RT interviews Rich Kocinski, president of Sunrise Medical
The field of sleep medicine is growing by leaps and bounds, and amazing new developments are happening all the time. Rich Kocinski, president of Sunrise Medical, Longmont, Colo, spoke with RT about the company’s place in this industry and how its DeVilbiss product sector is positioned to hold its own.
How has DeVilbiss increased its market presence recently?
In a two-pronged approach, we have expanded through unique product developments and then in how we take the products to the market. On the product side, our primary focus has been in the obstructive sleep apnea area with 11 new products in as many months. It is a very well-rounded basket of products that includes CPAP devices, masks, and humidification products. We naturally tend to look for uniqueness where the current offerings are weak and where we can drive profitability results for our customers. This led us to our eCompliance solution, which allows dealers and clinicians to drive very real efficiencies against the demands for compliance information. We had been hearing about the struggles that customers were having with costs of gathering and managing compliance data on their sleep patients and developed a system to transmit the data via phone lines, automate the task of sorting out noncompliance, and then use technology to distribute the information paperless and hands-free.
To support the new products, we have stepped up our go-to-market approach. We have made significant investments in our advertising, trade show presence, and sales force. We are reaching beyond our historic channel, the durable medical equipment (DME) dealer, and are getting to the clinical community as well. While we are always conscious of and sensitive to DME dealers, we also realized that the task of getting clinical buy-in falls on us. The responses that we have seen in the market have been extremely positive, and the Associated Professional Sleep Societies meeting was a prime example. The market is taking notice, and our relationships grow stronger every day.
DeVilbiss has expanded its sleep product offering. Do you plan to do the same with your aerosol and oxygen lines?
While our research and development investments have been heavier in sleep, we are very entrenched in our other segments and will not fall into the leader’s trap in these areas. In the July/August timeframe, we will release a new compact compressor nebulizer and two new products in the conserver segment. These are core businesses for us and we take them very seriously.
What does the future look like for DeVil-biss?
In a word, bright! I could not be more enthusiastic about the opportunities in front of us. Our market demographics are very solid. We are listening to our markets, where we have a strong presence as a launching pad. Our management changes over the last few years have been very effective in focusing the organization, streamlining our processes, and investing in our future. At the end of the day, nothing is more productive than a highly energized team, and I am fortunate to be surrounded by exactly that.
