2015 Medilink UK Awards honour winners

The Medilink UK Awards recognises products within the UK life sciences and healthcare technology sector.

This year a portable self-treatment compression device for joints and muscles, a software system to capture patient data on tablets at the bedside and a wearable hand hygiene monitor were among the winners.

Sheffield based, Sellaway, won the Nabarro Start-Up Award for its portable self-treatment compression device, which applies cold, heat and compression to human or animal joints and muscles. Sellaway already secured a £1.7m contract with a leading equine distributor and its turnover is set to increase rapidly as it expands 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 its software system that allows clinicians to capture patient data on iPods and iPads in real time at the bedside. Its software is already being used across 45 NHS and private hospitals.

Martin Kirkup, The Learning Clinic’s chief marketing officer, said: “We are delighted that VitalPAC’s benefits for patient care and improved efficiency have been recognised at this important forum. Our systems are used by clinicians caring for more than 75,000 patients each month. It helps them improve outcomes, stop infection outbreaks, and ensure hospital resources are used as efficiently as possible.”

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

Mast Group Ltd, based in Bootle, won the BioHub Birmingham Outstanding Achievement Award. The Company manufactures and supplies diagnostic products that are mostly used for the detection and diagnosis of infectious diseases. Its Mast Uri system has halved the time it takes to tell if a patient has a urinate tract infection, and can also tell the clinician the name of the bacteria causing the infection and which antibiotics will be effective against it.

Gary Stapleton, Medilink UK's chairman and business director of 3M Health Care Business Group, West Europe, said: “As chairman of Medilink UK, 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.”