Looking for a Jump Start

The 1980s were the glory years for the electromedical industry, leading manufacturers say. It was a decade when the market for electromedical products soared to its peak, and a time when the practice of chiropractics was hip and trendy, “almost a status thing,” says Kevin Doyle, purchasing manager for Amrex. “Chiropractors were traveling with rock stars,” he says.

But while some electromedical manufacturers say the industry hit its prime in the 1980s, most say they are content to operate in the afterglow of that heyday. Industry leaders describe today's market as stable, healthy and growing — albeit conservatively.

“[I anticipate] considerable growth for the next five to six years straight,” says Thomas Rodenberg, national sales manager for Parker Laboratories.

From Trendy to Mainstream

No longer simply a chic trend, “electromedical therapy has evolved into a significant therapy in modern medicine,” says Julie Schneider, director of marketing for Med Direct.

According to the experts, developments in electromedical device technology aided this evolution. For centuries — since a time when even electric eels were used in muscle stimulation — electricity has been used to treat medical patients, Doyle says.

Although therapists and electromedical device manufacturers no longer rely on electric-eel therapy, still “there is not much you can change about electric shock,” Doyle says.

“You don't see huge, bright, new earth-shattering developments in our business, because a large portion of treatment is done with the hands,” he says. “Our equipment is an add-on to that.”

Still, new technology has made electromedical products easier to use, says Gary Smith, president of Medical Science Products. This “user-friendliness” is facilitated in part by the advent of digital technology.

“More [electromedical] products are digital instead of analog,” says Robert Armstrong, president of Newwave Medical. “Everything has moved in that direction.”

“We went digital because we were responding to a generation that was going digital,” says Hans Reiss, vice president of BioMedical Life Systems. “We knew we had to do it.”

This transition “opened up the door,” to opportunities to upgrade the devices, Reiss says. “It allowed us to use computer chips to add more features. It allowed the end user to use the device more easily.”