Competitive Advantage


We trust that the following characteristics described below will help us maintain our competitiveness and pursue our strategic goals:


Focus on quality and attention to physicians

     We are committed to ensure the highest quality of diagnostic services to all of our patients.

     Our commitment to quality service and reliable results is the same for all our lines of business.

     We were the first laboratory in Latin America to receive ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certifications,        we have been accredited by the College of American Pathologists (CAP).

     Currently, in the clinical analysis sector, we operate under the 5.5 Sigma standard (equivalent to 31.7 errors per
       one million exams) in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, compared to 4.8 Sigma (equivalent to 483 errors per one        million exams) for the industry as a whole.

     We value the confidence that medical professionals, and particularly physicians, have bestowed on our company
       and brands, and we continually strive to improve the functionality of the data we provide to our physicians, who
       can influence the patient’s decision to use our services.

Focus on patients

     Through our extensive network of patient service centers throughout Brazil, we offer our patients convenient
       locations for their diagnostic tests, an appealing environment with support services and amenities, extended
       service hours, a wide variety of examinations and fast delivery of results.

     Some hospital tests for hospital inpatients are provided by our on-site laboratories, allowing for rapid and              efficient service tailored to the specific needs of the patient.

     Our laboratory-to-laboratory services enable us to provide the benefits of our quality and efficiency to smaller        laboratories serving patients throughout the country.

Multi-product offering

     We have the capacity to carry out substantially all of the medical diagnostics tests and exams currently        prescribed in Brazil.

     We generally organize our patient service centers geographically around our mega patient service centers,
       where we offer a “one-stop shop” concept for clinical analysis and diagnostic imaging tests.

     In addition, our smaller centers enable us to provide some services in areas where the patient base would not        support a mega center, while allowing our patients to use the nearest mega center for other tests.

     In the inpatient services business, we offer quickturnaround for tests performed and processed at the hospital,        while obtaining cost efficiencies for tests that are processed at our central laboratories.

Multi-brands Strategy

     In our current markets, we offer three separately branded levels of outpatient service centers—executive        premium, executive and standard—consistent with the segmentation of the healthcare industry in Brazil.

     Our brands differ in the amenities they offer and consequently in the prices we charge.

     This strategy has enabled us to be a leader in the Brazilian private sector healthcare industry, while providing the        same high quality services to all of our patients.

     Our multiple brands enable us to offer our services to a wide range of healthcare plans and patients from        varying socioeconomic groups. While we use Club DA as our nationwide brand for the executive premium        segment, we also develop and maintain the outpatient brands that we acquire, which generally are        wellestablished regionally, to promote the loyalty of our patients and physicians.

Nationwide presence

     Although our main line of business is outpatient services, we have diversified our business into inpatient services,        public sector services and laboratory-to-laboratory services, both diversifying our exposure to the outpatient        business and providing cross-marketing and operational synergies with that business.

     We provide services in the principal urban centers of Brazil, located in states which together account for 76.9% of        Brazil’s GDP, according to IBGE data for 2005.

     The coverage of our laboratory-to-laboratory services is nationwide.

     Our logistics networks allow us to collect samples efficiently from patients and laboratory clients and process         them at one of our 9 central laboratories or, for inpatient services, in our smaller hospital-based laboratories.

Economies of scale and platform for growth

     As we have grown, we have achieved increasing economies of scale, which enable us to process our clinical tests        efficiently and at low cost. Telemedicine and the centralization of imaging results have enabled us to be        competitive in the diagnostic imaging sector.

     As our central laboratories currently operate below maximum capacity, we believe we can expand our processing        capacity as necessary in the medium-term with limited incremental capital expenditure.

     In addition, we believe our “hub” and “spoke” model of mega centers and standard patient service centers offer a        flexible platform for continued growth for our operations. Furthermore, we believe our size and nationwide        presence gives us greater bargaining power with suppliers thereby allowing us to further reduce costs and        increase our margins.

Medical Support

     The increasingly large number of diagnostic tests available and the constant technological innovation of the sector        demands that physicians have extensive knowledge of tests, interpretation of results and their application.

     In addition to processing diagnostic tests, we have contracts physicians at physicians’ organizations who provide        suggested interpretations of imaging tests when we deliver the results and are available to answer questions        from doctors throughout the country based on up-to-date knowledge of the clinical analysis and imaging tests we        offer.

     We seek to promote greater interaction between the physicians who request the tests and these specialists so        that the data are used to maximize the benefits to the patient’s health and treatment.

Experienced management with a proven growth track record

     Our senior management has extensive experience in the medical diagnostics industry and in achieving organic        growth and expansion through acquisitions.

     Since 2001, our annual net operating revenues increased at a compounded annual average growth rate of        29.1%, which was accompanied by increases in quality and productivity and reduction of production costs and        delivery time. Our management has been successful in integrating the operations and businesses of the        companies we have acquired.