Frost & Sullivan Healthcare awards distributed

SINGAPORE: Growth consulting company, Frost & Sullivan hosted the 2007 Excellence in Healthcare Awards. The event was composed to honour the region's finest players in the healthcare and research industry- companies that have performed par excellence and demonstrated best practices. These companies have transcended with their outstanding leadership and outshined with their innovations and growth. This was a first ever award presentation held in Southeast Asia that covered the major areas in healthcare industry. This event was attended by crème de la crème of the various organizations.

28 companies from Medical Devices, Healthcare IT, Medical Imaging, Drug Discovery, Biotechnology and Clinical Diagnostics background were awarded the prestigious Frost & Sullivan awards at the Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore. Also present was Frost & Sullivan's Senior Partner and Member of Board, Mr, Aroop Zutshi.

"These companies have been the leaders in identifying emerging market trends and developing truly creative products to meet the challenges faced in today's competitive world", expressed Ms. Reenita Das, Vice President of Frost & Sullivan's Asia Pacific Healthcare Practice. "The companies that are receiving these awards ultimately create technologies that improve global health. We are honoured to recognize these contributions and hope that this will inspire others to develop such innovations in the future", she added.

The 2007 Excellence in Healthcare Awards was aligned to appreciate significant contributions to the society and global health. "Breathtaking advances in medical science and medical technology have been made in the last few years. We succeeded in decoding the human genome, learned the programming code for major diseases and developed miraculous drug treatments", Das articulated.

The evening commenced on a high note when 2 local companies bagged the awards in the Medical Device category. HealthSTATS International was Singapore's first homegrown technology driven medical device company that was conferred the Asia Pacific Monitoring Devices Technology of the Year Award. "This latest Award further reinforces the recognition and high regard for the 'Made in Singapore' tag in the realm of biotechnology and life sciences. We are indeed honored with this accolade for HealthSTATS' BPro, especially when our vision was to make ambulatory blood pressure monitoring highly accessible and affordable for the man-in-the-street - the innovation behind the BPro makes this possible," said Dr Ting Choon Meng, Chairman and CEO, HealthSTATS International, and a medical doctor who spent the past six years developing the BPro.

The other local company was Transmedic Pte Ltd was awarded the Asia Pacific Medical Device Distributor Company of the Year Award.

The momentum of the evening built towards the end when the awards of the highest recognition were announced. Siemens Medical was awarded the Medical Imaging Company of the Year Award. This was their fourth award for the night.

Quintiles Transnational defended their Multinational Clinical Research Outsourcing Company of the Year which was presented to them last year and this was their third award for the evening.

Frost & Sullivan had a similar event last year that focused the Clinical Research Outsourcing segment.

Frost & Sullivan follows a rigorous measurement based methodology to select and short list leading companies in Asia Pacific for each Award category. After which, the short listed companies will be evaluated based on actual market performance indicators. Some measurement parameters used in conducting the detailed evaluation of each short listed company based on actual market performance indicators include revenue growth, breadth of services and solutions, market share in specific category and growth in market share.

The distinguished panel of Judges for this year's Award ceremony was:

-- Prof David A. Stringer - Senior Consultant, National University Hospital

-- A/Prof Martti T. Tammi - President, Association for Medical and Bio-Informatics, Singapore

-- Micheal Ong - President, Singapore Society of Radiographers

-- Fong Choon Khin - Group Chief Technology Officer, Singapore Health Services Pte Ltd (SingHealth)

-- Tham Wai Chung Linus - Chief Information Officer of the National Healthcare Group of Singapore

-- Dr. Cheong Yuet-Meng - Regional Director of Clinical Operations in Pfizer, Asia

-- A/Prof. Wang Shih-chang - Head of the Department, Diagnostic Radiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at NUS

-- Mr Wong Yew Sin - Senior Advisor, Health Products Regulation Group, Health Sciences Authority (HSA)

-- A/P Lim Chu Sing, Daniel - Director of the Biomedical & Pharmaceutical Engineering Cluster, Nanyang Technological University

-- Dr. Winston E.H. Lim - President, Singapore Society of Radiographers

-- Yeoh Keat Chuan - Executive Director, Singapore Economic Development Board

-- Jean Thoh Jing Herng-Director, Singapore Bio-Innovations of America Inc

-- Matthias Mueser

-- Darunee Edwards - Deputy Director, Thailand National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC)

-- Dr. Tanit Changthavorn - Intellectual Property Specialist National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC)

Sterling HRConsulting is the official sponsor for the 2007 Frost & Sullivan Excellence in Healthcare Awards. Media partners include Medical Matters Asia, Greener Grass Communications LLP, Marshall Cavendish Business Information Pte Ltd, 1st Phase Operations and PharmaAsia.

Frost & Sullivan congratulates the 28 proud recipients of 2007 Excellence in Healthcare Awards.

AWARD TITLE

Medical Devices:

-- Upcoming Medical Device Company of the Year ( Taiwan) - Apex Biotechnology Limited

-- Upcoming Medical Device Company of the Year ( South Korea) - Changeui Medical

-- Upcoming Medical Device Company of the Year (Australia) - USCOM Limited

-- Product Innovation of the Year (Asia Pacific) - Solco Biomedical

-- Technology Innovation of the Year (Asia Pacific) - Mars Medical Products

-- Monitoring Devices Technology of the Year (Asia Pacific) - HealthStats International

-- Orthopedic Device Company of the Year (Asia Pacific) - Zimmer

-- Medical Device Distributor of the Year (Asia Pacific) - Transmedic Pte Ltd

Clinical Diagnostics:

-- Niche Clinical Diagnostics Company of the Year (Asia Pacific) - BioMerieux

-- Clinical Diagnostics Technology Innovation of the Year (Asia Pacific) - Roche Diagnostics

-- Clinical Diagnostics Product Line leadership of the Year (Asia Pacific) - Siemens Medical Solution Diagnostics

Biotechnology:

-- Agricultural Company of the Year (Thailand) - Betagro

-- Company of the Year ( Thailand) - TheraVitae

Drug Discovery:

-- Emerging Company of the Year Award (Asia Pacific) - Icon Clinical Research

-- Customer Service Leadership of the Year Award (Asia Pacific) - Quintiles Transnational Corp

-- Multinational Laboratory Services Provider of the Year Award (Asia Pacific) - Quintiles Transnational Corp

-- Asian Clinical Services Provider of the Year Award (Asia Pacific) - Apex Clinical Research

Healthcare IT:

-- Product Innovation of the Year Award (Asia Pacific) - MatrixView Technologies

-- Emerging Company of the Year Award (Asia Pacific) - IBA Health

-- Company of the Year Award - Enterprise - IBM Life Sciences

-- Company of the Year Award - Clinical - Siemens Medical

Medical Imaging:

-- Product Innovation of the Year Award (Asia Pacific) - Zonare Medical Systems

-- Technology Leadership of the Year Award (Asia Pacific) - Siemens Medical

-- Radiology PACS of the Year Award ( Asia Pacific) - AGFA Healthcare

Best of the Best:

-- Cardiovascular Device Company of the Year (Asia Pacific) - Medtronic International

-- Clinical Diagnostics Company of the Year (Asia Pacific) - Abbott Diagnostics

-- Multinational Clinical Services Provider of the Year Award (Asia Pacific) - Quintiles Transnational Corp

-- Medical Imaging Company of the Year Award (Asia Pacific) - Siemens Medical