Medilink UK Awards - The Winners 2015

medilink.co.ukMay 6 2015

The best of the UK's Life Sciences and Healthcare Technology sector have been honoured at the 2015 Medilink UK Awards.

Former Winter Paralympian and World Cup Skier Sean Rose compered this year’s Medilink UK Awards, which returned to Coventry’s Ricoh Arena for the Med-Tech Innovation Expo on 29 April. It was another opportunity to celebrate the past year’s cutting edge technologies, outstanding business achievements and international success across the UK's Life Sciences sector.

The nominees were drawn from winners of regional awards across the UK, selected by panels from Medilink UK member organisations.

Winners from the five award categories were all honoured at the prestigious event, with two runners up from each category also being highlighted.

The winner of the Nabarro Start-Up Award was Sheffield-based Swellaway, for their portable self-treatment device which applies cold, heat and compression to human or animal’s joints and muscles. They have already secured a £1.7m contract with a leading equine distributor, and their turnover is set to increase rapidly as they expand into the human treatment market.

The two runners up for this category were Birmingham-based Aston Eyetech and Aylesbury-based The Diabetic Boot Company.

London-based The Learning Clinic won this year's News-Medical.Net Innovation Award for their revolutionary software system which allows clinicians to capture patient data on iPods and iPads in real time at the bedside. They have had remarkable results across the 45 NHS and private hospitals where their software is being used.

Nottingham-based Snowden Healthcare and Leeds-based Brandon Medical were the two runners up in this category.

The 24/7 Exhibition Services Export Achievement Award was awarded to Birmingham-based NutraHealth Group. NutraHealth, UK manufacturers and distributors of vitamins, minerals and food supplements, experienced a 53% increase in the amount they exported in the last year.

The runners up for this category were North Yorkshire-based Principle Healthcare International and Swansea-based DTR Medical.

The Devices for Dignity (D4D) Partnership with the NHS Award went to Lancaster-based Veraz Ltd. Their flagship product, the VeraMedico System, has led to a 200% improvement in hand hygiene in the NHS, which is one of the main ways to reduce the spread of infection. Staff using the system have a LED light on their badges which shows their current hygiene status.

Stirling-based Dolby Vivisol and Denbighshire-based MicroVisk were named runners up in the category.

Bootle-based Mast Group Ltd won this year's coveted BioHub Birmingham Outstanding Achievement Award. The company is a market leader in manufacturing and supplying diagnostic products which are mostly used for the detection and diagnosis of infectious diseases. Their Mast Uri system has halved the time it takes to tell if a patient has a urinary tract infection, and can also tell the clinician the name of bacteria causing the infection and which antibiotics will be effective against it.

The runners up in the category were Oxfordshire-based Novarix and North Yorkshire-based GBUK Ltd.

Gary Stapleton, Medilink UK's Chairman and Business Director of 3M Health Care Business Group, West Europe, said: “As Chairman of Medilink UK, one of Great Britain’s largest healthcare technologies representative bodies, I have seen tremendous strides made over the last year to further develop the organisation to better serve regional SMEs.

“The Medilink UK Awards provide a wonderful example of the strength and diversity of our sector – as well as celebrating the achievements of companies who are at the forefront of patient care and provide considerable wealth generation to the UK economy.”