Massage or Chiropractic Therapy Catalog

This is LeBlond, Gerard LeBlond with a catalog update that would be of interest to Chiropractic and massage therapy service providers.

Medical Arts Press (at www.medicalartspress.com) publishes a Chiropractic and Massage Therapy Edition of their catalog that is advertised as "America's helping hands for healtcare supplies!"

If you are interested in portable or full size massage tables this is the place to see pictures and prices.

Interested in having tote bags with the name of your practice written on them... this is the place to see how much it would cost to have 100, 250, 500 or 1000 made for you along with the one-time plate charge. You can even choose from 7 foil imprint colors.

Maybe you want to give away business card magnets or have a supply of foil embossed "Thank you" cards. This is the place to go.

But there's more, like massage tools, knee elevators, cryocup and trays, teddy bears (for children patients), open shelf files, 30 channel electronic timers, freezers, stools to sit upon, insurance forms, claim status inquiry form, insurance authorization chart labels, patient insurance chart labels, claim forms, software to automate insurance claims filing, reference books, postcards for marketing, personalized pens, promotional window clings and stickers for children.

Suppose you don't have time to author and print up information pamphlets to education your patients. What do you do?

Well, you could order pre-made instuction pamphlets with a space on the back page for you to put your firm's name or stamp... of course you would have your office staff do this during the slow times.

You can also get single imprint peel-off sticker appointment cards or designer appointment cards.

"But my receptionist needs an appointment book!" you cry out.

Well, there are code-a-log appointment systems, dated daily 2-column appointment logs, undated daily 3-column jumbo appointment logs.

There are dated daily 8-column appointment books and dated weekly appointment books, and even undated ones.

Looking for stationery? You can design your own with raised letter printing (the type that gives the impression that the letters cast a shadow) or bold flat printing. You can even include a professional logo and you can pick your ink color and paper color along with type style.

There are pegboard systems, labels, clinical forms, magazine racks, acrylic holders, framed name badges, ink stamps and professional name badges.

Not to mention the polo shirts complete with embroidered name and logos.

Let's not forget the disposable sheets, pillow covers and table papers. Or, the germicidal disposable wipes and towel dispensers.

Yeeicks! a patient needs a cold pack. No problemo if you ordered a reusable cold pack or a hot and cold therapy pack or the reusable cold and hot compresses.

There are also ankle wraps and multi-purpose ones.

Got X-rays you need to view? It's easy if you have an x-ray illuminator attached to your wall.

What? You don't want to take down the Monets, Van Goghs, and Picassos from your wall? Well, why not place your illuminator on a desktop?

Now, for the good stuff: professional body massager with front hand grip to help stabilize the unit or a variable speed massager that looks like it came off the shelf of the local Home Depot's rotary sander section.

Filing supplies, envelopes, 2 or 3 hole punches, color coded year labels and storage boxes... all can be found at Medical Arts Press, 8500 Wyoming Avenue North, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55445-1825 or by calling their toll-free number at 1-800-328-2179.

Having said that I can throw away my sample copy and thereby unclutter my office space.

Catalogs as Reference Guides

This is LeBlond, Gerard LeBlond and in the various jobs I've held over the years there is one thing that I noticed that few people talk about outside a field of work.

I'm talking about catalogs that pertain to a particular field.

These books appear free in the mail to people who are in a well defined niche.

For instance, did you know that molecular biologist use product catalogs as reference guides?

They do and they prefer these to the text books that they had to buy and read when they were students... but,

In the lab you rarely see textbooks on the counter-tops... instead you'll find manufacturer catalogs.

For instance, suppose I want to know what DNA sequence is recognized and cleaved by the restriction enzyme EcoR I.

You could do a Google search at google.com or you could pull the "New England Biolabs" catalog from your self... flip through the pages under restriction enzymes and Voila! You quickly discover that...

EcoR I recognizes GAATTC and cuts between the G and the A (of both the top strand and its complement strand creating a staggered cut yielding a 5' overhang. You'll also find the reaction conditions that are most favorable for this enzyme and you'll get storage conditions and other notes of interest.

If I want to cleave DNA to make a blunt cut between the first T and the second A of the sequence GATATC I would discover, from the same catalog, that EcoR V would do the trick.

These catalogs are virtual gold-mines of information. The info is organized in a convenient format and the information is given freely to people who are actively working in the field.

Why is this done?

The manufacturers have discovered that catalogs in the form of handy reference tools will be kept, used and when particular supplies need to be purchased it's likely that the user will order from the company with the most useful catalog.

So, there you have it.

Since every industry has its favorite catalogs the purpose of this blog will be to periodically post the names of catalogs that are useful for particular occupations.