IL hits 50-year crest with Manent at helm

Company milestone.
At Instrumentation Laboratory, we are celebrating 50 years of “Passion
and Results” — our passion for innovation in diagnostics, bringing
medical professionals the highest quality, complete solutions, for the
most accurate results. Our “50 and Forward” program marks our milestone
50th anniversary and renews our commitment to a progressive future as
industry leaders. For our customers, we remain committed to providing
the most innovative, superior products to help ensure the very best
patient care. Customers know they can rely on us to lead the way in
quality and innovation, in our areas of expertise, and to stand the test
of time.

IL landmarks. One significant landmark was the purchase of the GEM analyzer, which had
been languishing on the market for nearly 10 years prior to our
purchase. We changed the customer target, lowered costs, and developed iQM — an automated, real-time, quality-management system — which not
only saves time and labor but also enhances the quality of patient test
results. We increased the number of GEM analyzers sold annually from 200
to approximately 3,000, making this the most successful family of
critical-care analyzers in the world today. Our ultimate landmark will
be our move imminently to a new site in Bedford, MA. We purchased this
property — more than double the size of our current, rented property.
Full ownership of significantly larger space underlines our commitment
to future innovation in diagnostics.

IT and automation challenges. Management of data flow throughout the entire process of critical-care
diagnostics has a direct impact on patient safety by reducing medical
errors. GEMweb Plus provides the POC manager complete and immediate
access to all patient and quality data at the click of a button,
ensuring accuracy, regardless of who runs the test or where the test is
performed. All instruments connected to GEMweb Plus can be managed
remotely from any intranet-connected PC, as well as from any instrument.
Patient safety and efficiency are greatly improved.

IL's community projects. Our exciting new “Passion and Results” Award is the cornerstone of our
“50 and Forward” celebration. We will honor customers who have
demonstrated remarkable passion and dedication to their profession. By
highlighting their stories, not only will we recognize their efforts and
accomplishments, but also share their “best practices” for improved
patient care. We are accepting nominations via our website,
www.ilus.com/50forward , through June 1. Each winner will receive a
$2,000 educational grant. For employees, IL works closely with several
local universities and colleges, including MIT and WPI, to offer a wide
variety of educational programs. We also sponsor the “IL Summer
Institute,” designed by Harvard Business School professors, for IL
management.

Young people and the med-lab industry. When recruiting students, we focus on our constant challenge of
employees to do better, more accurately and efficiently, in all
disciplines. Recent college grads who join us are often able to make an
immediate impact and see their results implemented. We work closely with
many schools through continuing education for employees and internship
programs for students. We offer employees a robust tuition-reimbursement
program and scholarship program, providing college tuition assistance
for employees' children. For our customers, we have an outstanding
technical sales group which provides training on all of our products. We
offer many accredited educational workshops at conferences where
well-respected industry leaders, like Dr. James Westgard, present
relevant scientific information, providing CEU credits to participants.
These programs have been extremely well-received by our customers.