Mid TECH has worked closely with Executive Playground Business Improvement Consultancy for 4 years. During this time they have helped several NHS Trust members to achieve success, improve services and develop important skills through their TeamVention® Challenge and Innovation in Action™ workshops:

“Executive Playground’s creative, collaborative approach and its TeamVention® Challenge workshop, really encouraged our multidisciplinary staff to break out of the usual ways of doing things and think differently.  For us, that was about supporting the development of our MIDRU branding, building and services in an innovative way whilst engaging as many of its users as possible”.

Bethan Bishop, Head of In Research & Innovation, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust.

“I am impressed in how efficiently you managed the ‘Innovation in Action’ workshop and how much we’ve all benefited in our workshop with you. Your business insight and flexibility was refreshing and inspiring and your passion for what you do was evident. I really feel like you are one of the team and that made all the difference at our workshop. The ‘Innovation in Action’ workshop stimulated intellectual entrepreneurship and novel collaborations across The Heart and Lung Directorate and we achieved highly impressive results in so short a time”

Bally Shoker, Business Development Manager, Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust

“The session was a roaring success and to such a large multidisciplinary group. Executive Playground did an excellent job keeping everyone engaged. The day was fun and full of laughter which was great, particularly for a group of individuals who don’t have the time to bring their heads above the parapet. It was also highly effective with great ideas surfaced from the teams through the creative workstations which will now be worked up into project plans”

Nicola Bullen, Organisation Development Lead, Staff Engagement

2010 TeamVention online

Because of this success MidTECH supported the development of TeamVention® Online http://www.midtech.org.uk/2010/04/midtech-and-teamvention-video/, highly innovative web based collaborative software which enables Trusts to engage staff – from Trust wide to smaller teams – in the innovation of ideas to improve services and identify efficiencies – plus much more.

Exclusive offer to MidTECH members only

Offer 1: MidTECH members qualify for 25% discount off TeamVention® Challenge and Innovation in Action™ workshops.

Offer 2:  Book a workshop and get TeamVention online absolutely free of charge for up to 60 days. Terms apply.

For more details or to arrange an exploratory meeting with Executive Playground® call 0845 330 7884 or contact Managing Director Anne Wilkinson directly on anne@executiveplayground.co.uk or 07968 134326

View the TeamVention Online Brochure

• put patients at the heart of everything the NHS does;
• focus on continuously improving those things that really matter to patients – the outcome of their healthcare; and
• empower and liberate clinicians to innovate, with the freedom to focus on improving healthcare services

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/LiberatingtheNHS/index.htm

http://www.intouchwithhealth.net/into-product-range/into-kiosk-check-in.html

Pictured with the respiratory biosensor are (front) Monica Spiteri with (from left) Andrew Todd, from Advantage West Midlands' Innovation Team, QinetiQ Fellow Dr Tim Cox, UHNS chairman Mike Brereton, UHNS chief executive Julia Bridgewater, Mary Haigh, QinetiQ’s exploitation manager, and David Gleaves, chief executive of MidTECH.

Professor Monica Spiteri, of the Directorate of Respiratory Medicine at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust (UHNS), came up with the idea of testing saliva as a means of monitoring the everyday condition of patients with serious lung conditions, especially during flare-ups of disease.

Flare-ups – or exacerbations – of diseases like emphysema, chronic bronchitis and asthma, a leading cause of death and disability worldwide, not only cause regular disruption to patients’ daily lives but are also the second biggest cause of emergency hospital admissions.

Early recognition of an impending flare-up could alert patients and the GPs, consultants and nurses caring for them to begin or change treatment, which could avoid them being rushed into hospital.

QinetiQ, which provides technical advice to customers around the world in the aerospace, defence and security markets, has produced the prototype ‘respiratory biosensor’ at its technology centre in Malvern, Worcestershire. The biosensor is now being fine-tuned ready to begin clinical trials at the UHNS in Stoke-on-Trent in July.

The innovation follows a significant investment by Advanced Sensors Innovation Programme (ASIP), a joint venture between QinetiQ and Advantage West Midlands, the regional development agency.

MidTECH, the West Midlands NHS innovations hub, brought the hospital trust and QinetiQ together in a collaborative arrangement that has enabled QinetiQ scientists and NHS clinicians to develop the project.  MidTECH has also arranged patent protection for Professor Spiteri’s ideas.

Monica Spiteri, Professor of Respiratory Medicine at UHNS, said: “The arrival of our prototype respiratory biosensor is a landmark step in the development of future near-patient technology that could make a big difference for monitoring patients with lung disease – for example, in managing patients with flare-ups of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

“There are an estimated 29 million sufferers of COPD around the world. At the moment the only ways of monitoring the progress of COPD are spirometry machines, which measure how fast and how much a patient breathes out, and monitors which analyse exhaled breath. However, these tests are not sensitive enough to predict flare-ups or guide treatment.

“Saliva analysis is currently used in other fields, such as testing for alcohol and drug levels – but we are among the first teams in the world to develop it to monitor the progression of COPD and other lung conditions. Using saliva is far more convenient and less invasive for the patient than having to give a blood sample.”

The new technology works by measuring bio-markers – proteins whose concentration reflects the severity or presence of disease – in saliva. Professor Spiteri and her team of research nurses, hospital specialists and GPs with a special interest in lung disease are now preparing for the clinical trials.

Tests are currently being carried out to refine the portable machine before patient sample testing begins.

Dr Mary Haigh, QinetiQ’s exploitation manager for the project, said: “We are keen to get involved in projects that can find alternative uses and markets for the technology that we develop. This project brought together QinetiQ’s world-class expertise in high sensitivity micro-systems for the detection of biological and chemical materials with UHNS’s track record in the analysis of saliva.

“The result is a biosensor that incorporates leading edge chip-based technology and optical sensors and anything else for the diagnosis and detection of bio-markers associated with respiratory disease.”

In due course the technology will be further miniaturised  to produce a ‘smart’, handheld device with its own in-built ‘lab on a chip’ to enable patients to monitor their own condition in the comfort of their home.

David Gleaves, chief executive of MidTECH, said: “This is a unique project, linking together the expertise of QinetiQ’s laboratories with the NHS to produce a device with so much potential to help COPD patients throughout the world.

“The production of the biosensor is a milestone towards helping these patients to manage their own condition and, at the same time, reduce the pressure upon Accident & Emergency departments.”

Julia Bridgewater, chief executive of University Hospital of North Staffordshire, said: “I’m delighted with the work that Professor Monica Spiteri is doing in the Trust. This is incredibly important to our local population. This work demonstrates our commitment in taking a lead in providing the best possible care for people with these disabling conditions.”

Rebecca Garrod-Waters, director of innovation at Advantage West Midlands, said:

“This project again highlights the technology strengths and innovation of West Midlands businesses – capabilities which will help them to grow in difficult economic conditions.

“The Advanced Sensors Innovation Programme has applied QinetiQ’s renowned sensors expertise to create new products.  The respiratory biosensor is a great example of where these capabilities are being used to address a major health issue affecting the lives of many sufferers and in doing so creating a new market for high-tech manufacturing.”

***ENDS***

For further information, please contact Louise Jew on 07854 126214 or 01384 442840.

Notes to Editors:

QinetiQ provides technical advice to customers in the global aerospace, defence and security markets. It is a trusted partner to government organisations, predominantly in the UK and the US, including defence departments, intelligence services and security agencies.

MidTECH is part of a national network of NHS Innovation Hubs, established by the Department of Health to identify, protect and commercialise innovative ideas from the NHS.  This includes helping to patent or otherwise protect the ideas, linking up with industries that may help to commercialise them – and aiming to ensure that a share of the profits go to the inventor and the NHS Trust where the projects were born.

University Hospital of North Staffordshire cares for over 600,000 people through emergency treatment, planned operations and medical care each year. It is a teaching hospital in partnership with Keele University and has a patient-centred clinical research facility providing state-of-the-art facilities. Its new £370m hospital is under construction and will be fully operational in 2012.

Advantage West Midlands www.advantagewm.co.uk For every £1 invested by Advantage West Midlands, the Agency generates a £8.14 return for the regional economy.

Approximately 30 per cent of the total haemodialysis population in the UK have a tunneled line and these devices can be a source of sepsis, otherwise known as blood poisoning.

Renal sepsis is a significant cause of illness and death and contributes to eight per cent of all new MRSA cases in the UK. Consequently, patients with tunneled lines are at greater risk of hospitalisation.

Because there wasn’t a drape purposely designed for tunneled haemodialysis catheter insertion, doctors were having to use drapes which did not have holes the correct size or shape for the procedure. They also had to use more than one drape at a time.

The Solution

Dr Kevin Eardley, a consultant nephrologist at the trust, designed a new product called a Tunneled Jugular Line with Observation Window Drape – which will help reduce the chances of dialysis patients developing MRSA.

It is appropriately sized and has a specifically designed aperture. It is also designed to help reduce the feeling of claustrophobia many patients experience by having a transparent section covering the patient’s face. This will also aid nurses’ observation and reassurance of the patient during the procedure.

How MidTECH has helped

MidTECH used their in-house designer to produce drawings of the design and these were shown to a local company, 365 Healthcare. The managing director, Rob Gidley, showed an immediate interest in the idea and produced a batch of prototypes for testing. Once the dimensions were finalised, MidTECH protected the intellectual property and negotiated a licence deal on behalf of the Trust. The Trust will now receive a percentage of all sales of the drape worldwide. The product was launched in 2008.

Elderly wheelchair users find it difficult to get out and about and one of the limiting factors is the ability to take a wheelchair on a car journey. Usually the wheelchair would be stored in a boot and it falls to the partner or helper of the wheelchair-user to load and unload this. If they are also elderly this can prove a real problem.

The Solution

The Wheelchair lift is an innovative idea originating from Peter Thorneycroft, employee of South Birmingham PCT.  The system allows a wheelchair to be easily lifted into the boot of a car. The lift can be a manual or totally automated method of lifting. The manual version takes much of the strain away from loading a wheelchair and also ensures the person lifting uses the correct and more efficient muscle groups. In its automatic mode, the wheelchair is neatly stored in the car boot with minimal user intervention. Both systems are very simple to use, very cheap to construct and can be easily fit to any sized car.

How MidTECH has helped

MidTECH has helped in the development and design of the idea and  managed IP protection and commercialisation. They approached a partner organisation called HDTI based at Coventry University who designed and built a prototype of the manual lift. This prototype was then exhibited at Naidex show at the NEC in the summer of 2008. At this exhibition Midtech was approached by manufacturer, Mangar International Ltd. Midtech negotiated a licence agreement on behalf of the Trust which was signed in January 2009. The product (BackSaver) can be purchased at www.mangarinternational.co.uk

IV stands are a necessity in every hospital, care home and domestic situation where it is necessary to support a saline or blood bag to deliver an intravenous drip supply to a patient. These stands tend to be heavy, noisy to move and not particularly transportable, as they are robust contraptions not built for dissembling.

The Solution

Wolverhampton-based company Medical Devices Technology International Ltd (MDTi) have worked in conjunction with Wolverhampton City PCT to develop the Hoo-kOn, a portable lightweight drip stand that enables bags of intravenous drugs or fluids and monitoring equipment to be securely attached so that nursing staff can safely administer treatment to patients at home. It can be deployed to the home in its carrying bag, will fit in the boot of a small car and can also be particularly useful in military operations, in field hospitals and at multiple accident/incident scenes.

How MidTECH has helped

Working closely with the PCT and MDTI, MidTECH, negotiated a licence agreement between the two parties that provides the company with the necessary permissions to produce and sell the product. In return the PCT receives a royalty on sales of the product.

The innovation came from a team of occupational therapists from University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.  Previously at the Trust, if there was any question about a patient’s ability to carry out tasks such as dressing themselves, a pre-discharge assessment by an occupational therapist was required, which takes around two hours and is carried out in a specialist assessment area.  There is a high demand on the OTs’ time, meaning that there was often a booking interval of several days before the assessment could actually take place. OTs used to have to watch as patients dressed and washed themselves to assess whether they would need extra help or disability equipment when they went home.

The Solution

The dressing loop facilitates a quick initial assessment of the patient, speeding up the safe discharge or particular patients who are mobile and self-caring but whom the ward and/or medical staff feel require specialist assessment.  It comprises of a metre long adjustable stretch of elastic contained within a screw-top jar.  If the patient can open the jar and reach down to pull the loop over their feet, up their body and over their head they have the range of movement needed to get washed, undressed and dressed.  The device creates greater efficiency by freeing up beds more quickly and saving OTs’ time.  It is also a boost for patients’ privacy and dignity because they no longer have to undress, dress and wash themselves to demonstrate how well they could cope after leaving hospital.  Around one fifth of patients who are referred for an OT assessment can benefit from using the dressing loop.

How MidTECH has helped

Having been successfully implemented at University Hospital Birmingham, the dressing loop won an award in MidTECH’s 2006 innovation competition.  The hub identified a company, Nottingham Rehab Supplies Ltd (NRS), of Ashby de la Zouch, who wanted to license the device.  MidTECH put together the agreement and negotiated on the Trust’s behalf to license the loop and assessment screen to NRS. The jar lid will house a CD containing instructions and the relevant assessment screen forms and the product is due to go on sale in early 2008.

The package was born in 2000 from the need to provide support to children in mainstream education who have a speech and language delay.  The decision was made in North Staffordshire that the aim would be to support class teachers in adjusting their existing practice to accommodate these children, achieved through a series of demonstrated language lessons.

The Solution

Let’s go to Languageland was developed in the year 2000 as part of Angela’s work.  It takes children on a journey to ‘Languageland’ aboard a magic carpet, where they take part in a series of learning adventures, each designed to help develop a particular aspect of their language and communications skills.  The pack includes lesson plans, activities and games which can be used for all children but is particularly good for those with speech and language difficulties.  It also helps schools to achieve National Curriculum targets.

How MidTECH has helped

Angela had not considered publishing the package, until it was a finalist in MidTECH’s 2005 regional innovation competition.  At that stage it was just based on paper, but MidTECH saw the potential to make a digital version of the package and make it more widely available.  The hub engaged a designer to convert it into a format to present to potential publishers.  When they saw this new version, Black Sheep Press, based in Keighley, Yorkshire, snapped it up and MidTECH negotiated a licence deal on behalf of the PCT.  The pack will be available to order on CD Rom via the company’s website from spring 2008.