The Dallas area -- the local Spine MED distributor -- is apparently helping local chirporactors to participate in infomercial television time to promote decompression therapy centers. I posted their link before #msg-19845649
This is apparently the market SYDI has decided to enter... either as a distributor or as a syndicator of spinal decomp centers... I don't know yet for sure but it would be nice to know...
SpineMED is pushing their equipment. Chiropractors think this is a potential gold mine for them, but the capital outlay is easily more than $125k just to get started including equipment, space and staff alone... with promotion costs, it's AT LEAST $225k+ for the first year alone.
"Pricing: The SpineMED sells for $95,000 for the S200B Lumbar only unit, or $119,000 for the lumbar/cervical combo, which includes shipping, installation, training, and a two year parts and labor warranty." http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/03/06/1430617.htm
If an individual chiropractor can't afford this, a shared spinemed table "center" gives chiropractors a chance to market a service under their name and share in the profits.
This is not so different from the medical model for shared profits in medical laboratory services, MRI, CT scan (and just lately PET scan centers) that MDs and DOs (medical doctors) have had their hands in for a long time...
Chiropractors have been looking for a sexy, para-medical, technology oriented treatment alternative that the public will flock to, and that there is good insurance reimbursement for...and this is apparently a pretty good one... They have to do a lot of $40 visits to turn a profit on an average chiropractic office day... they are getting into technologies to try and increase their revenue per visit....
The promotion of these spinal decomp centers -- the key sales point is that decomp therapy offers about an 86% success rate with herniated and bulging disc pain...and avoidance of back surgery. The device is FDA approved for certain uses by chiros. They also have CPT codes that they can use for insurance billing, which is huge. SO this is a profitable enterprise if handled right.
If the infomation I have is correct, it looks like Syndication is planning to syndicate a spine decomp therapy table among a group of chiropractors and promote it, and if it works, repeat the model. There are a lot of chiros interested in this decomp therapy syndication model... they want to be on television... and have no idea of how to make their marketing pay off in the office... there are several who would bite on this, imo...
This local Dallas doctor started her television infomercials just recently: http://www.chiropracticsolution.com/ << she bought her own, it looks like, so she is into this at least $200k now. She is in Plano, Texas which is a middle-upper crust suburb of Dallas.
So, if someone can get Sorrentino to confirm this, that would be great, but I have a pretty good hunch that this is the business plan. SYDI has been dormant for the longest because it looks to me like they have not found a decent repeatable business model to "syndicate".... no guarantees this will succeeed...
But I will tell you this is a "hot topic" with chiroractors right now... the "me too" crowd -- the chiropractos that would not outlay $225k+ to do this early on -- are now seeing their peers get into it and are jealous and pissed that they didn't get in early is looking to profit from this... so the greed factor is kicking in with this whole deal...
"Sanna: Spinal decompression therapy is the hottest passive modality in chiropractic today and will continue to be so in the year ahead. This being said, it is essential that chiropractors carefully consider how they choose to implement this modality in their practices. Effective marketing is one of the keys to the success of spinal-decompression therapy, and chiropractors must be cautious about any claims they make concerning the modality. A careful review of CPT® coding compliance is also prudent when billing insurance carriers for this previously all-cash service." http://www.chiropub.com/issues/articles/2007-02_06.asp
Check out the sales pitch on this used table: http://www.dotmed.com/listing/284019 "We can have financing approval in as little as 2 hrs. Monthly payments around $1500/mo. Just ONE case/mo. will net you PROFITS with decompression therapy using this table...."
SO, I have no information from the company. But I wanted to pass along what I think is going on here... I thought the item in their Q SEC filing about buying a spinal decomp table was rather strange initially. But after I looke dinto it, if they have a real business plan, the operator of a spinal decomp center has some decent profit potential, imo.
On the other hand, I could be totally wrong. If someone has better information, feel free to pass it along.........
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
