Australia and Denmark forever wed
The Australian medical company, Simavita, famous for its new incontinence management system, has just signed a distribution agreement with Abena from Denmark.
Older people in Europe are set to benefit from cutting edge Australian incontinence technology, following the signing of the first export agreement between domestic medical company, Simavita and Abena of Denmark.
This commercial partnership will see Simavita’s wireless incontinence management system (the SIM) distributed immediately throughout Denmark and then later, to aged care facilities in the United Kingdom and Germany.
The SIM, a new method of remotely monitoring incontinence events during the 72-hour assessment period, will be tested in UK facilities in November and will go live by February 2011.
CEO of Simavita, Philippa Lewis, compared the union of the two companies to the marriage of Australian Crown Princess Mary and Prince Frederik of Denmark.
“Australia and Denmark are forever wed,” said Ms Lewis. “The marriage now between Australia and Denmark is probably now as beautiful as the one between Mary and Frederick.”
The signing of the agreement, Ms Lewis said, is “a moment in time for this company”.
“To have the opportunity to distribute this technology throughout the whole world is really what the company’s whole aim is- it’s to expand globally.
“So this is really our first step. It’s to start distributing the product outside of our domestic market. The domestic market is really important to us but foreign markers are so much larger.
“And as an Australian technology company, it’s always important to get the technology out there quickly and that’s what we are choosing to do. Being able to fast track [the distribution] through a large distributor in Europe is a very exciting opportunity for us.”
The SIM is Simavita’s first medical device. It replaces the practice of manually checking for incontinence events approximately every hour.
The device has already received industry-wide acclaim throughout Australia, as it has been proven to successfully free up nursing staff to do other duties and it reduces disruption to residents during the initial assessment period. The SIM also aims to deliver a more accurate result than traditional, manual assessment methods.
“It’s a unique technology that does not exist anywhere throughout the world,” she said.
“The cornerstone, the thing that anchors us, is the fact that everything we are doing with this technology is about helping ageing people and helping to make their lives better.
“Really, I think it means a lot to ageing people around the world…Obviously, there are a lot of technologies coming through but in this area we are very unique so we think we are going to make a big difference to people’s lives.”
The business relationship between Ms Lewis and the executive director of Abena, Preben Terp-Nielsen, dates back 15 years. As the founder of Sanicare, Ms Lewis brought Abeena on board as a major partner. The union of the two companies allowed for the international provision of the brand across 30 countries world-wide.
Mr Terp-Nielsen was extremely positive about the success of distributing the SIM product throughout the Europe, despite the current economic climate.
“It is, of course, not easy to start [distributing] to Europe so we will start in Denmark,” Mr Terp-Nielsen said.
“We have to start somewhere, so we will start somewhere where it means a [great deal].”
“Together, I think we’ll succeed at getting the SIM implemented in other countries throughout Europe.”
Above: CEO of Simavita, Philipa Lewis, with the executive director of Abena, Preben Terp-Nielsen