Frost & Sullivan Applauds the Lodox Statscan Critical Imaging System for Outperforming All Competing Products

LONDON, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Following a recent analysis of the medical imaging devices market, Frost & Sullivan presented Lodox Systems (Pty) Ltd (Lodox) with the "2010 South African Medical Imaging Product Quality Leadership Award".  Statscan, Lodox's digital x-ray product, stunned the market with its ability to produce clear, diagnostic, whole-body x-ray pictures in just 13 seconds.

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Presently, the majority of imaging products on the market fail to generate critical information at a fast enough speed. To enhance the chances of survival for trauma patients, emergency centres require equipment supplying top-quality information in the least amount of time possible. Lodox's Statscan is a flexible format digital radiography (DR) system, specifically designed to meet the needs of emergency medical centres, as well as the radiography needs of both trauma and emergency patients. The system uniquely provides a complete, head-to-toe summary of patient injuries, at an increasingly faster rate than before, while avoiding any interference with patient stability.

"The Statscan ensures easy access to the patient at an extremely low radiation dose so that the ER staff can continue to provide critical life support," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Ishe Zingoni. "The entire body is scanned, minimizing unnecessary manoeuvering and quickly picking up multiple injuries that do not always show up in conventionally-sized x-rays."

For triage, and in disaster situations, the radiography-friendly Statscan is able to handle multiple patients more efficiently than competing modalities. Positive outcomes are enhanced, not only for patients, but also for ER staff, who are subject to extreme stress when having to make less-informed decisions within the "golden hour".

"The quality of Statscan sets a benchmark that surpasses present industry standards," notes Zingoni. "It outperforms competitor products in three primary ways: by the quality of its high-resolution pictures, the capacity of the size of an image (whole body), and the extraordinary speed."

The Statscan system is exceedingly reliable, consistently performing to the highest expectations. This dependable workability is reaffirmed by the trend of infrequent technical malfunction in Lodox equipment. In the rare event of a technical problem with equipment, Lodox's presence extends to major metropolitan areas, enabling a speedy response. As the company is close-knit and small, with a mere 25 people employed, response time is significantly enhanced.

According to its design, Statscan does not require film processing. This is greatly advantageous, as it reduces heavy operating costs. Also, the technology used in Statscan employs the safest x-ray method available for healthcare personnel. The precisely aimed, low-dose radiation beam produces no scattered radiation, making the system secure and easy to operate. Thus, less-skilled operators can more safely produce high quality images with Statscan, due to the smaller radiation dose, than with alternative competitor products.

Lodox's latest Statscan installations took place in the Ngwelezana Hospital, Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital and Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in December 2009. The company has also installed its equipment in other provinces, maintaining a varied clientele of public and private hospitals. In addition to emergency trauma centres, the system has multiple applications in areas such as forensic pathology, high throughput general radiology and paediatric radiology. As a result, the Statscan system scored higher than competing products in terms of reliability, design and usability as well.

Most importantly, Statscan provides all these benefits for clients and patients at a reasonable price. The equipment sells for between R3 million and R3.5 million (depending on additional features required), placing it in the middle range. It is particularly well-priced as compared to other standard DR and Flat Panel systems; thus, Statscan is highly competitive, offering better value for money than its counterparts on the market.

For these achievements and high value offerings, Lodox is the deserving recipient of the 2010 South African Medical Imaging Product Quality Leadership Award in the medical imaging market. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to a company whose product has demonstrated outstanding quality in terms of performance, reliability, design, usability, and perceived value.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About Lodox

Lodox is responsible for worldwide sales, distribution and customer service support of the new innovation known as Statscan. The company is based in Johannesburg, and it is a venture capital backed private corporation registered in South Africa. Lodox's present principal equity partner is the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC).

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation, and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.awards.frost.com.

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan