By now, we've all heard of Michael Sessions, who recently won the mayoral race in Hillsdale, Mich. He's 18 and the new mayor—quite a feat in itself. Other roadblocks that Sessions overcame included running against a far more experienced incumbent and the fact that his name was not even on the ballot—voters needed to write him in. That's exactly what they did, and he won the election by just two votes (670 to 668)!

With all of the coverage that Sessions has received—from reading the infamous Top 10 list on The Late Show with David Letterman to an early-morning interview with Katie Couric on the Today show—one thing is obvious: Every vote counts. This statement was especially true in our 10th Annual Readers' Choice Awards, the results for which are included in this month's cover story, "The People's Picks". In the "Manufacturer" category, GE Healthcare (Waukesha, Wis) followed in Sessions' footsteps by beating "incumbent" Siemens Medical Solutions (Malvern, Pa) by just two votes.

Also of note about GE Healthcare's win is that it's the first time the company has claimed the top prize since 1998—although the company has consistently finished in the top five since the Readers' Choice Awards first began back in 1996. All of these statistics made me hungry for more, so I pulled out all of our back issues to see which companies won during the past decade. Of course, we changed the voting structure last year, dividing companies into three categories so that similar types of companies "competed" against one another. Here are my findings for the #1 finishers:

• 2004: Siemens Medical (Manufacturer); Eastman Kodak Co (Accessories, Supplies, and Service); and Varian Medical Systems / Interay (Dealer/Distributor and Remanufacturer/Rebuilder)
• 2003: Varian Medical Systems
• 2002: Berlex Laboratories
• 2001–1999: Varian Medical Systems
• 1998: GE Healthcare (then GE Medical Systems)
• 1997: Hewlett-Packard Co's Medical Products Group
• 1996: Varian Medical Systems

A few things are worth noting here. First, Varian Medical Systems (Palo Alto, Calif) is a clear contender, winning five times during the past 10 years. (Still, the company finished in ninth place this year and in 11th place last year.) Second, Hewlett-Packard was the top winner in 1997 and then didn't finish in the top 20 again until this year, tying with, oddly enough, Varian Medical for ninth place.

Third, with our restructuring last year, we included countless companies on the ballot who had not been included before, including DMS Health Group (Fargo, ND), ReMedPar (Goodlettsville, Tenn), Dunlee (Aurora, Ill), and Del Medical Systems Group (Franklin Park, Ill). All of these companies have finished in the top 10 both this year and last, which makes us feel confident in the voting process.

Finally, several new companies were added to the ballot again this year, and one of them really shined: SourceOne Healthcare Technologies (Mentor, Ohio). The company not only nabbed the #1 spot in the "Dealer/Distributor" category, it also came in sixth place in "Accessories, Supplies, and Service." Kudos to you, SourceOne!

Of course, we congratulate all of the winners, whose excitement is clear. It's rewarding to hear how important these annual awards are to vendors as well as buyers. And thank you to all of our readers for your participation. Just as Michael Sessions knows, all of your votes count.

Andi Lucas
Editor