The 'coolest thing made in Delaware' may save more than 20,000 lives a year

The coolest thing made in Delaware is a mammography machine.

After multiple weeks and multiple rounds of competition, and 19,000 online votes from all over the state, that's the answer offered in the inaugural "Coolest Thing Made in Delaware" contest run by the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce and its offshoot, the Delaware Manufacturing Association.

The imaging detectors that form the core of Hologic Inc.'s 3Dimensions Mammography System are made at the company's facility in Glasgow. Those devices may save the lives of as many as 27,000 women a year, according to figures cited during the Coolest Thing award presentation.

The prize was an emotional one for Brian Brooks, senior director of operations at Hologic.

"Our admin for our site, yesterday — she rang the bell for her battle with breast cancer. She finished her last treatment, and she had an early detection screened on one of our 3D mammography systems," Brooks said, while hefting the Delaware-shaped trophy that marked Hologic's mammography device as the state's coolest product. "It took on a whole new meaning, and significance, for what we do every day."

The "Coolest Thing" award was announced at the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce’s Spring Manufacturing & Policy Conference, held March 28 at Delaware Technical Community College's Dover campus.

Hologic has become the market leader in mammography across the country, Brooks said, after the Massachusetts-based company acquired Delaware medical products company Direct Radiography for $20 million in 1999.

The company is responsible for 80% of the mammogram machines sold and used in the United States, Brooks said.

The machine that won the prize as Delaware's "Coolest Thing" is the company's most state-of-the-art model. But this is always a moving target: The company's next-generation device will be announced "soon," Brooks said.

The other final four contenders in Delaware's inaugural "Coolest Thing" competition, designed to offer attention to the many things made in the Small Wonder, were spacesuits made by ILC Dover, energy servers from Bloom Energy, and Playtex Sport Tampons manufactured by Edgewell Personal Care.

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Others among the initial contenders included beer from Dogfish Head, claymore weapons systems and life-saving drugs. More off-the wall contenders included guitar picks from New Castle-area's PickWorld, Rehoboth Beach-based Devil Dave's Bloody Mary sticks, and sarcophagus-scented candles from Wilmington's Blessed Hex Candle Co.

But in the end, there can be only one Coolest Thing. And the Coolest Thing is the 3Dimensions Mammography System from Hologic Inc.

"It's truly an honor to stand before you," said Brooks, accepting the prize on behalf of Hologic.

Afterward, he said that the award, in spirit, belongs to the admin at Hologic's office who survived her bout with breast cancer after receiving that life-saving early diagnosis.

"She's gonna love this," Brooks said. "It's going to be on her desk."

Matthew Korfhage is business and development reporter in the Delaware region covering all things related to land and money: openings and closings, construction, and the many corporations who call the First State home. Send tips and insults to mkorfhage@gannett.com.