Astek Group could be holding some of the products your dentist uses every day. Through its operating subsidiary, Astek Innovations, the London-based holding company designs, manufactures, and distributes hundreds of disposable single-use items used in dental offices worldwide, with about 50% of sales in the US. The company's most profitable product, the Pro-Tip, is a disposable air/water syringe tip created by the company's founder and CEO, Dr. Alan Segal, a practicing dentist. Other Astek products include Kromopan alginates (used to make dental impressions), Alma denture products, and the Pegasus line of dental products.

Timesco of London is a medical supplies company that designs, manufactures, and sells surgical and non-surgical medical and dental instruments. Products are destined for various markets, including emergency healthcare, footcare, laryngyscopy, midwifery, and more. The company uses its own direct sales force in the UK and more than 100 independent agents and distributors to market Timesco's 6,000 different instruments throughout the world. In addition to instruments, Timesco makes medical equipment storage bags, such as the Exmouth delivery bag for midwives.

Mercury Medical manufactures the medical equipment used to administer and monitor medical gasses for respiratory, anesthesia, and critical care. It also offers technical consulting services, equipment repair, and equipment reconditioning services. Customers include hospitals, biomedical clinics, and home care clients. Along with marketing its own products, its sales team also represents products from other life-support equipment manufacturers. It distributes products directly to institutional customers in the southeastern US; elsewhere it relies on a network of distributors. Mercury Medical ships its medical supplies for home health directly to customers through its ShurShip division.

Dixons Surgical Instruments manufactures and supplies surgical instruments, portable autoclaves (to sterilize such instruments), and operating table accessories to hospitals and surgeons in the UK and in Australia, Italy, and New Zealand. The England-based company supplies a wide variety of surgical instruments, especially for use in facial, orthopedic, thoracic, and proctological applications (though many other specialties are covered as well). Although the company often brands its products with its own name, it can also supply unbranded instruments for resale. It also manufactures reusable needles such as those used for biopsies and epidurals.

Horizon Health sees hope on the horizon for those in need of psychiatric care and physical rehabilitation. Operating as Horizon Health Behavioral Health Services, the firm provides contract psychiatric and rehabilitation management services to hospitals across the country, running its clients' inpatient and outpatient mental health programs and rehab departments. Horizon Health was acquired by psychiatric hospital operator Psychiatric Solutions in 2007. In the acquisition, Psychiatric Solutions gained 15 freestanding psychiatric hospitals operated by Horizon Health and transferred them to its existing hospital portfolio.

DENTSPLY Limited is the British arm of US-based dental product manufacturer DENTSPLY International. The UK subsidiary sells dental and periodontal supplies including adhesives, filling materials and cosmetic compounds, anesthetics and other pharmaceuticals, surgical instruments, cleaning devices, polishing products, X-ray accessories, and all the other small bits and bobs needed to clean and restore teeth. Its Friadent division distributes dental implants while its DeguDent division supplies prosthetics (bridges, crowns, dentures). In all, the company distributes more than 100 different DENTSPLY clinical and laboratory products.

The future of sutures is what medical device company SuturTek is all about. The company develops and manufactures patented needle-protective suturing devices that may be used in place of manual hand-suturing techniques during certain medical procedures for wound closure. SuturTek's line of suturing products include reusable hand-held devices that hold disposable cartridges preloaded with curved needles. Use of the suturing devices aids in the prevention of suture needle sticks and blood-borne virus infections and reduces related risks and liabilities. The company was founded by president and CEO Jerry Brecher and CTO John Meade, and it is backed by venture capital investment firms.

SHPS wants to turn employees into savvy consumers of health care.SHPS company provides administrative services that integrate traditional benefits administration with disease management programs and decision-support tools that encourage users to stay healthier and use benefits more wisely; the hoped-for end result is lower overall health care costs. SHPS provides its services -- including online benefits administration, program design, call center support, and absence management programs -- to midsized and large employer groups and government agencies; it also provides services to insurers, third-party administrators, and other health care companies. Investment firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe owns SHPS.

Northside Hospital can treat the acute care facility, which houses the Tampa Bay Heart Institute, has some 290 beds and provides a gamut of medical services to the residents of Pinellas County, Florida. The Heart Institute offers surgical, diagnostic, and rehabilitation services for cardiac patients. In addition to its cardiovascular expertise, Northside Hospital offers specialized treatment for patients with spine disorders and chronic pain conditions, as well as diagnostic imaging, orthopedics, rehabilitation, urology, outpatient surgery. Northside Hospital is part of the HCA family.

Home Instead has a network of some 900 franchises operating throughout the US and in more than a dozen countries internationally. Employees known as CAREGivers provide the elderly with one-on-one assistance in the home and at assisted living or nursing care facilities. Home Instead helps keep the elderly at home instead of in assisted living or nursing homes. The company -- operating under the name Home Instead Senior Care -- provides non-medical home care assistance for seniors. Its services are designed for people who are capable of managing their physical needs but require assistance, supervision, light housework, meals, errands, or simply companionship in order to remain in their homes.

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