Quint Studer, founder of the Studer Group, was named as the winner of the first Healthcare Marketing Visionary IMPACT Award by Ad Age and sister publication Modern Healthcare. The presentation will be made Sept. 23 in Chicago during Modern Healthcare's Strategic Marketing Conference.

This special award will be given each year to an outstanding individual who has ethically advanced public understanding of healthcare issues and made a lasting contribution to the industry. The winner must consistently demonstrate an ability to communicate complex healthcare information in a manner that is compelling, reliable and responsible.

Mr. Studer, who entered the healthcare industry in 1984, rose through the ranks of several organizations to become president of Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, Fla., in 1996, where he helped engineer a financial and quality turnaround. He launched the Studer Group in 2000, which went on to win the 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Over his long career, Mr. Studer through his writing and consulting work focused organizations on achieving higher quality at lower cost. His six books include "Hardwiring Excellence," and most recently "A Culture of High Performance."