Health Solutions

Cardiac Science Corporation

Cardiac Science Corporation innovates solutions for the medical device with the help of Pioneer Plastics Inc. Improving New Product Development lead times through rapid prototype, DFM, mold flow and China tooling capability. Driving customer satisfaction through thermoplastic & thermoset molding, assembly, global manufacturing,etc.

Sudden cardiac arrest is a life-threatening emergency that affects more than 350,000 people of all ages every year and is the third-leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation. Most often, sudden cardiac arrest occurs at home or in public places. A fast and effective response is vital to the victim’s chance of survival.

“The chance of survival goes down dramatically without intervention – about 10 percent a minute – so you need intervention quickly,” Cardiac Science Corporation (CSC) CEO Dev Kurdikar says. “Unlike a heart attack where the problem is blockage, sudden cardiac arrest is an electrical malfunctioning in the heart, so first responders can do CPR, but they also need a defibrillator to correct the malfunction. Your best bet is having an automated external defibrillator nearby, and Cardiac Science’s products have been in the marketplace for several decades.”

Based in Deerfield, Wis., CSC specializes in the design, manufacturing and marketing of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and related services that facilitate successful deployments. Its mission is to help save lives by providing the public and healthcare professionals with life-saving AEDs. CSC is committed to eliminating the needless delays between sudden cardiac arrest and life-saving defibrillation by ensuring AEDs are accessible and easy to use.

Rebuilding a Brand

Despite filing for bankruptcy in 2015, CSC is stronger today than ever before under the ownership of Los Angeles-based private equity firm Aurora Resurgence. “Today, we are a healthy, growing company with brand-new leadership, a full new product pipeline and an energized employee base – more than 40 percent have joined the company in the past three years,” Kurdikar notes. “It’s a significant turnaround. We are very well capitalized, profitable and growing.”

Kurdikar came to the company in 2016, bringing with him two decades of experience in the healthcare industry. “This is a unique space,” he says. “If someone has sudden cardiac arrest, you can increase their chance of survival with an AED and Cardiac Science’s mission of saving lives in an emergency was appealing to me.”

Protecting Lives

Cardiac Science’s Powerheart AED family of products lead the industry when it comes to ease of use and maintenance. “We focus on the needs of three constituents: what’s best for the victim of sudden cardiac arrest, what’s best for the rescuer using it and what’s best for the person responsible for maintaining the devices,” Kurdikar explains. “The victim wants it to work, the rescuer wants it to be easy to use and the person responsible for maintenance wants a solution that is easy to manage and maintain.”

The company’s Powerheart AEDs perform a comprehensive series of daily, weekly and monthly self-tests that ensure the AED is always ready to rescue. “Our self-test is really a differentiator. We don’t just test to see if the electrodes are attached, but whether they are actually going to work and are functionally active,” Kurdikar says. “Most competitors only test once a week. Powerheart AEDS test daily and also have a prominent visual indicator: green if it passes its self-tests and red if it fails.”

There are also many markets where the company has a limited presence; it sees these as major opportunities for growth and is hoping to increase its marketshare moving forward. “Japan, Brazil, Russia, India and China are all AED markets where we have only limited presence,” Kurdikar says. “We have significant growth in the markets we are in and will keep that going while adding on new products and new markets.”