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Pratik Kukreja
Respironics, Inc. is a medical supply company that specializes in products that improve respiratory functions. It is based in the Pittsburgh suburb of Murrysville.
In 1976, company founder Gerald McGinnis opened the company's first manufacturing facility for anesthesia masks near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Previous product research and manufacturing had occurred in the founder's kitchen. Other early products included endotrachial and tracheostomy products.
The company introduced the first continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine for the treatment of sleep apnea in 1985. Three years later, in 1988, the company went public under the stock ticker symbol RESP. In 1992, Respironics received a patent for bi-level technology. This technology was originally intended as an improvement on CPAP, however, its use has expanded into the treatment of other breathing disorders such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Other significant milestones were the acquisition of the ventilator company, LIFECARE International in 1996, sleep apnea competitor, Healthdyne Technologies in 1998 and medical monitor and sensor leader, Novametrix in 2002.

Respironics, Inc., (RESP) announced that it will be consolidating product manufacturing activities and other support functions from the company's hospital division's Wallingford, Connecticut, plant to its Carlsbad, California, location.
This decision represents the final step in the company's integration of Novametrix Medical Systems, Inc., which Respironics acquired on April 12, 2002. The relocation will allow the company to standardize its manufacturing support and engineering functions at the Carlsbad plant, will enable the Wallingford facility to concentrate on new product research and development, and will improve the overall efficiency of the hospital division

Respironics, Inc. (Nasdaq: RESP), the global resource in the respiratory medical device industry, today announced it has completed deployment of MindMatters Technologies Innovator™, a comprehensive management platform for intellectual assets that facilitates capture, collaboration, and commercialization of new and emerging innovations.

Commenting on the installation, Doug Mechlenburg, Respironics' vice president of engineering said, "Respironics, itself, is an innovative success story. Since our company's inception, we have grown by focusing on the needs of clinicians and patients and pioneering new solutions with successful product development. MindMatters' Innovator was a natural fit because it allowed us to highlight the invention process, improve our efficiency in managing new ideas and give the entire process added structure."

Describing the benefits of Innovator, Mechlenburg commented, "Even though we've only been using Innovator since July 2002, we're already seeing results -- our R&D idea submissions have tripled over the whole of the previous year. Of course, we realize it's not just a numbers game. Our belief, however, is that getting our people more actively engaged in thinking about and sharing new product ideas will only lead to more successful and profitable innovations. And there's a strong cultural benefit inherent to the system, as well. It clearly demonstrates management's commitment to new ideas, and that is extremely important if you want to create an environment conducive to new thinking."

"Innovator also provides a systematic approach to building new levels of collaboration among engineers," said Stephanie Lattner, Respironics' Homecare Division research manager and project manager for the MindMatters implementation. "It provides effective capture and allows them to record, develop and post their ideas, evaluate other submissions and share their expertise with other R&D areas, and access the knowledge of other engineers across our four divisions, including our overseas locations, which have also incorporated Innovator. In fact, several of our most active users are based overseas in Belgium. Innovator has enabled them to collaborate much more effectively with people here." She also added, "An important key in stimulating the collaborative process is Innovator's Management dashboards and reporting engine, which lets us measure performance and reward contributions to the process in a variety of ways."

"What makes us unique as a business," Cassius Elston, MindMatters' CEO explained, "is our ability to deliver comprehensive Innovation Intelligence™ across the enterprise. Companies like Respironics fully appreciate that the innovation process is arguably the most important and vital process in business today. They're focused on unlocking the potential of their employees and growing through new, breakthrough products and services. We enable a more effective and productive innovation process leading to improved financial performance for our customers."

While continuing the tradition of innovation was the key driver for Respironics selecting Innovator, the system has also streamlined the process of managing intellectual assets and the patent submission process, a process that is taking on added significance for many companies today as the value and importance of intellectual property continues to grow. "The increase in submissions of new inventions is keeping our patent attorneys quite busy - something that is strategically essential to us. And we've been able to completely quit our paper system of patent information retrieval, making the task much more efficient overall," said Lattner.

John Gabrick, MindMatters' president and COO, added, "We designed Innovator to help companies discover and realize the commercial potential of breakthrough innovations, but it doesn't end there. With today's market windows becoming ever shorter, speeding new innovations to market has never been more important. Companies need improved capture, efficient workflow, improved analysis and prioritization of promising ideas, as well as increased oversight and protection of these intangible assets as they move forward towards commercialization. We could not be more pleased to see Respironics beginning to use our solution to its full potential."

"Ultimately, the marketplace rewards companies who are innovative with technologies, know-how and products. At Respironics, we're focused on innovation that will ensure that we continue to grow profitably, and the MindMatters solution is an integral part of that focus," said Mechlenburg.


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