KARL STORZ and Fujifilm Announce Strategic Relationship to Transform Endoscopy

EL SEGUNDO, CA & LEXINGTON, MA (August 26, 2024) - KARL STORZ United States, a global leader in Operating Room (OR) integration, has teamed up with FUJIFILM Healthcare Americas Corporation (Fujifilm), a leading provider of endoscopic imaging and endosurgical solutions, to provide comprehensive solutions for endoscopists and surgeons.

The companies will jointly market Fujifilm’s industry-leading flexible gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopes along with best-in-class OR integration solutions from KARL STORZ. Through this collaboration, Fujifilm and KARL STORZ aim to enable surgical ORs, routine and interventional hospital GI suites, and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) to experience the benefits of innovative OR integration and cutting-edge flexible endoscopes in settings where many GI and surgical OR procedures are performed.

Through innovative OR integration, many hospitals may seek to achieve greater efficiency while impacting patient care; interventional GI suites and standalone ASCs can now realize similar value. Flexible GI scopes play an integral role in colorectal, rectal, and bariatric surgery as well as routine and interventional GI procedures with the aim to enable procedural success and prevent complications; through modular integration, the information from these scopes can be streamed, captured, archived, and broadcast along with input from other sources to provide meaningful clinical information for surgeons.

“We’re excited to work with Fujifilm to deliver the next generation of innovation to endoscopists, surgeons, and their patients,” said Christy Gaudet, VP of Surgical Sales & Marketing at KARL STORZ United States. “KARL STORZ offers unrivaled enterprise expertise in integrated workflow delivery and network-based solutions, while Fujifilm continues to set the standard in flexible GI endoscopy. With our combined resources, we are redefining a modern-day GI suite, where all digital content in aggregate may contribute to elevated patient care.”

"As innovators in endoscopic imaging, we understand that endoscopists and surgeons can benefit greatly with access to more comprehensive image and video routing and display that further optimizes visualization during intraoperative and therapeutic procedures," says Taisuke Fujita, general manager of endoscopy at FUJIFILM Healthcare Americas Corporation. "We’re thrilled to collaborate with KARL STORZ, a leading provider of OR integration solutions, to expand the reach of our combined innovations to advance patient care."

As part of the arrangement, the two companies will approach the market together in offering Fujifilm GI endoscopes together with KARL STORZ OR integration solutions and work collaboratively to evolve the state of care delivery. 

About KARL STORZ

KARL STORZ is an innovative leader in endoscopic technology and surgical imaging solutions across virtually all surgical specialties. Its integrated OR solutions are designed to enhance collaboration to improve clinical efficiency and outcomes inside the hospital and other sites of care. With subsidiaries around the world, KARL STORZ is a family-owned company based in Germany that designs, engineers, manufactures, and markets all its products with an emphasis on visionary design, precision craftsmanship, and clinical effectiveness. For more information, visit www.karlstorz.com.

About Fujifilm

FUJIFILM Healthcare Americas Corporation is a comprehensive healthcare company that has an extensive range of technology and expertise in the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. Fujifilm’s innovative portfolio includes solutions spanning diagnostic imaging, enterprise imaging, endoscopic imaging, surgical imaging, and in-vitro diagnostics. The company is headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit healthcaresolutions-us.fujifilm.com.

FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, leverages its depth of knowledge and proprietary core technologies to deliver innovative products and services across the globe through the four key business segments of healthcare, electronics, business innovation, and imaging with over 70,000 employees. Guided and united by our Group Purpose of “giving our world more smiles,” we address social challenges and create a positive impact on society through our products, services, and business operations. Under its medium-term management plan, VISION2030, which ends in FY2030, we aspire to continue our evolution into a company that creates value and smiles for various stakeholders as a collection of global leading businesses and achieve a global revenue of 4 trillion yen. For more information, please visit: www.fujifilmholdings.com.