As the population ages, especially in the industrialized countries, the healthcare sector is destined to remain a growth segment. Its activities focus on providing affordable medical care, curing disease, and ensuring a high quality of life into old age.
Our Healthcare division operates as a pharmaceutical gas company, filling the gap that exists between the pure medical and industrial gas segments. Consistent with our aspirations and by virtue of our broad international presence, we offer our medical expertise in the emerging countries as well.
Linde’s Healthcare operations embrace three sectors, namely Hospital care (hospitals, doctors and rescue services), Homecare (outpatients) and INO Therapeutics (intensive care). Our research concentrates on drug and device combinations for the respiratory system in the intensive care setting. Linde also supports the GEMI Fund, an organization devoted to stimulating research into medical applications for gas. We are untiring in our efforts to offer users better and safer treatment methods based on medical gases. Our representatives are available to train and advise medical staff on site. We are also active in emerging nations such as those in South America. We contribute to the further development of these countries by raising the standard of care and facilitating knowledge transfer.
Medical research BOC
BOC made an annual grant of £10,000 to the Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists to aid the fight against chronic respiratory diseases in the UK. As part of its commitment to the NHS and the medical establishment as a whole, BOC leads or supports a number of research programmes, clinical trials and patient care opportunities, in addition to running clinical seminars on the use of medical gases for the relief of pain and respiratory problems. In 2005, BOC provided £400,000 to sponsor several studies on respiratory issues, lung cancer and COPD, with a major study being conducted on bronchiolitis at St Mary’s hospital, Paddington. BOC also supports several clinical bodies, jointly founding the COPD consortium with the British Thoracic Society and others, and including the long-term sponsorship of the BOC chair of anaesthesia in the UK and the Hong Kong College of Anaesthesiologists. In addition, it supports various patient groups including the Patients Association in the UK.