Deadline Rapidly Approaching to Nominate Your Favorite Innovative Healthcare Company for the 2009 ABBY Awards

Orange, CA — July 21, 2009 — The Adaptive Business Leaders (ABL) Organization is accepting nominations until July 31st for the 2009 ABBY Awards, to be presented at the 11^th Annual Innovations in Healthcare^SM Awards Event, on October 28, 2009, at the Radisson Hotel, in Newport Beach, California. At this event, nine organizations will be recognized for their value-driven approaches to solving some of the toughest problems facing healthcare today, and three will take home the prestigious ABBY Award.

This year’s ABBY winners will be in excellent company. For the past 10 years, at ABL's Innovations in Healthcare^SM Awards Event, healthcare industry leaders have honored the organizations whose products and services are judged to be the most innovative, with proven metrics assuring their cost-effective quality. Previous ABBY Award winners and nominees have included companies that have made breakthroughs and transformative advances in medical devices, diagnostics, therapeutics, information technology, and electronic solutions, as well as organizations that have applied innovative systems and technology in providing care, enrolling beneficiaries, and reducing healthcare costs. ABBY winners in recent years have included: “Innovative Approach” winners Alameda County Medical Center, Health Hero Network, and Sutter Health’s eICU; “Medical Technology” winners Accuray, Aperio Technologies, and eV3 Neurovascular Division; and “Healthcare IT” winners eHealth, Kaiser Permanente’s Internet Services Division, and M*Modal. Since 1999, winning the ABBY Award for many of its 30+ recipients has been a major catalyst to greater market acceptance and enhanced peer recognition.

To qualify for consideration, nominated companies or divisions must have a product, service or application of technology that is currently approved for use and/or in the marketplace, or an innovative process with proven success metrics, that is lowering the cost of delivering quality, accessible healthcare. Nominated companies should fall into one of three categories:  Innovations in Medical/Bio-Technology; Innovations in Healthcare Information and Telecommunications Technology; or Innovative Approaches to the Delivery of Healthcare.

All nominations must be submitted via this link by Friday, July 31. Previously nominated companies and/or divisions are encouraged to resubmit their nomination, as long as they have not previously won an ABBY and have not been an ABBY Finalist in the past two years. Qualifying nominees will then be awarded Semi-Finalist status. 

In early August, Members of ABL's Innovations’ Finalist Selection Committee will select three Finalists in each category. Each of these Finalists will be given the opportunity by ABL and Chesney Communications to make 7-minute video presentations, which will be posted on ABL’s “Members Only” website. Voting by secret ballot for the Innovations in Healthcare^SM ABBY winners will be open to all ABL Healthcare Members who have seen each of the three pre-recorded video presentations in each category in which they are voting. The votes will then be sealed, and – just like the Academy Awards – be presented to the three ABBY winners at the October 28 Innovations In Healthcare^SM  Awards and Event Ceremony.

Attendance at the 11^th Annual Innovations in Healthcare^SM Awards and Event Ceremony is open to senior executives of healthcare, health information and telecommunications technology, and medical and bio-technology firms, as well as all ABL Members. For more information about it and/or the ABL Organization, please contact Laura Grant at ABL at (714) 245-2407 or visit www.abl.org/IIH.htm or abl.org.

About the Adaptive Business Leaders (ABL) 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 – “multi-coach approach” – setting.

The core component of the CEO Membership experience is the group Round Table meeting. Members meet once a month for a half-day with a group of peer CEOs, Presidents, COOs and Division General Managers from non-competing companies, all from the same industry (healthcare, technology or medical device), in a trusted and confidential board room-like setting, which allows ABL Members to tackle topics and enhance their decision making and business performance. Topics include: latest developments in and implications of national and regional healthcare reform, developing and honing new business strategies and best practices, developing new lines of business and an effective board of directors, as well as understanding trends in new markets, mergers and acquisitions, compensation, and other “hot” topics brought to the Round Tables by the Members themselves.

ABL Members also gather several times a year at workshops and conferences to exchange ideas and connect with other chief executives beyond their own CEO peer groups. In effect, ABL Members serve as one another’s business coaches within the Round Tables and are encouraged to connect and leverage their co-Member peers’ particular skills and expertise for additional leadership development, one-on-one, outside of their monthly group meeting. In addition, each Round Table’s Facilitator also serves as an objective business advisor, offering executive and industry insights and advice.

ABL's Chief Executive Leadership Development Round Table program is currently offered in California's Greater Los Angeles, Orange, San Francisco and Santa Clara County areas. More information about the ABL Organization can be found at http://www.abl.org.