Four companies working on the development of innovative technologies to meet current NHS healthcare priorities have been selected to share funding worth £1.5 million to progress their ideas.

The funding programme SBRI East, part of the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), was launched by NHS East of England, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the East of England Development Agency (EEDA), and the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) in April 2009. It is being supported by Health Enterprise East (HEE), the region’s Innovation Hub which is managing the competition on behalf of the funding partners.

A total of 177 companies applied for SBRI East Phase 1 Funding following its launch in April 2009. Out of these, 11 were selected to each receive up to £100,000 Feasibility Funding for Phase 1 of the programme in December 2009 from which four finalists have been chosen to receive Phase 2 Development Funding.

The four finalists submitted entries in two out of the three categories: Patient Safety - Improving Health Outcomes and Long Term Conditions - Remote Monitoring. One company, EcoRoute Ltd, received Phase 1 funding in the Keeping Children Active category last December.

Members of the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Board from left: Julie Seear, Technology Strategy Board, Karen Livingstone and Claire Cordeaux, NHS East of England, Mark Glover, Technology Strategy Board, Katie Robinson, EEDA and David Connell, University of Cambridge

In the Patient Safety - Improving Health Outcomes category, Cambridge Design Partnership based in Toft, Cambridgeshire, is developing a new respiratory humidifier with the potential to reduce Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP) by 30%.

VAP currently causes 6,000 deaths annually and costs the NHS £600m. The novel respiratory humidifier has the potential to save 2,000 lives per year, an estimated 20,000 bed-days and £175m of costs to the NHS. It will be ready for trial in 18 months and the new company to be set up in the East of England will create hi-tech jobs in medical technology. This innovation also promises to reduce environmental impact as a result of fewer hospital visits and diagnostic tests.

Also in the Patient Safety category, OBS Medical Limited, based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire is developing a unique integrated system for continuous non-invasive assessment and interpretation of a patient’s five vital signs, including those that are ambulatory: body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation and respiration rate.

At present, patients typically have their vital signs monitored by nursing staff on a predetermined frequency until signs of deterioration are noted and the frequency increased.  This approach requires there to be sufficient nursing resource available to cope with the increased frequency demand and deterioration may have commenced at any point between the last two readings.  Attempts to use existing automated monitors have been sub-optimum given that at study conducted at MIT in the USA determined 86 out of every 100 alerts to be false thereby applying a further unnecessary constraint on nursing resources. 

The system being developed by OBS Medical offers the potential for near continuous monitoring whilst avoiding the existing problem related to false alerts.  The system will provide up to six hours’ early warning of patient deterioration in high-dependency units, limiting the number of serious complications and reducing the length of stay. It will be ready for trial in 12 months. If successful, it will bring an improvement in Productivity (part of the QIPP agenda) as better patient monitoring could be achieved with the same or less clinical staff.

In Long Term Conditions - Remote Monitoring, Eykona Technologies Ltd., based in Oxford, has devised a novel 3D camera which allows for improved monitoring and clinical intervention of wounds in clinics, hospitals and also remotely at home, leading to potentially more effective clinical decisions and shorter healing times.

Wound care costs the NHS an estimated £3bn per annum, with approximately 38,000 patients in the East of England treated at home for diabetic leg and pressure ulcers. Eykona’s novel 3D camera will be ready for trial in six months and remote monitoring will reduce the need for travel by patients and health professionals, resulting in lower CO₂ emissions.

The remaining finalist in the Long Term Conditions category is based in Cambridgeshire. Sonovia Ltd, located on the Melbourn Science Park in Cambridgeshire, is developing a novel ultrasonic device enabling patients suffering from osteoarthritis to be treated at home.  Currently 80% of the population over 60 years old has some degree of osteoarthritis, 50% of the population over age 50 has some degree of knee pain with one third of them already seeking advice from their GP.

The effectiveness and reliability of existing ultrasonic devices are limited due to operator skill in constantly moving the device over the affected area to ensure optimum therapeutic benefits.  The system being developed by Sonovia has been engineered to overcome that limitation and achieve a better consistency of response between different users and patients.

This will be ready for trial in nine months and the company established in the East of England will create hi-tech jobs in medical technology. Treatment at home reduces the number of patient visits and therefore carbon impact on the environment.  If successful, it is estimated that the Sonovia product could save up to 22% and 3-4% of the CO₂ generated by musculoskeletal care and total NHS travel emissions respectively.

Sir Neil Mackay, Chief Executive, NHS East of England said:  “As the first NHS region in the UK to pilot a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition, we are delighted that the search for innovative ideas to improve current healthcare challenges has been so successful.

“It has been immensely difficult to choose both the shortlist and finalists from the 177 applications we received but we are sure that the four companies selected to receive Phase 2 funding will meet their objectives in terms of delivering improved healthcare and efficiency based cost-savings, as well as creating new jobs and reducing our environmental impact. We offer our congratulations and look forward to seeing the new technologies developed fully and commercialised”.

Paul May, Director of Innovation at EEDA said: “Our congratulations go to the ambitious companies who have been awarded funding to test their ideas.

“Working together with NHS East of England and the Technology Strategy Board, we are pleased to support these innovative companies. We hope that the technologies that will be developed will make a real difference to patients, as well as helping to support the growth of the strong healthcare sector in the region”.