Cognoscenti Health Institute Garners Prestigious Incubator Client of the Year Award from the National Business Incubation Association -NBIA-.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

NBIA 18th International Conference on Business Incubation

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 2004

Global Award Presented at NBIA's 18th International Conference

on Business Incubation

Cognoscenti Health Institute, an Orlando, Fla.-based start-up company located at the University of Central Florida Technology Incubator (UCFTI), announced today that it has been named the 2004 Outstanding Incubator Client in the technology category by the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA), the world's leading organization advancing business incubation and entrepreneurship. The Outstanding Incubator Client award recognizes outstanding client firms of NBIA member incubation programs. This award was presented today to Cognoscenti's CEO Dr. Philip Chen at NBIA's 18th International Conference on Business Incubation in Atlanta. In addition, the UCF Technology Incubator, will receive NBIA's most prestigious honor in the technology category, the 2004 Incubator of the Year award.

"Cognoscenti Health Institute is a natural fit for this award, which recognizes incubator clients around the world that exemplify the best business cases and successes in the industry," said NBIA President and CEO Dinah Adkins. "The two-year old technology company has achieved tremendous growth and successes in a market that has been primarily dominated by large national laboratory companies. Cognoscenti's unique technologies are helping to reduce the escalating cost of health care laboratory testing, while improving the outcome and quality of medical care."

Cognoscenti Health Institute is a healthcare service and technology company that uses advanced information technology (IT) and emerging biotechnology to deliver medical laboratory services to patients, physicians, clinics and hospitals in a community health care environment. Cognoscenti's technologies dramatically improve on today's medical laboratory testing procedures. The company's touch-screen and web-based technologies provide real-time ordering of laboratory tests and reporting of patient test results. Cognoscenti's web-enabled expert system, called Labdoc.com, provides physicians with guidance for test utilization at the point of decision making (when they are reviewing the test results or ordering tests), and patients and the general public with direct access to laboratory testing information and services to help them proactively manage their health. For healthcare institutions and third-party payers, such as insurance companies, this system creates a new paradigm that allows the implementation of a cost-effective, evidence-based laboratory medicine practice.

Cognoscenti is among the first clinical laboratories in the country to use advanced IT to achieve total electronic clinical laboratory transactions, and one of few companies in the country to install a "nanochip" machine, which uses tiny microarray chips to test blood to determine whether patients are predisposed to contracting specific diseases.

Cognoscenti's rapid growth plan included a purchase of 14 acres of land in Orlando's Research Park where Cognoscenti will build major medical diagnostic facilities to serve the Southeast and the local community. The company opened its door in early 2002 with seven employees. Today, it has 60 employees and company revenues have reached $4.5 million annually.

"We are honored to be recognized by NBIA for this prestigious award," said Cognoscenti's CEO Dr. Philip Chen. "The NBIA Incubator Client of the Year award is significant because it underscores our recent successes and hard work, and highlights our continued commitment to deliver standardized, evidence-based laboratory medicine in a community health care environment. Our technologies and lab services help to address the rising cost of health care by dramatically reducing lab testing costs while improving the quality of medical care. We are one of few community-based laboratories in the country that can match the advanced diagnostic tools and processes that are used today by large, national laboratories and medical centers. And because we're a community-based laboratory, we can turn around lab results more rapidly. In fact, most of our diagnostics are turned around on the same day, compared to the days, and sometimes weeks, that it would take for a national laboratory to produce the same results."

UCFTI Director Tom O'Neal commented, "This has been a tremendous year for Cognoscenti, and we're extremely proud that one of our clients' has received this top honor by NBIA in recognition for its significant initial successes. The company has shown great promise in its ability to leverage new technologies that will improve upon the efficiencies of today's laboratory medical practices."

About Cognoscenti Health Institute

Cognoscenti Health Institute was incorporated in 2001 with a mission to implement standardized, evidence-based laboratory medicine in a community health care environment. The company is among the first clinical laboratories in the country to use advanced IT to achieve total electronic clinical laboratory transactions, and is among the first to put "nanochip" in clinical diagnostic services. Cognoscenti's 6,500 square-foot facility houses a state-of-the-art, high-tech clinical laboratory offering over 900 tests of interest and value to referring physicians, patients, clinics and hospitals. Cognoscenti's clients include Central Florida Healthcare Coalition, Orange County Medical Clinics, Orange County Corrections, City of Orlando, Polk County School Board, University of Central Florida, Community Health Centers, Inc., United Healthcare, among others. Cognoscenti is located at the University of Central Florida Research Park in Orlando, Fla. For more information, please visit http://www.labdoc.com.