THE STORY: In 2001, ALCOR Scientific Inc. was formed after Diagnostic Systems Corp. and OST Medical merged into a single entity. According to the company, ALCOR’s name is derived from one of the two binary stars in the Ursa Major constellation – meaning that the potential for innovation is infinite. Two decades later, ALCOR’s market for medical devices has focused on historically inefficient, underserved health care segments of society. It has two different product lines, the Sentinel brand enteral feeding pumps and the iSED and miniiSED Automated Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate Analyzer.
› The SentinelPlus is a feeding pump that delivers all enteral feeding formulas. The iSED and miniiSED ESR analyzers perform tests that are helpful in evaluating and monitoring the progress of conditions associated with acute and chronic inflammation. It can be used as a screening test, to aid in diagnosis, to aid in differential diagnosis, and to monitor response to therapy.
› ALCOR manufacturers more than 5,000 such devices annually. The feeding pumps are used in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities to support critically ill patients. The iSED and miniiSED are used in clinical diagnostics laboratories of all sizes.
› ALCOR employs more than 50 people in North Smithfield, with about 20 of them being on the production team.
› ALCOR analyzers use quantimetric photometry to capture the impact of the early phase of red blood cell sedimentation – the rouleaux formation. This is the most critical stage of the ESR because the size of the red blood cell aggregates in direct proportion to ESR values. ESR values increase according to the presence and intensity of inflammation.
