ATLANTA – Medtrade organizers tallied attendee votes for the New Product Pavilion Providers’ Choice Awards, sponsored by HomeCare Magazine, on the final day of Medtrade. The FreeStyle® Comfort® portable oxygen concentrator (POC) from CAIRE ultimately took the coveted Gold Award.

George Coppola (middle with Kevin Gaffney, group show director, Medtrade, and Elizabeth Carey, editor, HomeCare), director of Marketing, CAIRE Inc., Ball Ground, Georgia, talked with many attendees earlier this month at Medtrade, and he believes voters liked The FreeStyle’s curved ergonomic shape, designed to hug the body and be more comfortable. “It’s a five setting machine with total output of 1050 ml,” he adds. “It weighs five pounds with up to eight hours battery life.”

Coppola explains that the POC is warranted for three years, including the sieve bed, so the unit is “designed to last.” Officially launched this year, The FreeStyle has met with a lot of positive feedback. “At Medtrade they loved the display,” Coppola says. “It’s very easy to read and they love the overall shape and design. They responded to a combination of the output, the settings, and the design.”

Was it a surprise to win the top award? Not really. “We were very confident going in,” Coppola muses. “A lot of thought and design time went into it, but it’s great to walk away with an award voted on by the attendees. In general, we are optimistic about the industry. We are here to support the industry with products and programs. We can provide them with a great machine that’s reliable and lower their cost of ownership.”