For Immediate Release
CONTACT: LuJean Smith
425.557.1337 office
lujean.smith@siemens.com

NEWLY FDA-APPROVED SONOCUR BASIC SYSTEM FROM SIEMENS HAS BEEN PROVIDING CANADIAN PATIENTS WITH SUCCESS SINCE 1997

ISELIN, N.J., July 23, 2002 - Vancouver, British Columbia, native Mat Chambers has been playing tennis competitively since he was 11 years of age, participating in nearly every junior national championship tournament in Canada until his eighteenth birthday. When he left home to continue his education, he continued playing tennis at Claremont McKenna College (Claremont, Calif.), and also was enjoying some success in semi-professional tournaments throughout southern California.

But all those years of playing tennis, with its repetitive motion and constant pounding, had taken their toll on the 20-something athlete. Chambers found himself battling a chronic case of lateral epicondylitis, a condition commonly referred to as tennis elbow. Physical rehabilitation and other treatments weren’t working, and he had to take a break from making his power serves. He even missed out on an opportunity to play in a European Satellite Circuit tournament with a group of college tennis players from California.

“I could hardly play because of the pain,” said Chambers, who is now 23 and studying law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law (San Francisco, Calif.). “I was thinking of forgetting it.”

It was then that he heard about the Vancouver, B.C. Sonorex Therapy Centre that was offering treatment with a SONOCUR® Basic extracorporeal shock wave therapy system from Siemens Medical Solutions, which has been approved for use in Europe since 1996 and in Canada since 1997. Following an exhaustive clinical trial, the device was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in the United States for the treatment of tennis elbow.

In January 2001, Chambers paid a visit to the Vancouver Sonorex Therapy Centre. Following a consultation, he underwent two treatments with the SONOCUR Basic device.

“My expectations were very high - I was really hoping the treatment would go well and I would have the opportunity to play tennis again,” said Chambers.

During his treatment with the SONOCUR Basic system, the articulating head of the device was placed onto the area where Chambers experienced pain. The device administered a preset number of pulses, or shock waves, at a low energy level during the anesthesia-free treatment.

“I’ve done a lot of rehabilitation in my back and arm, and I have to say that SONOCUR is fast, easy and nearly painless in comparison,” said Chambers.

Following treatment, Chambers was amazed to find himself returning to the tennis court, with a noticeable reduction in his pain.

“When you’ve gone through all the other options and realize how ineffective many other treatments are, you can’t help but be amazed at how well this treatment works,” he said. “It was unbelievable. It made a significant difference, so that I was not only able play in tournaments, I was able to win again.”
Chambers is happy to report that he hasn’t had a recurrence in the pain since the treatment a year ago. The only thing keeping him from playing tennis these days is studying for his law degree.
Brian Day, M.D., an associate professor in orthopedics at the University of British Columbia, has seen excellent results with the 6,500-plus treatments that have been given to patients like Chambers at the therapy center in Vancouver.

“In Canada, SONOCUR Basic continues to have a dramatic impact on treatment of such conditions as tennis elbow, which have been difficult to treat in the past because patients often don’t respond favorably to other available methods like surgery,” said Day. “SONOCUR Basic is a non-invasive, outpatient treatment that requires little recovery time for the patient, and is very cost effective. In fact, because the treatment is so cost effective and successful at relieving pain, the Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia is referring patients with lateral epicondylitis to the Vancouver Sonorex Therapy Centre prior to approving more drastic treatments such as surgery.”

Day reports that many elite athletes from the United States have come to Canada for treatment, including professional baseball, hockey, golf and basketball players. The athletes are attracted by the speedy results and short recovery time.
“For an athlete, a SONOCUR Basic treatment can mean the difference between winning and losing,” said Day.

Siemens Medical Solutions of Siemens AG (NYSE: SI) with headquarters in Iselin, NJ and Erlangen, Germany, is one of the largest suppliers to the healthcare industry in the world. The company is renowned for its innovative products, including imaging systems for diagnosis, therapy equipment for treatment, hearing instruments, and critical care and life support systems, as well as a wide array of information technology and data management solutions that optimize workflow and increase efficiency in hospitals, clinics and doctors' offices. The company is known as the premiere Application Service Provider processing more than 116 million transactions daily and managing more than 67 terabytes of data - twice the information volume of the Library of Congress.

Employing approximately 30,000 people worldwide, the company reported sales of 7.2 billion EUR, orders of 8.4 billion EUR and EBITA of 808 million EUR in fiscal 2001 (September 30). More information can be obtained by visiting us on the Web at www.siemensmedical.com.

Siemens AG, headquartered in Munich, is a leading global electronics and engineering company. It employs some 450,000 in 193 countries, and reported worldwide sales of more than $74 billion in fiscal 2001 (10/1/00 - 9/30/01). The United States is Siemens’ largest market, with nearly 80,000 employees and sales of $18.9 billion for fiscal 2001. For more information about Siemens in the U.S., visit www.usa.siemens.com.

For more information visit http://www.sonorex.ca or contact .