Spacelabs Healthcare

:"Spacelabs redirects here. This article is about a healthcare company For information on the space shuttle laboratory see spacelab"

Spacelabs Healthcare , based in Issaquah, Washington, is a global manufacturer and distributor of medical devices and services. The company is currently organized into four major business units:
* Patient Monitoring & Connectivity
* Anesthesia Delivery & Ventilation
* Diagnostic Cardiology
* Clinical Trial Services

Spacelabs Healthcare was incorporated in 2005 by majority owner OSI Systems (nasdaq2|OSIS) to combine their various acquired medical business units including Spacelabs Medical, Blease Medical, Dolphin Medical, and Osteometer. Although briefly listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM exchange, in December 2007, OSI Systems purchased all outstanding shares and became sole owner of Spacelabs Healthcare.

In summer of 2006, Spacelabs acquired the Del Mar Reynolds division of Ferraris Group plc (lse2|FER).

pacelabs Medical History

The Patient Monitoring & Connectivity business unit was created out of the former Spacelabs Medical business. Spacelabs Medical was founded in 1958 by Ben Ettelson and James Reeves to develop equipment for monitoring the vital signs of astronauts. During the 1960s the company's focus shifted towards developing monitoring systems for hospitals and developed a reputation for being extremely innovativeFact|date=February 2007.

In 1980, pharmaceutical giant, Squibb Medical acquired Spacelabs and moved operations to Redmond, Washington. In 1986, Spacelabs, along with the imaging systems unit Adanced Technology Laboratories (ATL) were spun off to form Westmark International Inc.

In 1992, Westmark spun off Spacelabs Medical under CEO Carl A. Lombardi and it began trading on NASDAQ under the symbol SLMD. (ATL was acquired by Philips Medical Systems shortly thereafter).

Through the 1990s, Spacelabs made several acquisitions to grow its product offerings including: First Medical Devices Corp. (heart defibrillators), Consolidated Peritronics Medical, Inc. (perinatal information systems), Advanced Medical Systems, and its largest purchase, Madison, Wisconsin based Burdick.

The early 2000s brought tough times to Spacelabs. Faced with a downturn in the business, the company drifted into the red with losses reported almost every quarter. In November 2000, Cardiac Science attempted a hostile takeover with a $143 million offer, but did not succeed.

In 2002 Spacelabs was sold to Helsinki, Finland based Instrumentarium, which trimmed the company, selling off Burdick to Quinton Cardiology Systems (later acquired by Cardiac Science) and other "non-core" divisions. In this same time period, Spacelabs sold their headquarters to Microsoft, and moved operations to a smaller facility in nearby Issaquah.

In 2003 GE Healthcare purchased Instrumentarium. To satisfy concerns raised by regulatory agencies about what would be the combination of 3 of the world's largest medical monitoring companies (Spacelabs, GE, and Instrumentarium's Datex-Ohmeda division), GE was forced to divest Spacelabs.

OSI Systems purchased Spacelabs Medical in 2004.

Blease Medical History

The core of the Anesthesia Delivery & Ventilation business unit was formed by the acquisition of Blease Medical by OSI Systems in 2005.

Blease was formed in 1946 by John Blease who developed the 'Pulmoflator' positive pressure ventilator. For the first 14 years, Blease incrementally improved this product incorporating the company as "Blease Anaesthetic Equipment Ltd." in 1956.

In 1960, Blease began production of an entirely new line of ventilators, the "Manley" ventilator (named after designer Roger Manley) which featured two bellows.

In 1965, John Blease sold the company and retired. For the next 25 years, the company made incremental changes to the Manley ventilator technology however since the company had not developed any significant new products, the company became an increasingly minor player in the anesthesia market. Throughout the 1990s, Blease focused on research and development, delivering several new products based upon new technology platforms improving their market position.