In narrowing the field of candidates for this year’s Manufacturers of the Year, MD+DI’s editors kept one thing in mind: the rising cost of healthcare in the United States.

Although healthcare spending has slowed considerably since 2009, medical costs are still projected to jump 7.5% next year, as they have for the past three years, according to a recent PwC Health Institute report. To put the problem in perspective, consider that in the 12 months ended this past September the cost of medical services grew at more than twice the rate of overall inflation. Moreover, the passing of the Affordable Care Act and all of the attention paid to the issue of healthcare spending in this election year are proof that policymakers and the public are well aware of the healthcare crisis and determined to do something about it.

At the recent OCTANe Medical Device & Investor Forum, in Irvine, CA, medical device investor Thomas Fogarty was asked which areas of medical technology will see the most interest from venture capitalists. His response: “Anything that can do more for less. We haven’t really been focused on doing more with less, but we’re going to be required to, so why fight it?”

The three companies we chose as our Manufacturers of the Year aren’t fighting that mandate; they’re embracing it. They rose to the top of our list because their patient-monitoring systems promise to improve outcomes, make medical care more efficient, and ultimately cut costs out of the healthcare system. They are each achieving that goal with unique technologies that will finally usher the medical industry into the digital age.

We chose Sotera Wireless, AirStrip Technologies, and Proteus Digital Health as MD+DI’s 2012 Medical Device Manufacturers of the Year because what these companies are doing today will change the way medicine is practiced tomorrow.

Medical Device Manufacturers of the Year 

Sotera Wireless

AirStrip Technologies

Proteus Digital Health

Other Finalist Companies

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