The Many Paths to Design Excellence

Originally Published MX May/June 2002

BUSINESS PLANNING & TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

The Many Paths to Design Excellence

The winners of this year's Medical Design Excellence Awards are united by a common focus on effective medical design.

Renee DiIulio

When John Bottjer purchased Geiger Instrument Co. in 1995, he knew that its long-term future was uncertain. The company had manufactured thermal cautery units for more than 80 years, and change had been slow in coming. The company's then-current cautery unit had not been updated in more than four decades. A redesign "was a matter of survival for Geiger," Bottjer recalls. "The previous unit had stable sales with little growth potential and was insufficient for the company to continue long term."

As part of the turnaround, the company was renamed Geiger Medical Technologies and relocated to Monarch Beach, CA. More importantly, though, Bottjer set out to update the company's flagship thermal cautery unit. He began with an intense period of analyzing the market and interviewing users. Then, together with an electronics