StarDental®’s Identafi® Honored as Winner in the 2012 Medical Design Excellence Awards

Malvern, PA (May 31, 2012) – DentalEZ^® Group, a supplier of innovative products and services for dental health professionals worldwide, today announced that its StarDental^® Identafi^® oral cancer screening device has been selected as the Gold Winner in the dental instruments, equipment, and supplies category of the 2012 Medical Design Excellence Awards (MDEA) competition, the premier awards program for the MedTech industry.

The 2012 MDEA-winning products were announced at a presentation ceremony held May 23, 2012 inside the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown hotel.  The ceremony was held in conjunction with the MD&M East Event at the adjacent Pennsylvania Convention Center.

“We are honored to be recognized by the MDEA judges,” remarked Randy Arner, VP of Marketing for DentalEZ Group.  “Since acquiring this important medical device, we are focusing heavily on efforts to bring oral cancer disease awareness and the importance of early detection to patients and dental professionals.  We are pleased to say that Identafi is now being used in dental offices around the country.”   

Identafi is a diagnostic 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.  Identafi is a product of DentalEZ Group’s StarDental division. 

Presented by UBM Canon, and sponsored by Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry magazine, the MDEA program is the MedTech industry’s premier competition for medical device design and innovation.  It recognizes the achievements of medical device manufacturers, their suppliers, and the many people behind the scenes—engineers, scientists, designers, and clinicians—who are responsible for the groundbreaking innovations that are changing the face of healthcare.  MDEA-winning products excel in the areas of product innovation, design and engineering achievement, end-user benefit, and cost-effectiveness in manufacturing and healthcare delivery.

The 2012 MDEA Jury selected 25 winning products out of 41 finalists in 10 medical product categories.  A comprehensive review of the entries was performed by an impartial, multidisciplinary panel of third-party jurors with expertise in biomedical engineering, clinical practice, diagnostics, human factors, industrial design, manufacturing, and medicine.  

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.