Holland Healthcare has become the first Australian female led company to win silver at the Edison Awards in New York City for its medical device, Throat Scope.
Local Entrepreneur, Founder, CEO and inventor, Jennifer Holland accepted silver in New York City at the prestigious Edison Awards for her innovation, Throat Scope.
The awards, named after inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison, are internationally renowned awards for innovation. Throat Scope won the award in the Health and Wellness Patient Care.
“I always wanted to invent something that would have a positive impact on the world. Now I know that will become a reality. We are going to create a movement that will lead to people using Throat Scope for early detection of oral cancer,” Jennifer said.
“Now we have an Edison Award behind us, I know we can go out there and potentially save lives.”
The Edison Awards attracts thousands of nominations. More than 3,000 senior business executives and academics from marketing professionals, scientists and engineers, join past winners to review the nominations. They vote to award the gold, silver and bronze medals.
This award comes with a lot of “firsts”. While only a couple of Australian companies have been honoured with an Edison Award since their inception in 1987, Holland Healthcare is the first Australian female led company to be recognised. It is also the first Australian medical device to win, with the other awardees operating in the digital space.
“When I had the epiphany at the doctor’s surgery with my son and walked into the $2 shop to create my first prototype eight years ago, I never imagined this is where it would all lead,” Jennifer said.
Jennifer remained in New York after the awards to drum up awareness at a number of trade shows.
“Another dream of our team at Holland Healthcare is to take an Australian product into the US. Throat Scope can now be that product. We import so much product, we want to reverse that trend,” Jennifer said.
The Edison Awards honour excellence in new product and service development, marketing, human-centred design and innovation. Award winners are described as having ‘game changing’ products or services.
IMAGE | Jennifer Holland with International Oral Care Speaker, Jo-Anne Jones at the awards.
