Our History

Dietmar Garbe was asked by the Medical Research Council Pneumoconiosis Panel to source or develop a simple, office spirometer to screen coal miners for pneumoconiosis, commonly called ‘Black Lung’. Up until this point spirometry could only be done in laboratories.

The result was ‘The Vitalograph’, from the essential features, ‘vital capacity’ and ‘graph’. Manufacture of Vitalograph Spirometers began within the old stables in the grounds of Dietmar and Margaret’s family home, Maids Moreton House.

Acceptance of the robust, portable Vitalograph Spirometer is fast and widespread in the UK and for many people the Vitalograph name became synonymous with spirometry.

With the success of the Vitalograph Spirometer, supply capacity far exceeded demand and a new purpose-built medical device factory unit was built at Maids Moreton House to manufacture the Vitalograph.

The workforce of Vitalograph Ltd gradually grew, largely from people living in the village of Maids Moreton and the nearby town of Buckingham.

With the success of Vitalograph in the UK, thoughts turned to expansion by export. This was not an easy thing to do in the 1960’s with currency control and low growth, as well as import barriers in many countries.  The acquisition of international distributors was led by Margaret Garbe who continued in this role until her death in 1974.

A Vitalograph sales office and warehouse opened in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Later the office/warehouse moved across the state line to Lenexa Kansas, where it remains today.

Dietmar started to develop the concept of a low-cost Peak Flow Meter after being inspired when he saw an idea for a maximum velocity ski anemometer strapped to a skier’s shoulder.

While the first part of the Ennis factory was being built, manufacturing started in a former garage building owned by Ted Sheils, a founding director of Vitalograph (Ireland) Ltd.

The ‘Peak Flow Monitor’ was brought to production in the USA. The simple mechanical peak flow meter is today regarded by many physicians as an essential tool in the home management of asthma.

This year also saw the launch of the first Vitalograph electronic device, the very successful ‘Digital Meter’ which was developed and manufactured in Maids Moreton.

A new purpose built Vitalograph manufacturing plant opened in Ennis, Co Clare, Ireland in 1976, the first of many expansion phases.

Dietmar and Margaret’s youngest son, Marcus, joined Vitalograph in 1978 as a trainee. He was followed 2 years later by his older brother, Bernard, who is now the current managing director.

The Vitalograph traditional spirometer was awarded a GS (safety) award from the TÜV in Germany. This involved the development of a ‘safety mouthpiece’, which became the patented and very successful ‘SafeTway’ mouthpiece.

This year also saw of the birth of PC spirometry, and Vitalograph Spirotrac Software.

The recognition that a full electronic spirometer was required to compete with Japanese competition led to the commencement of a project to develop the Vitalograph COMPACT. After extensive research into the ‘best’ flow measuring technology for physiological breath measurements, the Fleisch technology was chosen for its accuracy and robustness.

Vitalograph launches the 1-L Precision Syringe to allow simple daily accuracy checks as recommended by the new ATS guidelines on spirometry. Vitalograph was among other experts from the industry actively involved with the creation of these early guidelines.

This was a champagne year for Vitalograph, starting with a Design Council Award for the highly successful Emergency Aspirator presented to Vitalograph by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh in London. 1985 also saw the creation of the holding company Vitalograph Medical Instrumentation Ltd in Ireland and the opening of a significant new factory extension in Ennis.

This year saw the formation of Vitalograph Inc. when Bernard took his family to live in Kansas City for two years to develop this important market for Vitalograph. The Vitalograph COMPACT won both a Design Council Award, and a gold medal for design from the Leipzig Messe in the DDR (pre-unification East Germany).

In 1988 Vitalograph celebrated its Silver Jubilee. The climax of the celebrations was a dinner party in Althorp House, home of the Spencer family, with our international distributors. Princess Diana, patron of the British Lung Foundation, was photographed being tested with a Vitalograph spirometer at Brompton Hospital.

The Vitalograph Escort spirometer is launched this year as well as the Spirotrac III on IBM PCs with DOS OS and Windows 3.1. The ALPHA desktop spirometer, launched two years earlier with a Lilly flowhead, gains inspiratory measurement capability with a Fleisch flowhead. This device was hugely successful in Germany for the newly formed Vitalograph GmbH.

The successful Vitalograph 2120 hand held spirometer is launched, as well as the Vitalograph Bacterial Viral Filter (BVF). This innovative consumable improved bacterial/viral efficiency from 50% to over 99%.

A new bespoke inhaler trainer device, was developed using an ASIC and mobile phone microphone technology developed by the pharmaceutical company sponsor.

The Vitalograph micro and PEF/FEV Diary is launched. The purpose of the Diary was to give Vitalograph an entry into electronic diaries for clinical trials and was hugely successful, with tens of thousands being used in clinical trials.

2001 was an excellent year for spirometer sales, with record sales of both the Vitalograph 2120 and the Vitalograph ALPHA. The Ennis factory is expanded to meet demand.

In late 2002 Vitalograph won a contract to became the main contractor in a major respiratory clinical trial on a new respiratory medicine with centralised electronic data capture. This included a sophisticated QA over-read system. At this time most clinical trials were still paper based, being fully electronic was unusual and a major strategic advantage for Vitalograph.

The very successful Vitalograph Reports is launched to give free report generation facility to the 2120 and the re-launched Vitalograph Micro.

In 2007 Vitalograph moved into new purpose built offices to accommodate the growing business and special facilities for clinical research security.

This year also saw the launch of the 4000 series respiratory monitors, starting with the asma-1 and the highly innovative copd-6.

Spirometry Over-Read Services, long used in clinical trials, commenced in primary care practices.

The copd-6 device won a prestigious DBA Design Award. Later in the year USB and serial comms versions of the 4000 series devices were launched.

An extended range of BVFs to fit most spirometers and PF Lab equipment was also launched this year.

The highly successful 4000 series Bluetooth versions are launched along with developer’s kits to aid applications software designers in connectivity. Real-time home respiratory monitoring becomes a reality, now offered by many service providers in this growing sector of healthcare.

The Bluetooth® word, mark and logos are registered trademarks owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and any use of such marks by Vitalograph is under license.

The In2itive hand-held spirometer and e-diary, as well as a new ALPHA and the ALPHA Touch spirometer are launched this year.

The new DPI and MDI inhaler tester is launched in generic form and in the highly successful OEM form.

Sales of Bluetooth 4000 series respiratory monitors also take off this year with CRO and e-diary companies, particularly in USA.

In 2012 demand for devices, particularly the In2itive increased significantly. The service side of the business including technical support is made global with the Hong Kong office.

With rapid growth, many new employees are recruited in Vitalograph Inc, Vitalograph Ltd and Vitalograph (Ireland) Ltd.

Vitalograph GmbH realises the group’s first virtual warehouse operations as sales increase rapidly.

After several years of development, this 50th year for the company sees the commencement of the first clinical trial with the Vitalograph Bluetooth 12-lead EGC, integrated into Spirotrac software.

A new version of the COMPACT is launched now a medical work-station, no longer simply a spirometer.

Vitalograph celebrates 50 Years with a garden party celebrated by all staff and commercial partners from 50 countries.

Joseph Garbe joins Vitalograph in October as estate manager, leaving his former career as a journalist.

The Vitalograph facility in Ennis, Ireland buys an adjacent factory unit expanding its facilities by 25% to accommodate the growing workforce due to increasing software sales and web-based services. Research and development facilities are updated and more engineers employed to realise an ambitious new product plan.

The Vitalograph micro is launched and immediately became a very successful product.

Buckingham University launches a medical school offering a condensed 4.5 year MB ChB degree, the only university in the UK to offer specialist General Practitioner training. Vitalograph donates spirometry and ECG equipment to the medical school as well as providing ongoing training for course leaders.

Vitalograph starts a partnership with Cardio Analytics for quality cardiac training and over-read service for clinical trials.

This year saw the launch of a new volume displacement spirometer, a rolling seal Vitalograph Gold Standard.

Work with Manchester Hospitals University Trust starts to come to fruition with successful clinical testing of a new jointly-developed product to enable accurate ambulatory cough recordings.

Vitalograph starts a business partnership with Morgan Scientific Inc., based in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

In September the International ERS Congress came to London for the first time since the merger of the SEP and SEPCR to form the ERS. Vitalograph celebrates this with our staff and guests from many countries. Many of our international guests stayed for two nights for a series of presentations and meetings.

Vitalograph launches myPEF, a new highly accurate peak flow meter, with integral case. Despite its small size, the scale is longer, giving more discrimination than any competitive mechanical peak flow meter.

Due to services supporting the first commercial income from the VitaloJAK cough analysis system in clinical trials, Vitalograph expands its facilities in Ennis Ireland, creating over 50 new jobs and is set to expand further.

This year saw the launch of the Eco BVF (Bacterial-Viral Filter for lung function testing retaining the 99.99% efficiency of the standard BVF but with half the plastic and shipping volume.

In September 2018 Bernard Garbe steps down as managing director of the Vitalograph Group, but remains involved as chairman of the board of directors. Frank Keane is appointed as chief executive officer for the group.

The VitaloJAK system is in widespread use in global studies on antitussive medicines research.

Helen Venn (granddaughter of the company founders) joins Vitalograph in an important strategic projects role. David Garbe moves to the Vitalograph Inc. office in Kansas City to take up the position of program manager for clinical studies USA.

BSI awards Vitalograph certification to the new Medical Device Regulations (MDR replaces the Medical Devices Directive).

In November Vitalograph celebrates 50 years of exhibiting at the Medica in Dusseldorf, having exhibited every year since the first one in 1968.

Vitalograph achieves Medical Device Single Audit Program (MDSAP) certification. This is a program that allows a single regulatory audit of a medical device manufacturer’s quality management system to satisfy the requirements of multiple regulatory jurisdictions including the FDA.

The VitaloJAK system is updated and improved. It continues to be in demand for clinical studies with its enhanced features and much-reduced size and weight.

Due to the imminent Brexit, Vitalograph moves Notified Body from UK to the Netherlands, changing the CE Mark number from CE 0086 to CE2797.

The University of Buckingham Medical School received General Medical Council (GMC) accreditation for its MB ChB degree in May 2019, Vitalograph continues to provide technical support and training.

Vitalograph supports our medical colleagues in the fight against COVID-19 and its legacy, by providing validated spirometry hygiene solutions (Bacterial Viral Filters) and remote monitoring devices.

The powerful next generation In2itive eDiary is launched.  This eCOA device with integrated respiratory assessment is made available for global clinical trials.

Vitalograph launches a new corporate style including new industrial design across the product range matched by a new corporate style in marketing and educational materials.

Work continues on a new range of pulmonary function laboratory systems giving the company access to a significant new market area, which is very much complementary to its core respiratory diagnostics expertise.

Vitalograph medical devices and clinical trials services are sold in over 100 countries worldwide and its spirometers are widely acknowledged as the ‘Gold Standard’ by which other respiratory measurement devices are compared.

The business continues to expand and add to its range of medical devices and services, which are used by medical specialists worldwide, but the company still retains a respiratory focus.

Advancing technology in electronics, software and communications is constantly opening new opportunities for Vitalograph in an increasingly regulated market.

We donate equipment, training and support every year to Third World countries, particularly in support of lung disease research. The ‘Fresh Air’ project is one such research project that we have supported in several countries including Uganda, Vietnam, Eritrea and other low-income countries.