells the story

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Turning the stress machine on and testing it out ... It works!

The certificate hanging over the oldest Quinton stress machine

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Last weekend, we held our annual service meeting for our Field Service Engineers (FSEs) who support our cardiac monitoring customers throughout our direct service operations, which includes the US and UK.

Field Service Engineers are out in front of our customers every day and in the course of a year rarely get a chance to interact in person with other members of our company. The weekend event is important. It gives us a chance to reinforce the field level teamwork that is a Cardiac Science competitive strength.

Short Intense Event
The service meeting is short, intense event that has them arriving on a Friday afternoon and getting home on Sunday night . . . before their customers notice they are missing.

The main objectives were to educate, re-connect, and recognize top performers. The main program consisted of:

Device Connectivity Workshop: Steve Falcone and Judy Schiffeler facilitated a hands-on connectivity workshop for Burdick Atria, Quinton Q-Stress, and Pyramis/HeartCentrix diagnostic connectivity products.

Stress Testing: Clinical Marketing Manager Blaine Kursor and Regional Sales Manager Wade Sugg combined for very well received presentations on clinical benefits of stress testing in general and Quinton Q-Stress in specific.

Contract Sales: With many millions in contract sales generated by this group we invested time reviewing best practices and suggestions for improvement. This session was lead by Rebecca Peterson, Contracts Manager and Rick Emtman, Regional Service Manager.

Cardiac Science Awards Banquet
We finished up the meeting with an awards banquet where the top performers from 2008 were recognized for their contribution.

A little background: Last year we instituted customer satisfaction surveys following support incidents. The Field based team scored 8.73 out of 10, where 10 is extremely satisfied. As for revenue, the Service organization came in at 103% of plan. We like to use the motto, “Making and Keeping customers, profitably.”

Consistent with the motto, we honored the best of the best. Congratulations to:

Steve Meyer is our FSE of the Year. Steve also was recognized for Most Contract Sales Growth.

Steven Green won for Service Excellence.

Alan Leibel won for Top Contract Sales.

Sales and Field Service Working Together
We recognized the entire field team for generating leads that converted to 365 product sales. We are getting on average one sale a day through collaboration and teamwork at the local level.

Execution at the local level is something that many companies don’t do well. However we’ve demonstrated that customers that know us and trust us buy more products from us (most of these customers also maintain service contracts). This is a unique strength of Cardiac Science and is a foundation for our reputation of Dependability.

Special Thanks

To Jennifer Gearin for coordinating the event with Lynn Williams, and Jodie Sheehan. The logistics associated are significant, with little room for error. Although there were last minute changes and problems, they made it look easy.

To the executive team, Forest Nichols from Operations, and entire field sales management team from cardiac monitoring for making the event so meaningful.

To Heather Underwood from Human Resources for answering questions regarding our new healthcare benefits program. Heather was pretty busy providing one-on-one assistance to the Field Team. The transition to viewing healthcare as a consumer based transaction is an important one for our individual employees, our company, and our country as a whole. Heather did a great job of demonstrating how our programs can work and work well!

And to those who help the Field Service Team every day:
Engineering . . .  Every product you design makes a difference. Thank you.
Operations . . . Every product you make, module that you repair, part that you ship makes a difference. Thank you.
Tech Support . . . Every call you take makes a difference. Thank you.
Contracts . . . Every contract you help sell and process (especially Judy Goodale and Brenda Posner) makes a difference. Thank you.

…

The people at Cardiac Science are not just manufacturers, sellers, installers, and servicers of cardiac equipment and systems – we’re partners in the field of cardiac care.

On a daily basis, we work with cardiology professionals, hospital  administrators, corporate and community safety professionals, and first responders. They’re our customers, our partners, our colleagues – and our friends.

We’re asked sit on boards, to participate in advisory groups, and to be recognized for our efforts to promote heart health. Recently Cardiac Science has been recognized in two of the many communities we serve:

• Cardiac Science has been named the Public Safety Business Partner of the year by the Nova Southeastern Office of Public Safety.
• Tony Titus, Cardiac Science vice president of marketing, has been named to the board of the Citizens CPR Foundation.

We’re honored by this recognition, and by the opportunity to work with these distinguished partners.

This blogpost contains forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, those that refer to Cardiac Science Corporation’s ability to deliver results in the future. These statements and their underlying assumptions involve a number of risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance. These are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” anticipate,” variations of such words, and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that the statement is not forward looking. Actual results may vary significantly from the results expressed or implied in such statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such varying results and other risks that are more fully described in the Annual Report on Form 10-K filed by Cardiac Science Corporation for the year ended December 31, 2007. Cardiac Science Corporation undertakes no duty or obligation to update the information provided herein.