Malvern, PA (April 3, 2012) – DentalEZ® Group, a supplier of innovative products and services for dental health professionals worldwide, today announced that its Identafi® oral cancer screening device has been selected as a finalist in the “dental instruments, equipment, and supplies” category for the 2012 Medical Design Excellence Awards® (MDEA) competition, the premier awards program for the medical technology community.
StarDental’s Identafi is a screening device used for the detection of oral pathologies, including biochemical and morphological changes in the cells of the mouth, throat, tongue, and tonsils that may lead to oral cancer. The small, cordless, handheld Identafi uses an innovative 3-wavelength optical illumination and visualization system that allows dental professionals to identify oral mucosal abnormalities not visible to the naked eye.
The MDEA (www.MDEAwards.com) is the medical device industry’s premier design awards
competition, and is the only awards program that exclusively recognizes contributions and
advances in the design of medical products. Entries are evaluated on the basis of their design and engineering features, including innovative use of materials, user-related functions that improve healthcare delivery and change traditional medical attitudes or practices, features that provide enhanced benefits to the patient, and the ability of the product development team to overcome design and engineering challenges so that the product meets its clinical objectives.
A comprehensive review of the entries was performed by an impartial, multidisciplinary panel of
third-party jurors with expertise in biomedical engineering, human factors, industrial design,
medicine, and diagnostics.
“It is such an honor to be recognized by the MDEA judges,” remarked Rick Gross, Senior Product Manager for StarDental. “Recently, there has been a tremendous amount of media awareness given to oral cancer, as well as the need for all dental professionals to be on the forefront of this deadly disease. We feel there’s really a need for well-designed products that better assist dental professionals with oral cancer screening.”
Finalists in each of the competition’s ten categories were officially announced in the April 2012 issue of Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry (www.mddionline.com) magazine. The winners will be announced on May 23, 2012, during a cocktail reception starting at 4:30 pm at the Marriott Hotel in Downtown Philadelphia. The ceremony will be held in conjunction with the MD&M East event (www.MDMEast.com) at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, May 22–24.
MDEA winning products will be honored at the ceremony with Bronze, Silver, or Gold-level awards in each category. One Gold-winning product will be awarded “Best-in-Show.”
The MDEA program is presented by UBM Canon, the global advanced manufacturing and
MedTech authority, and by Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry (MD+DI), the industry’s central source for late-breaking news, information, and business intelligence.
For more information on the Medical Design Excellence Awards, visit www.MDEAwards.com.
For more information about Identafi and all StarDental products, please visit www.dentalez.com or www.Identafi.net.
