Medical Device and Service Buying Breakthrough - ZapConnect Revolutionizes Medical Device Purchasing

SANTA ANA, Calif.-A new, groundbreaking Internet innovation promises to save billions of dollars a year currently wasted in medical device and service purchases by automating the way companies and individuals find the best products, at the best prices.

The Efficient Healthcare Consumer Report published by Price Waterhouse Coopers states that 23 billion in supply chain costs are wasted in inefficiency. Before these costs can be saved, the negotiating companies have to be able to find each other.

ZapConnect (www.zapconnect.com) eliminates uncertainty and time-consuming expense by connecting customers, manufacturers, subcontractors and service providers via the only online medical device directory of its kind -- constantly updated, always available, and exhaustively complete.

"Using the very best search engine online to find a catheter, you get 430,000 hits," said ZapConnect President M.L. "Bud" Warrick. "But it turns up everything from a commentary on catheter embolization to therapeutic techniques for small animal diagnostics, and you still must literally click through to each Web site to see if the so-called 'hit' is really what you searched for."

By comparison, ZapConnect's new online directory returns precise matches for 2,500 catheters and catheter parts sold by 700 specific companies in an up-to-date online database, complete with part descriptions, competitive differentiation and the ability to download a brochure. It is the ultimate medical database comparison-shopping system.

Ninety-seven percent of purchases for technical and industrial products are initiated by buyers rather than sellers, and half of them go first to directories, which typically are cumbersome, out-of-date, incomplete paper catalogs. ZapConnect's revolutionary new directory puts buyers in control, and allows sellers to compete head-to-head on price and features. No other system -- online or off -- compares.

ZapConnect's database contains 81,000 FDA-approved products, 36,000 manufacturers and subcontractors, 34,000 service providers and 39,000 distributors and Retailers. Also included are 85,000 industry links.

Warrick estimates 350,000 potential users of the system, including the vast federal Medicare complex, which alone estimates it wastes $11 billion a year in supply chain inefficiencies.

One Veterans' Administration purchasing analyst already pronounced ZapConnect to be, "a considerable improvement over our current system." For about the price of an old-fashioned paper directory, manufacturers, distributors and care providers at any time can enhance their online listings by adding downloadable brochures, searchable keywords, product descriptions, company information and even refute FDA comments. If all this wasn't enough, the site also contains a job bank and classified ads.

For more information about ZapConnect.com, call 714/953-2731 or visit the Web site at http://www.ZapConnect.com/.