Novasys Medical’s Debra Reisenthel named ABL’s 2010 “Leadership in Innovation” Awardee

Reisenthel will also Keynote ABL's 12^th Annual Innovations in Healthcare^SM Awards Event, April 28

Santa Ana, CA, March 2, 2010... Debra Reisenthel, Founding CEO of Novasys Medical Inc., will receive the Adaptive Business Leaders Organization (ABL)’s 2010 “Leadership in Innovation” Award and make the Keynote presentation at ABL's 12th Annual Innovations in Healthcare^SM Awards Event, on April 28, in Newport Beach, California. 

Debra led Novasys Medical, a women’s health company, since its inception, in 2001.  Along the way, she raised $90 million in venture capital to see the company’s flagship product, the Renessa® System, through product development, animal studies, human clinical trials, FDA approval, market acceptance, and widespread reimbursement.  In a market with huge challenges, few visionaries remain a company’s chief executive throughout the entire progression, from idea to commercialization.

Renessa was named the 2009 Most Promising New Product, selected by industry CEOs, at the Phoenix Medical Device and Diagnostic Conference. Also since 2009, Renessa has received several positive insurance coverage decisions, including approvals for nationwide coverage from Aetna, a positive Blue Shield of California Technology Assessment (CTAF), and coverage approvals from seven of the ten Medicare regions - enabling Medicare to cover Renessa for over 75% of insured women nationwide.

In accepting ABL’s “Leadership” Award, Reisenthel joins the impressive circle of ABL’s previous “Leadership in Innovation” Awardees.  In 2008, the Award went to Patrick Soon-Shiong, visionary philanthropist and founder of Abraxis Bioscience and Health; in 2007, to Steve Case, founder of Revolution Health and AOL; in 2007, to Steve Burd, CEO and chief wellness advocate of Safeway Inc.; in 2006, to Ken Kizer, MD, visionary behind the VA’s VistA Electronic Medical Record System, as the US Dept of Veterans Affairs’ Under Secretary for Health; in 2005, to Kent Thiry, CEO of DaVita, an innovative provider of health education and dialysis services; and in 2004, to Leonard Schaeffer, CEO of WellPoint Health Networks, one of the nation’s largest health plans.

Also at the April 28^th Innovations in Healthcare^SM  Event, ABL ABBY Awards will be presented to three of the nine companies presenting their innovative approaches to the delivery of healthcare, health information and telecommunications technologies, and innovative medical devices.  The Award winners will be chosen from Finalists selected for best meeting ABL’s criteria of having an innovative product/service that is approved for use in the U.S. marketplace, with clinical and financial metrics that prove their technology or approach reduces the cost of providing quality healthcare. ABBY Award winners will be selected via secret ballot by ABL Members, after viewing presentations at the Event made by the CEO or senior division executive representing each Finalist company.

Now in its 12th year, ABL’s Innovations in Healthcare^SM  Awards Event recognizes organizations that have demonstrated transformative advances in medical devices, diagnostics, therapeutics, information technology and approaches to providing care and coverage, decreasing the numbers of uninsured, and engaging healthcare consumers more actively in their care and health status, all of which reduces the cost of providing quality healthcare. Details about the Innovations in Healthcare^SM Awards Event can be found at www.abl.org/IIH2010.htm.

About the Adaptive Business Leaders Organization
ABL supports the needs of its Member CEOs by providing a place for top-level executives to draw on the experience, knowledge and skill sets of their peers in a vertical industry, personal advisory board setting. Members meet once a month for a half-day Round Table session with a group of peer senior executives from non-competing companies. Members also gather several times a year at workshops and conferences to exchange ideas and connect with other chief executives. ABL's Chief Executive Leadership Development Round Table program is offered in California's Greater Los Angeles, Orange, San Francisco and Santa Clara Counties. More information can be found at http://www.abl.org.

Contact:
Laura Grant, Events Director, at (714/245-1427) or  

Mimi Grant, President, at (714/245-1425) 
Adaptive Business Leaders (ABL) Organization, www.abl.org