Malvern, PA -- Renowned research firm KLAS has named Siemens Healthcare's (www.siemens.com/healthcare) NOVIUS Lab as the recipient of its 2008 Best in KLAS award for laboratory information systems (LIS) for large hospitals with more than 200 beds. The prestigious annual award is given to a vendor or product that scores the highest in its industry segment and meets all other Best in KLAS requirements.

"As economic conditions become more challenging, healthcare providers are under tremendous pressure to make every investment - and every dollar - count," said KLAS President Adam Gale. "The Best in KLAS awards were created to help providers make smart buying decisions, allowing them to cut through the hype to identify companies, products and services that are the best-performing in the healthcare industry. The 2008 Best in KLAS honorees represent a select group of healthcare software and services vendors that have demonstrated leadership in working with customers to resolve issues and match expectations to reality."

Siemens' NOVIUS Lab enables laboratories to remain competitive by offering an open-ended architecture framework, where orders can be entered from multiple inpatient and outpatient facilities faster and more accurately. Laboratories can configure NOVIUS Lab's customizable rules to their own specifications to better manage their worklist, ultimately helping to enhance productivity. And, the laboratory information system easily manages sample transport and receipt among all institutions within an Integrated Hospital Network - a critical step for patient safety and specimen accuracy. All of this helps labs reduce costs, improve customer service, improve outcomes, and enhance efficiencies.

"We are very pleased that NOVIUS Lab has received such a resounding endorsement from our customers and KLAS," said Janet Dillione, chief executive officer, Health Services Business Unit, Siemens Healthcare. "The architecture is specifically designed to meet the needs of today's complex laboratories by supporting both the delivery of operations and point-of-care testing services."

MedCentral Health System, a Siemens' customer based in Mansfield, Ohio, installed NOVIUS Lab laboratory system in 2004 to achieve a comprehensive point-of-care patient identification system for its specimen collection operations. The effort was part of an ambitious, enterprise-wide effort dubbed "Project Expert Care" to replace the healthcare provider network's entire paper-based care delivery model with a seamless electronic-based environment.

"When the previous system was originally installed in the late 1980s, the lab was doing about 330,000 billable procedures annually," said Fred Crowgey, projects director for MedCentral. "In 2004, the lab volume had tripled to over 1 million in billable procedures. NOVIUS Lab has met our needs and continues to meet our needs as volumes continue to increase".

The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry. The company is a renowned medical solutions provider with core competence and innovative strength in diagnostic and therapeutic technologies as well as in knowledge engineering, including information technology and system integration. With its laboratory diagnostics acquisitions, Siemens Healthcare is the first integrated healthcare company, bringing together imaging and lab diagnostics, therapy, and healthcare information technology solutions, supplemented by consulting and support services. Siemens Healthcare delivers solutions across the entire continuum of care - from prevention and early detection, to diagnosis, therapy and care. Additionally, Siemens Healthcare is the global market leader in innovative hearing instruments. The company employs around 49,000 people worldwide and operates in 130 countries. In the fiscal year 2008 (Sept. 30), Siemens Healthcare reported sales of €11.2 billion, orders of €11.8 billion, and Sector profit of €1.2 billion. Further information can be found by visiting http://www.siemens.com/healthcare.

KLAS is a research firm specializing in monitoring and reporting the performance of healthcare vendors. KLAS' mission is to improve delivery, by independently measuring vendor performance for the benefit of our healthcare provider partners, consultants, investors, and vendors. Working together with executives from over 4500 hospitals and over 2500 clinics, KLAS delivers timely reports, trends, and statistics, which provide a solid overview of vendor performance in the industry. KLAS measures performance of software, professional services, and medical equipment vendors. For more information, go to www.KLASresearch.com.