Sato has established Sato Healthcare Switzerland AG, which is a new unit that specializes in healthcare and will provide patient safety solutions. The unit will feature state-of-the-art auto-ID technologies like RFID and more to meet the needs of the growing healthcare market.

In addition to implementing in Europe the value-added auto-ID solutions from around the Sato Group, Sato Healthcare Switzerland will also develop solutions for hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers for implementation in Europe and worldwide. Another aim is to be near international governing bodies for health-related policy and practice, enabling Sato’s direct participation in development of future standards and guidelines.

Switzerland is a mecca for healthcare and life sciences due to its attractive location, its talent pool for research, development and production of medical technology, its first-class research institutions and a sophisticated national healthcare system. This is strategic investment for Sato with the heavy concentration of medical equipment, pharmaceutical and healthcare industry players clustered in the country. With over 500 suppliers, service providers, retailers and distributors and around 300 medtech manufacturers, 94% of which collaborate with partners.

Sato entered the healthcare market in 1998 as a provider of ID solutions for hospitals with a vision of delivering “Patient Safety.” It launched its patient wristband three-point verification bar code ID solution to give hospital staff and patients full assurance of accuracy. The market responded with Sato’s signature line of patient wristbands used by over 25 million individuals worldwide in 2017 alone. Sato auto-ID solutions for healthcare now span the entire supply chain, from pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing to pharmacies and blood centers under the consistent vision of delivering true “Patient Safety.”

To accelerate growth of this business, Sato Healthcare Co., Ltd. was established in 2014 to expand offerings in Japan for product management and traceability solutions across the entire healthcare supply chain, from pharmaceutical and medical device companies to pharmacies, clinical laboratories, and hospitals. Again, with the goal of driving rapid growth of the business on the global stage, in 2015, Sato Healthcare Australia was established as the first Sato Group company dedicated to servicing healthcare customers outside of Japan.

“Healthcare services have the highest standards for accuracy and assurance of any industry,” says Hiroyuki Konuma, president of Sato Healthcare. “More organizations are turning to Sato to explore areas of their supply chain to enhance in terms of safety, efficiency and cost-effectiveness to provide even higher levels of assurance for patients. We are excited to demonstrate our commitment to state-of-the-art customer-centric solutions for the healthcare industry in Europe and to the world.”

Sato targets sales of 400 million Japanese yen for the unit by the end of FY 2022.