INNOVATION
tablets, pocket books, and even snacks to keep energy levels up during a 24hr shift. Shazia found that there was great pressure to carry these items, and yet there was no resource available to make it possible. It was not a realistic option to leave them in a locker, and being constantly on the move, as junior doctors are not desk-based, there was no option to leave items in a drawer. Therefore, Shazia purchased a bag from a high street shop to store everything needed. At the time, Shazia considered this the most effective solution until infection control nurses at the hospital in which she worked informed her that it was not allowed due to the health risk to patients. This is when Shazia began to think of other solutions to the problem, which led to a collaboration with scientists at the University of Manchester to create a low infection risk solution to carry the items required during training.
The main benefit of this bag is that the risk of infection from bringing it into a healthcare setting is low. It means that all junior doctors can potentially use the same style of bag, making it look smart and part of a uniform. It also allows healthcare professionals to feel more comfortable during the working day, which ultimately means a higher quality of patient care. A strong network to tap into has been crucial and clinical leaders, consultants, and external organisations, such as Trustech, played different roles in helping to take the idea forward. However, Shazia believes more awareness needs to be generated to encourage healthcare professionals to step forward with ideas. She would have liked to receive more support, and believes input from clinical leaders is important, and is an area that should gain greater focus. Recollecting the early stages of the process, Shazia cites the first time she presented the idea in front of clinical staff and Trustech as both inspirational and motivational; the excitement of officially pitching the idea before an audience. She also acknowledges the reality of how that initial idea has evolved following advice and input from experts along the way. Wanting to go beyond the role of being a
surgeon, Shazia states the process, although demanding in many ways, has been a positive experience. Trials in a clinical setting have proved successful, and as Shazia reaches the latter stages of the innovation life-cycle, the final product is planned for release soon.
The clinical leader: Dr Sarah Haynes from the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust recognised the benefits of collaborating with colleagues to develop an innovation, and co-invented the surgical swabwasher with Professor Mohideen Jameel and Dr James Corden. The idea is a swab washing device to enable better red blood cell salvage during operations, and reduce the reliance on blood
provided crucial encouragement as has Professor Charles McCollum who Sarah acknowledges has supported her career from the beginning. Other sources of support were also used including interest groups and innovation experts, Trustech, who helped Sarah determine whether her idea was a viable proposition.
Sarah acknowledges that medical device innovation is a difficult path to pursue and inventors must tackle many challenges, naming: protecting IP, securing funding and investment, and meeting quality management and regulatory approval standards as the most complex issues in her experience. Finding enough time can equally present difficulties in balancing a full-time role in the NHS with the demands of a spin-out company. She also stresses that inventors should be prepared for their initial idea to change; stating that as the number of people with an interest in the innovation grows, new influences may mean that inventors need to adjust their original direction. Sarah is a respected researcher and
Swabwasher concept.
donation services; an innovation which overcomes the limitations of existing swab washing techniques. Currently during surgery up to 50% of blood loss is soaked up in surgical swabs. Some hospitals attempt to recover this blood by manually washing the blood soaked swabs in saline and directing the resulting solution to the Intra-operative Cell Salvage (ICS) system.
While this has been proven to increase blood recovery rates by up to 30%, it has not been widely adopted for a number of reasons: it is time consuming and labour intensive; blood recovery rates are inconsistent and dependent on the enthusiasm of the person washing the swabs; it distracts the scrub nurse; cannot be undertaken in orthopaedic procedures; and is associated with a number of health and safety hazards.
The surgical swabwasher is a simple,
easy-to-use device that automatically extracts blood from surgical swabs for subsequent processing via the ICS system. It increases the red blood cell yield; maximises the blood recovered during surgery; helps increase the return on investment from existing ICS systems; saves money on the use of donated blood following surgery and saves stocks for patients whose clinical need is greatest; reduces health and safety issues associated with manual swab washing; and releases time for the scrub nurse.
Advocating the benefits of a strong
support network to aid progress, Sarah was fortunate enough to receive vital support from clinical leaders throughout the process. Highly regarded in the world of blood transfusion, Dr Dafydd Thomas, for instance
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innovator, nationally and internationally, and in a leadership role herself she fully recognises the role that clinical leaders play in innovation. It has been a steep learning curve for Sarah, and she hopes to one day share the experience and advice built up during this journey to mentor other budding innovators.
Currently a prototype is being trialled in a real-life NHS theatre setting. As the manufacturing phase is now approaching, it is hoped that the product will be used in practice within the next 18 months across mainstream healthcare.
About Trustech
Trustech is an NHS organisation and part of a national network of NHS innovation hubs that aims to improve healthcare through the development of innovative products and services.
It works with NHS organisations, companies, and regional, national and international bodies and networks to bring forward new ideas and help to put them into practice. It provides an innovation management service for NHS organisations within the North West, and a consultancy service for companies throughout the UK and beyond. Trustech also acts as a point of contact between the NHS and industry to build commercial relationships, and plays a wider role in the development of the healthcare economy. Established in 2001, and with over 200 years of combined NHS experience, Trustech was one of the very first NHS innovations hubs and has built a wealth of experience in managing and developing innovation in the healthcare sector. For further information visit
http://www.trustech.org.uk/
OCTOBER 2016
CSJ
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