Who We Are
Health Edco is a division of The Education & Outreach Company, a family of companies dedicated to innovative 3-D displays, hands-on models, informative print products, and promotional materials aimed at improving lives through health education and awareness.
Our History
WRS Group’s roots go back to 1964, when founder Wayman R. Spence (WRS), M.D., then a young resident in physical medicine and rehabilitation, developed medicine’s first silicone padding, which was ideal for the prevention of pressure sores. In 1967, Dr. Spence used his fierce passion for preventive medicine to found Spenco Medical Corporation.
In the late 1960s, Dr. Spence was at a party when a woman lit a cigarette. A strong anti-smoking advocate, Dr. Spence told the woman that he should give her an ashtray shaped like a pair of lungs so that she could see what she was doing to her body. Inspired by this incident, Dr. Spence created the Lung Ashtray in 1968. This unique product featured a set of transparent lungs—one hollow—mounted on an ordinary ashtray. As smoke billowed up the hollow lung, a dark, syrupy deposit of tar remained behind, graphically revealing how smoking damages the lungs. An immediate sensation, the Lung Ashtray made national headlines, caught the attention of the tobacco industry, and persuaded thousands of smokers to kick their deadly habit.
From these first successes, an obsession was fueled to create better health through education and awareness. After Spenco Medical Corporation was sold in 1984, Dr. Spence retained Health Edco, the division dedicated to health education, which has gone on to create hundreds of dynamic teaching tools. In 2026, Health EDCO joined The Education & Outreach Company.
Health Edco offers an extensive line of unique resources that bring health education to life and cover a wide range of health topics, including tobacco, alcohol, drugs, nutrition, diabetes, heart health, and many more.
has been the premier provider of childbirth education resources for more than 30 years, covering preconception planning through pregnancy, labor, birth, breastfeeding, and early parenting.