We recently came across COSMED, a company focusing on cardiopulmonary testing, and were intrigued by their diverse customer list, which ranges from the NIH to the NFL Scouting Combine. We had the opportunity to speak with their VP of Business Development, Claudio Bellini, about their cardiopulmonary technologies.
Shiv Gaglani, Medgadget: How do you see the overall business environment for the medical device design and manufacturing industry as we enter the second half of 2014?
Claudio Bellini: We expected 2014 to be a year of transition, amid all the back-and-forth political discussion and controversy surrounding the Affordable Care Act. From what we can see so far in the year the medical businesses that have higher correlation with screening and prevention of chronic diseases and the improvement of public health are growing.
While the full impact of the Affordable Care Act remains to be seen, we are now getting a glimpse into how the technology of today and tomorrow could impact the efficiency and delivery of medicine and drive preventative care for years to come.
In the diagnostic sectors that COSMED operates in—Pulmonary Function Testing, Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing, Nutritional Analysis and Body Composition Assessment—we expect to see a double digit growth fueled by a combination of increased demand and the addition of novel technologies to our product portfolio.
Medgadget: Please explain the technology behind the BOD POD/PEA POD, K4B2, and other COSMED devices.
Bellini: We develop two main technologies:
- The Metabolic Technology that covers the measurement of air flow and respiratory pressures, the analysis of inhaled and exhaled gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide and measurement of metabolism substrate. This technology applies to our Cardiopulmonary and Metabolic testing instruments. We own several patents and use proprietary fast-responding analyzers to acquire data on a breath-by-breath basis (PFT and CPET), with digital telemetry (K4b2) – which are mostly used in non-steady state analysis and clinical applications, and proprietary non-dispersive infrared sensors used for steady state analysis (RMR).
- The Air Displacement Plethysmography Technology to determine body composition through whole-body densitometry, accurately providing absolute (lb and kg) and percent (%) body fat and fat-free mass in children and adults eliminating the invasiveness of Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DXA). This patented technology was develop with the support of the National Institute of Health (NIH) and applies to the BOD POD and the PEA POD, two instruments recognized worldwide as the practical Gold Standard for research and clinical applications.
Medgadget: What industries are COSMED devices primarily used in?
Bellini: We do Research-Grade Laboratory Instruments for Pulmonary Function Testing, Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing, Nutritional Analysis and Body Composition Assessment.
Our instruments are used in hospitals, university-based medical centers, medical clinics, physician offices, sport medicine, pharmaceutical companies, clinical research organizations (CROs), research laboratories the sport industry and by device manufacturers. These customers range from the NIH, Mayo Clinic, and Johns Hopkins Medicine to NASA, the NFL Combine, Adidas, and even Apple.
Medgadget: Are there any clinical trials and scientific studies that show efficacy?
Bellini: Through the past years, 200+ technical and clinical research papers using our Air Displacement Plethysmography technology and more than 300 technical and clinical research papers using our Metabolic technology have been published, proving the accuracy, reliability and real world performance of our instruments: http://www.cosmed.it/en/science/cosmed-bibliography
Medgadget: What is your background in medical technology?
Bellini: I am the Executive Vice President for COSMED USA, founded in 1980, COSMED is one of the largest cardiopulmonary diagnostics manufacturers in the world. I developed my career in the health and wellness industry as the former President and CEO of the Italian based firm, Technogym USA Corp. and hold a Degree in Marketing Management from the SDA Bocconi in Milan.