Umano Medical is a manufacturer of healthcare beds based in L’Islet, in the Chaudière-Appalaches region. When it began developing hospital beds with Novika, the company had no products—only a factory and an experienced team driven by a desire to provide solutions that address the technological and human needs of healthcare settings.
Today, Umano employs nearly 500 people and operates two factories in Quebec, an office in the United States, and has an active presence on four continents.
In 2010, after 90 years of operation at the L’Islet plant, the owner at the time decided to relocate operations to Mexico. The loss of 350 jobs in this small community sent shockwaves through the community. Four directors of the former company then decided to purchase the building to launch a new business there, aimed at addressing unmet needs in the medical field.
In 2012, the fledgling Umano Medical turned to Solutions Novika to develop a truly innovative new line of hospital beds: affordable, intuitive, and easy-to-use products that ease the burden on hospital staff while ensuring a high level of safety and comfort for patients.
The first product to emerge from a co-design process—one that would be replicated many times thereafter and involved researchers, healthcare staff, and manufacturers—the OokSnow medical and surgical bed was launched in 2015.Designed to minimize the risk of infections and falls while staying within the budgets of healthcare institutions, the bed was an immediate success and established Umano as a major player in this market.
Today, Umano Medical sells approximately 10,000 beds annually across four continents and is experiencing annual growth of 30% to 40%. The Umano-Novika collaboration was also awarded the NSERC Synergy Award for Innovation, recognizing the exceptional contribution of a research group to the trajectory of a Canadian company.
