Edward Dunlay
Rehab Management asked Edward R. Dunlay, PT, the Chattanooga Group’s vice president of marketing, to talk about the history, products, and future plans at the Hixson, Tenn, manufacturer and distributor of medical, physical rehabilitation, and chiropractic equipment.
Q. When and how was The Chattanooga Group started?
A.The Chattanooga Group began as Chattanooga Pharmacal in 1947, founded by local athletic trainer Lee Jenson and his business partner, Jack Walker. Our first product, the Hydrocollator® Steam Pack®, was the first of its kind for the application of moist heat in the clinical setting. It has become one of the most commonly used therapy products in physical medicine.
Q. How has the company changed over the years?
A. Chattanooga Pharmacal grew steadily and diversified, adding other products under the Hydrocollator® brand, including Hydrocollator® heating units and ColPaC® cold packs. In the late 1970s, the company was purchased by John Maley and Bob McNeal and became The Chattanooga Group, with a vision of becoming the largest provider of rehabilitation products in the world. A few years back, Chattanooga was acquired by Encore Medical, an orthopedic implant company.
Q. What are some of your most widely used products?
A. The biggest brand name we have is Hydrocollator®, which includes hot packs, heating units, cold packs, and chilling units. We are proud to be the largest provider of clinical hot and cold therapy in the world. The second-leading brand for us is Intelect®, which includes clinical electrotherapy, ultrasound, and combination electrotherapy and ultrasound. We have also built the brand names Triton and Adapta, diverse lines of clinical high-low and fixed-height treatment tables and mechanical traction systems.
Q. What is your company working on now?
A.In the past 12 months, we launched a complete new line of modalities: VectraTM Genisys, a unique multimodality system that includes electrotherapy, ultrasound, surface EMG, surface EMG-activated muscle stimulation, and laser-in-one clinical platform; Intelect Transport, which includes a two-channel electrotherapy system and a 1-MHz and 3.3-MHz ultrasound unit; Intelect Legend XT, which offers two- and four-channel electrotherapy, and combination electrotherapy ultrasound; and the VectraTM Genisys Laser, a portable low-level laser system that offers eight laser probes. The Genisys and Intelect Transport line were awarded several honors for industrial design and operating functionality, including those at the 2004 Industrial Society of America Design Awards, the Medical Device Excellence Awards, and the Australian Industrial Design Awards.
Q. What are the company’s future goals?
A.To continue to build our core business units of patient care, electrotherapy, tables and traction, chiropractic, CPM, and dysphagia. We have added greatly to our engineering team, are supporting several new R&D initiatives, and are helping facilitate research into new clinical therapies.
Q. How do you see the market evolving in the next few years?
A.Managing the needs of the Baby Boomer generation is one key direction. The other is to keep focused and expand our core business segments.
—By Danielle Cohen
