Healthcare event organiser goes ChoiceLive

THE CHOICE GROUP has rebranded its event management and professional congress organising businesses as ChoiceLive, and is expanding its service offering for the healthcare industry.

The company’s investment over the last 12 months in preparation for the ChoiceLive launch has included building a new IT infrastructure and an enhanced, flexible management team with expertise in organising events, congresses and conferences.

Managing Director Chris Stean has brought in a new senior management structure, including Emma Bainbridge as Operations Director (ex-BI with over 15 years’ experience in the Event Management field) and Christina Brown as Sales and Marketing Director (ex-Maritz with over 10 years’ experience in the incentives and brand strategy arena).

ChoiceLive specialises in providing marketing and support services for healthcare companies through activities such as event management, congress and conference organisation, KOL forums, advisory boards, brand strategy and product launches. Its recent customers in the medtech sector include Allergan, Cordis, Janssen-Cilag and Teva.

Headquartered in Hitchin, UK, ChoiceLive has an unrivalled heritage in the pharma and medtech sectors. Established in

1988, it has managed over 3,000 global events for healthcare companies in the UK, Brussels and Switzerland.

A decade of success

KAREN MCCURDY, BUSINESS MANAGER,  has celebrated 10 years with healthcare recruitment specialist Advance Recruitment.

Karen said: “I had just graduated when I joined Advance, and I just can’t believe where the time has gone! It’s really unusual for consultants to stay in the same job for so long, and candidates are constantly surprised (pleasantly I hope!) when they phone up after a number of years and are still able to deal with the same consultant.

“I really enjoy working at Advance, I’m part of a great team which works really well together and we all share the same ethos of wanting to go the extra mile to provide both candidates and clients with the best possible service.”

Agfa HealthCare boosts cardiology team

BRENTFORD-BASED AGFA HEALTHCARE has appointed Mark O’Herlihy as Sales Consultant, Cardiovascular within its Imaging and Informatics Business Unit.

In his new role, Mark will help hospitals to streamline their cardiology departments by installing customised, integrated cardiovascular IT solutions.

A qualified radiographer, Mark joined Agfa HealthCare several years ago and took up his new role when his predecessor, Peter Corscadden, moved on to head up the team in Australia. “In this new job, I follow the entire sales process from when leads first come in to the sale and implementation of our cardiovascular solutions,” Mark said.

Agfa HealthCare has enjoyed considerable success in the sale of its cardiovascular solutions in recent months, with sales at Barnsley District, Northampton General, Glan Clywd and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kings Lynn. Mark is keen to build on these successes, and has a number of as yet unannounced new orders in the pipeline.

Commenting on Mark’s appointment, Adrian Stevens, Managing Director, Agfa HealthCare UK, said: “I’m really pleased that Mark has taken on this challenge. Mark has great knowledge of the cardiology business and I believe he will be very successful in further expanding our Cardiology business.”

Agfa HealthCare, a member of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, is a leading provider of IT-enabled clinical workflow and image management solutions and systems for capturing, processing and printing images in hospitals and healthcare facilities.

Promotions in healthcare PR

SPECIALIST HEALTHCARE PR AGENCY hsdcommunications has promoted Joanna Ferrier and Cosima Zerdik to the roles of Account Manager and Senior Account Executive respectively.

Joanna and Cosima both joined the company in 2006, and have developed their skills through medical and patient communications programmes in the fields of gastroenterology, urology, oncology, medical devices and infection control.

Joanna joined the company with a PR background, having worked previously in the financial sector; she has risen from account executive to manager in under two years. Cosima has over two years of experience in ethical healthcare marketing and communications at Johnson & Johnson Medical and Pfizer.

These promotions follow a period of growth for the agency, which has been appointed to roll out European and worldwide medical education and PR programmes for medical device companies Welch Allyn and Galil Medical. They were announced before the acquisition of hsdcommunications by Gyro International in December 2007. 

STAR to handle Nestlé sales force

NESTLÉ NUTRITION UK has outsourced the management, recruitment and selection of its sales team to STAR. The move is designed to maximise Nestlé’s UK nutrition business over the coming years.

Contract sales organisation STAR has been chosen due to its reputation for offering tailored resourcing solutions with personalised service.

Zerqa Malik, National Sales Manager of Nestlé Nutrition, said: “We have partnered with STAR as they understand our priorities and goals. Not only are they well placed to provide the industry’s very best healthcare representatives, they are also agile enough to tailor their performance management and support systems exactly to our needs. We are looking for a truly committed and flexible provider, and STAR fits the bill.”

 Nestlé Nutrition provides science-based nutrition and services to support health and provide care for consumers with special needs at every stage of life. The organisation is built around three global businesses: Infant Nutrition, Healthcare Nutrition and Performance Nutrition.