Achievements celebrated at Medilink West Midlands awards night

The West Midlands life sciences, medical and healthcare community celebrated award-winning achievements at the Medilink West Midlands Medical and Healthcare Business Awards on Thursday 13 February.

The awards recognise organisations in the life sciences sector who in the past year have excelled in different areas, including Start-up, Innovation, Delivering Innovation into Health and Care, and Outstanding Achievement. 

Professor Martin Levermore MBE welcomed guests and offered words of encouragement and support to build on the strength of the West Midlands region.

The first winning company to be announced was Dignio, who received the Start-Up Award, sponsored by Calthorpe Estates. This award is to recognise newly established companies within the medical and healthcare sector and show a promising future. 

Ewa Truchanowicz, managing director, said: “This is an important recognition for us, and gives us great motivation going forward. The demand for Connected Care is growing rapidly, and Dignio is well positioned in the UK with our solution. Hopefully this will contribute to even more patients getting the opportunity to live better and healthier lives with our health technology.”

Interactive Software scooped the award for Innovation, sponsored by Forresters. This award was given for the development of innovative technology, that has produced a major improvement in business performance and impacted the market. Interactive Software offers software solutions to biobanks, universities, pharma and research labs.

Sharon Williams, Interactive Software said: “‘We’re absolutely delighted that Achiever Medical laboratory information management system has been awarded Medilink’s West Midlands Medical and Healthcare Business ‘Innovation’ Award 2019. As part of our ‘Every Sample Matters’ vision, our aim is to create software systems that support collaboration, help improve research outcomes and provide secure access to quality data. This award is a strong recognition of our achievements and our partnership with the UKCRC Tissue Directory in helping to connect Biobanks and researchers.

“It was a privilege to be part of such a fantastic event celebrating the talent, creativity and ingenuity across the region’s medical and healthcare sector.’”

The Award for Delivering Innovation into Health and Care, sponsored by the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network, was awarded to Abloy UK. Its CLIQ electronic key system has been proven to save nurses time which releases time to care, and are in collaboration with 20+NHS Trusts and the AHSN Network.

Shaun Powell, Abloy UK said: “Abloy UK are delighted to be announced as the Regional Winners of the Medilink ‘Delivering Innovation into Health and Care Award’. 

“We would like to thank Medilink and the AHSN’s for their continued support and guidance in helping us to deliver our message to the NHS hospitals regarding our unique Protec2 CLIQ intelligent locking system for auditable control of drug cabinets, so allowing more time to care.

“A big thank you to the Medilink team for a great evening and as a regional winner we look forward to attending the finalist’s awards in April at the NEC Birmingham Metropole.”

The final award of the evening, Outstanding Achievement award, sponsored by Mills & Reeve, recognises an achievement which has had a significant or vital impact on the company and market. 

This was awarded to DHC Innovations, who through personal experience have developed and manufactured an optical eye occluder made of soft medical grade silicone that is just coming to market.

Donald Harrison, DHC Innovations said: “With the help and guidance from Medilink WM we have moved from proof of concept to actual sales, with a growing number of enquiries from around the world.

“The Medilink team have been a fantastic team to work with. Their knowledge, connections and energy have been a tremendous boost for us in achieving what we have done this year.”

Across the four categories, businesses were also recognised for their achievement as ‘Highly Commended’ and Ones to Watch.

The winners of the Start-Up, Delivering Innovation into Health and Care, Innovation and Outstanding Achievement awards will go on to be shortlisted for a Medilink UK Healthcare Business Awards, set to take place on 1 April 2020 at the NEC in Birmingham.

Richard Stone, CEO at Medilink West Midlands, said: “It’s great to see so many exciting innovative ideas and developments in the life sciences sector coming out of the West Midlands. I’m extremely proud and privileged to work amongst such a world class innovation structure, and all our winning companies have demonstrated a high level of expertise and deserving of their winning titles. I’d like to thank the awards sponsors who continue to show their support to Medilink WM and the companies we work with.”