THE COMPLICATED love lives and medical crises that drive the plot of Grey's Anatomy attract millions of ardent fans, an audience that advertisers swoon over and pay big bucks to reach. A trio of Bothell's medical device manufacturers, however, pay next to nothing for the cameo appearances their products and logos make on the popular ABC show and similar dramas.

Sharp-eyed viewers who look past the dreamy actors on Grey's Anatomy can spy Philips Medical Systems' patient monitors and MRI machines or Cardiac Science's heart defibrillators. Over on NBC's ER, SonoSite's hand-carried ultrasound machines show up in the make-believe emergency room.

Real-world medical technology gives these shows an authentic look. So they welcome or even solicit makers of medical devices to lend the expensive machines - or at least their exteriors - at no cost.

"These relationships are basically win-win because these productions need the props, and this helps us to build awareness of our brand," says Brent Shafer, the North American CEO of Philips Medical Systems, which employs nearly 2,000 people in the Seattle area. "In the medical community, we're well known. But the average consumer might not know Philips is in medical technology."

Philips has used Creative Entertainment Services, a product placement firm near Hollywood, to help it get equipment onto the sets of not only Grey's Anatomy, which is set in Seattle, but also House, M.D., CSI and other TV programs, as well as in films, such as Fever Pitch and Man of the Year.

SonoSite has placed its next-generation ultrasound machines on ER for years. At times, the show's characters have uttered lines using SonoSite's name as a verb, just like Xerox or Google. "We're able to put our systems into an environment where people can see them being used in critical and innovative ways," says Brad Williamson, SonoSite's global director of emergency medicine, of the TV appearances. He adds that his company's devices also have appeared on Grey's Anatomy.

SonoSite's ER exposure is more remarkable in light of the fact that the show is broadcast on General Electric-owned NBC. GE's medical division makes a portable device that directly competes with the Bothell company's products.

While it doesn't capture headlines the way battles within the aerospace and computer industries do, the U.S.-based medical device sector is extremely competitive, generating $200 billion in annual revenues. So any buzz created among potential customers by product placements is valuable, Shafer says. And that's why viewers can usually find three or four device companies listed in the end credits of medical shows.

Stacy Jones, an executive vice president with Creative Entertainment Services, thinks these medical device placements also make an impression on patients. People may feel more comfortable with hospital equipment being used on them if they've already seen it on TV, she suggests.

Garry Norris, vice president of marketing at Cardiac Science, became a believer in product placement while working for Kodak's health imaging division. So he pursued it last year after joining the local company, which is one of the world's top three makers of automated heart defibrillators and cardiac monitoring equipment.

It doesn't make sense to produce traditional TV commercials for medical technology products; the average consumer doesn't buy a defibrillator very often. But doctors and medical equipment buyers do watch shows like Grey's Anatomy, and Norris says they can be influenced by the equipment they see in use.

"The fact is, when our products appear in the show, we get a lot of e-mail," Norris explains. "Customer service gets calls from people saying, 'I saw your product on Grey's Anatomy and wanted to learn more about it.'"