When the World Needed Them Most, They Stood Up

Looking back at the healthcare heroes and recipients of the 2020 UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence award winners.

Strategy and Strength|Apr.30, 2021

Abbott, along with other global health industry leaders, announced the winners of the 2020 UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence awards. The advancements made by these innovative healthcare leaders are especially meaningful for patients, communities and healthcare professionals as the healthcare institutions around the world position themselves to better manage healthcare during and eventually after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2020 winning teams are recognized for their exceptional outcomes across various segments of healthcare including hospitals, commercial laboratories, reference laboratories, clinics and rural community care. The best practices spanned innovative areas of unmet needs with representation from every region of the world, including both emerging and established markets.

"Now, more than ever, there is a clear need for a unified approach across disciplines, solving problems with an avant-garde approach," said John Frels, Ph.D., vice president of research and development for Abbott's diagnostics division. "It is with great honor that we congratulate all participating teams while celebrating strategic activation and insights from clinical and laboratory medicine to achieve measurably better outcomes for patients, payors, clinicians and health systems."

Award winners driving innovation and integration across health care teams

The UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence awards recognize teams who collaborate across disciplines and transform healthcare delivery, and ultimately, patient lives.

Top Global Winners:

Canterbury District Health Board: Reducing Patient Risk and Enhancing Care through the Development and Implementation of a New Chest Pain Pathway, Expedited by and for the COVID-19 Era.

University of Manitoba, Chronic Disease Innovation Centre at Seven Oaks General Hospital: Kidney Check: The Next Generation of Surveillance for Hypertension, Diabetes and Chronic Kidney Disease.

Hospital Universitari Sant Joan d'Alacant: Early Diagnosis and Improved Management of Patients with Diabetes through Strategic and Automated Test Algorithms via Primary Care.

The UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence award was developed in 2018 through strategic collaborations between Abbott and seven other leading healthcare organizations who have partnered together to inspire and recognize integrated clinical care teams who have achieved exceptional outcomes in healthcare. The founding program partners include the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC), AACC (formerly American Association for Clinical Chemistry), EHMA (European Health Management Association), Modern Healthcare, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), National Association of Healthcare Quality (NAHQ), and the Institute of Health Economics (IHE); each in partnership with Abbott Laboratories.

Additional care teams receiving recognition from the UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence award program for Distinction** and Achievement* are included below:

  • Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi: Reducing Medical Errors and Enhancing Patient Care through Pathology Lead Strategic Activation of Point-of-Care Testing in an Emerging Market**
  • Biomédica de Referencia: Improving Population Health through Screening for Hepatitis C to Enable Treatment for Undetected Viral Infections*
  • Dr. Suliman Al Habib Medical Group: Laboratory-Led Company-Wide Screening Programs for Safe, Back to Work Strategies during COVID-19 Pandemic in Saudi Arabia*
  • Dubai Health Authority: Novel Collaborative Approach among Public and Private Sectors for Streamlined SARS-CoV-2 Testing towards Optimized Patient Outcome during Covid-19 Pandemic**
  • Faith Medical Tanzania Clinics: Improving Care and Overall Experience for Patients who Present to a Tanzania Clinic with Suspected Cardiovascular Diseases*
  • Hospital Clinico San Carlos: Early Detection and Management of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus for Improved Outcomes of Mothers and their Babies**
  • Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein: Reducing Catastrophic Adverse Events in Patients with Hemorrhagic Shock through Early Recognition of Risk and System-Wide Automatic Alerts**
  • Hospital Virgen de la Luz: Optimized Detection and Management of Thyroid Dysfunction During Pregnancy for Improving Maternal and Offspring Outcomes*
  • Hospital Virgen Macarena: Reducing Post-Operative Complications in Cardiac Surgery Patients**
  • Institut für Medizinische und Chemische Labordiagnostik, Mein Hanusch Krankenhaus: Maintain High Quality Patient Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic*
  • Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital & Medical Research Institute: Increased Detection of Acute Myocardial Infarction in Women Using Sex-Specific Upper Reference Limits in Clinical Pathways for Patients Presenting with Suspected Acute Coronary Syndrome*
  • Marienhospital: Strategic SARS-CoV-2 Testing for Risk Mitigation and Optimal Health of Healthcare Workers and Patients*
  • NHS Tayside: Use of Faecal Immunochemical Tests (FIT) Unlocks the Door to Efficient and Effective Investigation of Patients with New Bowel Symptoms**
  • North West London Pathology: COVID-19: Using Data, Innovation, and Collaboration to Support Better Patient Outcomes*
  • Nova Scotia Health: Maximizing Delivery Method and Clinical Resources for Timely Patient Communication of COVID-19 Status*
  • Seirei Hamamatsu HP: Enhanced Discovery of Unidentified Comorbidities and Diagnosis Through the use of Diagnostic Logics Empowered by Laboratory Medicine and Informatics*
  • St. Paul's Hospital: Reduction of Inpatient Daily Blood Draws with Data Science and Clinical Collaboration**
  • St. Petersburg Hospital Number Two: Improving Patient Experiences via Reliable Pre-Surgical Biomarker Risk Assessments in Patients Undergoing Eye Surgery*
  • The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University: Improved Safety for Patients with Indeterminant Pulmonary Nodules through Optimized Diagnostic Pathways for Lung Cancer**
  • The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust: Procalcitonin: A Successful Clinical Formula for the Early Recognition and Management of Sepsis in the Emergency Department*
  • University Alabama Birmingham Hospital: Enhanced Identification and Care for Patients with Undetected HCV and/or HIV via Opt-Out ED Screening with Active Education and Linkage to Care**

About UNIVANTS
The UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence awards recognize integrated clinical care teams that work together to achieve better health system performance through new technology, insights and solutions. These "Unifiers" have stepped up to drive collaboration and have demonstrated in exemplary fashion the following:

  • Solving problems with an avant-garde approach
  • Using lab intelligence to achieve measurably better outcomes
  • Transforming healthcare delivery with measurable impact to patients, clinicians, payors and entire health systems

The award program is open to all healthcare professionals and teams globally regardless of affiliation with Abbott or any partner of the UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence program. All partners, excluding Abbott, evaluate submissions and select winners. 2021 submissions begin August 1. For more information on the UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence Awards, visit UnivantsHCE.com.