Augusta Medical Systems is an industry leader in medical-grade vacuum therapy devices for the treatment of erectile dysfunction and penile rehabilitation. We design and manufacture vacuum erection devices (VED) distributed worldwide.
Why customers and clinicians trust Augusta Medical Systems
- FDA-cleared Class II vacuum erection devices (21 CFR 876.5020)
- ACHC accredited · CE-marked (EU MDR Class I) for international distribution
- Designed and manufactured at 1027 Broad Street, Augusta, Georgia
- Led by the third generation of the family that pioneered vacuum therapy
The history of Vacuum Erection Devices and Augusta Medical Systems’ lineage are intertwined. Our tradition of creating innovative and customizable solutions for optimal treatment outcomes with a Vacuum Erection Device is the product of generations of creative endeavors. Like all other providers of VEDs, our lineage can be traced back to the pioneering work of Geddings David Osbon.
The Birth of Modern Vacuum Therapy Systems for Sexual Health
The inventor of the modern medical-grade vacuum erection device is Geddings D. Osbon (1901-1986). Geddings was a businessman who sold tires on Broad Street in downtown Augusta, Georgia. In 1982, Mr. Osbon received a 510K clearance to market the device he created for himself to treat his sexual health. Up until the 1990’s, erectile dysfunction was referred to as ‘impotence’.
The FDA, then as it does now, described his device in its guidance documents as a Class II penile rigidity1 device. Today, it is more commonly known as a penis pump, vacuum erection device (VED), negative pressure device (NPD), or vacuum therapy system.
One of the first urologists to study and publish clinical evidence around the efficacy of his creation, Dr. Perry Nadig, stated that Mr. Osbon ” Did not have a medical background and approached the creation of his device from a unique perspective.” What was Geddings Osbon’s background? What experience did he draw from to create such a unique solution for ED?
The Connection Between Retread Tires and Vacuum Therapy
Geddings Osbon opened a tire business in Aiken, S.C., with his father and brother in 1923. In 1940, he started a new location in downtown Augusta known as “Osbon Tire” on Broad Street. His tire manufacturing experience, in an interesting turn of fate, is where the history of Vacuum Therapy begins.
In the early years of automobile tires, the treads wore down quickly, leaving a tire casing in relatively good condition with worn-out treads. In the early 1920s, Geddings was an early adopter of recapping or retreading tire casings by using vacuum and heat to apply a new set of tread patterns to an old tire casing. This was done by placing the old tire casing and new tire threads into a vacuum machine that heated the casing and treads to produce a retread tire. Mr. Osbon went on to build a manufacturing facility with custom-built vacuum machines for retreading tires.
Recapping tires created an incredible demand for affordable secondary-market automobile tires, which became a popular option during the Great Depression in the 1930s. For Geddings Osbon, this became a niche he dominated for many years in Augusta, GA. He manufactured these tires as a substantial part of his retail and wholesale tire business. Geddings went on to become one of the pioneers who utilized this technology to produce retread tires for tractor-trailers and semi-truck trucks. By the 1980’s, technology improvements in passenger car tires made re-capping for consumer automobiles obsolete.
The Birth of Vacuum Therapy Systems for Sexual Health
This experience took a unique turn in Geddings’s personal life when he was diagnosed with a heart condition. In the 1960’s Geddings began taking medications for an irregular heartbeat and would eventually require a pacemaker in the latter years of his life. The heart medication interfered with his sexual health.
Geddings Osbon, an entrepreneur, devoted churchman, and father of 6 children never received formal education beyond the 5th grade. With the use of his heart medication, he lost an intimate relationship with his spouse, whom he loved dearly. His doctor recommended that he remember and appreciate the good years with his devoted life partner and wife, Bessie. There was nothing more to be done for his sexual health.
Geddings took his working knowledge of vacuum physics from retread tire manufacturing and transferred that knowledge to solve his sexual health issue. He created a cylinder that would fit around his penis and generated a vacuum as air was removed from the cylinder. The result was creating an erection. The simple application of a vacuum led to the treatment for his condition. From this was born a great desire to help other men with similar problems around an issue that was simply not discussed in the early to mid-1960’s: male sexual impotence.
FDA Clearance to Market the First Vacuum Erection Device: Not a Short or Easy Path for Geddings Osbon
Initially, his device was misunderstood and it took the better part of 15 years before Geddings could sell the device he created to the public. In his efforts to advertise his device as a marital aid, Geddings received a cease-and-desist notification from the U.S. Postal Service for selling pornography. He called that device the “Youth Equivalent Device” (YED). He spent more than six years petitioning the U.S. Postal Services for the right to sell his product. They finally agreed to ship his product through the postal service so long as he acquired FDA approval for the device. This led to another seven years of petitioning the FDA for FDA Clearance. In 1982, they finally did just that, and Geddings’ device was approved, requiring men to obtain a prescription from their physician.
The Original commercialization of a Vacuum Erection Device
In 1982, with FDA Clearance in hand, Geddings started an effort to sell his device through a business called Nu-Potent Inc. with his son, Julian Osbon. However, in the eyes of the FDA, they believed that the name “Youth Equivalent Device” implied an unsubstantiated medical claim and required Geddings to have it changed. The company would eventually become known as Osbon Medical Systems.
In 1990, Medicare Part B began to cover this device and demand for the VED solution was overwhelming. The Osbon Erec-aid was the original product that Osbon Medical Systems marketed and the medical community began to accept vacuum therapy for the treatment of impotence. In 1995, the American Urological Association designated Vacuum Therapy as the first-step treatment-of-choice for male impotence.
In 1995, Julian Osbon sold Osbon Medical Systems to a publicly traded company called Urohealth. He did this hoping that funds raised from selling stock in a publicly-traded company would improve distribution and make vacuum therapy systems available to more men. Unfortunately, that stock soon became worthless.
Pfizer Releases Viagra to Treat ED
Just three years after Urohealth acquired Osbon Medical Systems, Pfizer released Viagra. With the release of Viagra in 1998 and without any practical clinical experience or clinical research into who would and who would not be an effective candidate for Viagra, the future of VEDs looked very bleak. After financial challenges, Urohealth declared bankruptcy in 1999. It was also during this time, when oral medications for ED were becoming available, that the term “erectile dysfunction” was popularized, slowly replacing the term “sexual impotence”.
The launch of Viagra was accompanied by high hopes that oral medications were going to be the one-size-fits-all solution for all men experiencing ED. Unfortunately, many underlying medical conditions precluded millions from experiencing satisfactory results with oral medication.
The evidence and knowledge were not apparent immediately; it took several years before it was clear to the medical community that underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, vascular disorders, prostate cancer treatments, and hypertensive medications, including other conditions, could render oral medications ineffective.
Julian Osbon believes the Vacuum Erection Device can still help many men.
In 1999, only one year after the launch of Viagra, Julian Osbon desired to re-enter the VED manufacturing and distribution business. His belief that the vacuum erection device still had a place in the treatment of ED was not popular at that time. Julian believed the pill would not help all men.
After several unsuccessful bids to buy back the company bearing his name, Osbon Medical Systems, Julian Osbon decided to purchase various vacuum therapy device companies, now considered entirely irrelevant by most, to continue improving and championing vacuum therapy devices to treat ED.
At first, the medical community was not convinced. However, with more clinical studies and practical experience, many urologists supported Julian Osbon’s original beliefs. It slowly became apparent that multitudes of men were not good candidates for oral medication for ED treatment. Before the release of Viagra, many urologists presented vacuum erection devices to patients as a viable treatment option. With this surge of oral medication, vacuum erection devices grew less popular and their presence in medical offices almost vanished.
The Birth of Augusta Medical Systems
Michael Osbon purchased and consolidated his father’s industry assets in 2006. Augusta Medical Systems was born out of a commitment to improving men’s experiences using vacuum therapy systems while ensuring vacuum therapy was still available throughout the medical community. The mission began with designing innovations and manufacturing technologies that would make vacuum therapy systems more effective for men experiencing erectile dysfunction. This effort produced the product line currently known as SomaTherapy-EDTM.
When Augusta Medical Systems was formed in 2006, reintroducing vacuum erection devices to men with ED was still an uphill battle within the medical community. The original technology had not been innovated and it was time to improve the user experience. By transferring the 20 years of clinical-experience obtained from working with urologists and men worldwide, Augusta Medical Systems was able to create new, unique innovations that overcame previous user obstacles.
Since 2006, very effective technologies have been designed and manufactured. Ultra-Ease™ technology was released to seamlessly create a vacuum. Size-to-fit™ (STF) cylinder assemblies were created to develop efficiencies in vacuum therapy while addressing men’s anatomical differences. The SureRelease™ is a unique one-time-use tension system that overcomes specific challenges using tension systems to maintain an erection. All of these innovations, along with several other proprietary technologies, have since united to create what is now known as SomaTherapy-ED, our comprehensive VED solution.
Augusta Medical Systems, like Osbon Tire in 1940, is still located on Broad Street in downtown Augusta, Georgia. We continue Geddings’ legacy of innovation and improvement with our medical-grade vacuum therapy systems, which are manufactured right here in the USA. We are celebrating 100+ years since Geddings used vacuum to manufacture retread tires.
Augusta Medical Systems continues a tradition Michael’s father and grandfather started: manufacturing, educating, and constantly improving the best-in-class medical devices for treating ED. We are passionate about this pursuit!
The Future of Vacuum Therapy Systems and Augusta Medical Systems
Newly designed technologies are still on the horizon! Vacuum Therapy has always been a stand-alone treatment for erectile dysfunction and will always be noninvasive, effective, and affordable.
However, its role as a companion therapy to oral ED medications, penile injections, urethral suppositories, PRP injections, extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT), and even pre and post-operatively with surgical penile implants is becoming more and more apparent through clinical evidence and practical clinical experience.
Augusta Medical Systems believes this trend will continue.
The Investigation clinical research widely accepted among urologists for penile rehabilitation following radical prostatectomy is an excellent example of the future of vacuum therapy. Improving penile health by using therapeutic training sessions with a vacuum erection device is a fantastic option for all men suffering from ED. No other company is as committed to the medical applications of vacuum therapy for erectile dysfunction and penile rehabilitation as Augusta Medical Systems.
VED Devices before Geddings Osbon
After the popularity and medical acceptance of the vacuum erection device to treat impotence, extensive research was done by Julian Osbon to determine if any prior reference to using a vacuum to create erections could be found. It is a known fact that no commercial products were available before the pioneering work of Geddings Osbon, who created the treatment in modern times.
While Geddings developed the therapy and created the device, he did not claim it to be an original idea. He also claimed no prior knowledge of any historical reference to a vacuum pump for ED. After he died in 1986, the following references were found2:
“The American Physician/Domestic Guide To Health” Dr. John King, M.D. published the following in this 1874 publication on pg. 384:
“When there is impotency, with a diminution in the size of the male organ, the organ should be shampooed every day, and a liniment applied to it and the neighboring parts … In addition to this, the glass exhauster should be carefully applied to the part, once every day. … The glass exhauster is a cylindrical glass tube, about nine inches in length, and two inches in diameter ; one end is open, the other is fitted with a nipple for a small exhausting pump to be placed upon, the same as in a cupping glass. The male organ being placed in this glass, the air is exhausted, the blood fills the vessels of the part, and thus excites a new action. Great care must be taken not to exhaust the air too rapidly, or to too great a degree, as injury to the parts would follow.”
LEDERER PATENT: Dr. Otto Lederer, a doctor in Vienna, Austria, was issued a patent for his “surgical device” to produce an erection with vacuum. His product was described as “crude and difficult to use,” no research was ever done and no acceptance by medical peers seems to have existed. Research did not discover published papers in medical journals nor is there any record of application as an approved treatment. No known commercial products resulted from the 1917 patent.
Disclaimer:
Neither Augusta Medical Systems nor the Osbon Family, including Michael Osbon, is in any way connected to any products that bear the Osbon name including the Osbon-erec Aid or any of the following companies that have purchased and sold and/or have been associated with Osbon Medical Systems:
- Urohealth
- Timm Medical Technologies
- Endocare
- Plethora Solutions
- Actient Pharmaceuticals
- Auxillium Pharmaceuticals
- QLT inc.
- Pos-T-Vac
- Petros Pharmaceuticals
Citations:
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (n.d.). External penile rigidity devices – Class II special controls guidance document for industry and FDA staff. Retrieved June 12, 2024, from https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/guidance-documents-medical-devices-and-radiation-emitting-products/external-penile-rigidity-devices-class-ii-special-controls-guidance-document-industry-and-fda-staff ↩︎
- King, J. (1857). The American family physician. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/americanfamilyph00king/page/384/mode/2up ↩︎