Innovation Competition 2005

Staff from across the regions’ NHS organisations were awarded prize money totalling £7800, and gained the recognition they deserved for developing new ways to better treat patients, at the Medipex NHS Innovation competition 2005 award ceremony, held on Thursday 14th, in Leeds. 

     
The competition, sponsored by Doctors.net, Smith&Nephew, Eversheds and Urquhart-Dykes & Lord, aimed to facilitate NHS entrepreneurs, who have the enormous opportunity to improve efficiency through new products and services in the NHS. “Innovation occurs naturally in the NHS through the work of its employees, as nobody is better placed than NHS professionals to link front-line patient care to innovation,” said Professor Gareth Lloyd-Jones, Chairman of Medipex Ltd.

 

The winners

INNOVATIVE SERVICE DELIVERY CATEGORY

FIRST PRIZE – REACT (Recreational Enterprise Assisting Client Training) 
The REACT Team - Doncaster and South Humber Healthcare NHS Trust 
Created one-of-a-kind football orientated initiative for mental health service users in region to pursue an interest in football. Football, combined with therapeutic activity, is used as common ground and has genuine health-boosting fitness activities – both physical and mental. 

SECOND PRIZE - Physio Direct 
Caroline Hodgson, Anne Aider and Geoff Thrill - Hambleton and Richmondshire PCT 
Physio Direct is a telephoned based triage service offering assessment, provisional diagnosis and advice and management of musculoskeletal conditions for adults, without intervention of GP/Healthcare professional. Direct patient referral is a new concept in Physiotherapy nationally.  This assessment tool has been developed to safely assess people without seeing them. Figures have shown that less physiotherapy time is required and there is also a saving of time to GPs. Fewer X-rays and other investigations are required, and fewer appointments to consultants may be required. 

THIRD PRIZE – Emergency Care Practitioner (ECP) service 
Andrew Archibald  - South Yorkshire Ambulance Service (SYAS) 
Created a mobile minor injury/illness unit for patients who would otherwise attend their local A&E department or GP. SYAS asts as a 'gatekeeper' for the Emergency Care Practitioner (ECP) service. ( South Yorks is one of 17 trial sites for ECP's nationally). ECP are experienced paramedics and nurses from a range of backgrounds who have undergone extra training, and who can provide rapid response, treat at the scene, and refer to other primary care professionals to avoid unnecessary A&E or secondary care admissions.  Each call through to SYAS is prioritised; the ECP can respond to non-urgent cases and free-up ambulance services for urgent cases. 

HIGHLY COMMENDED – Home child immunisation programme 
Susan Barrelle  - North East Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust 
Home child immunisation programme as an alternative service delivery (as opposed to families travelling outside region to doctors surgeries).  It avoids transport issues parents face in getting their children to the surgery in order to be immunised. 

HIGHLY COMMENDED – Health Needs Assessment model 
Kath Lancaster - Airedale Primary Care Trust 
The Health Needs Assessment model is a structured process of data collection, which incorporates the following three elements; questionnaires, a school profile and community statistics.  It enables School nurses to identify which pupils need one to one support and help. 

INNOVATIVE DEVICE OR TECHNOLOGY CATEGORY

FIRST PRIZE – The SWAY-PEN 
Ben Heller  - Sheffield Teaching Hospitals/Medical Physics 
The SWAY-PEN: a new, low-cost and user-friendly method for measuring postural sway.  The Sway-Pen system is more accurate, cheaper and easier to use than the two commercial systems it has been compared with. 

SECOND PRIZE – Telemedicine 
Tony Guest  - Sheffield 's Children's NHS Trust 
Telemedicine - Helping severely neurologically impaired children live at home. Using trusted video conferencing equipment to provide a real time live video link with face to face contact between specialist health care professionals and the family in their own homes.  It offers support to parents looking after very ill/complex neurologically impaired children. Allows professionals to view child in the home environment and capture hard copy photos for the child’s records. 

THIRD PRIZE – nurses’ sterile dressing pack for home use 
Jan Blaylock  – Sheffield West Primary Care Trust 
Creation of a dressing pack that promotes best safe practice, simply by using its contents as a visual prompt. The pack contains all the basic equipment a nurse requires to perform a dressing effectively and safely in patients homes.  It reduces cross infection, by promoting hand washing and use of protective clothing; encourages correct se greg ation of clinical and household waste, and is useful teaching aid. 

HIGHLY COMMENDED – Improvements to spine board 
Andrew Cowie - Tees, East & North Yorkshire Ambulance Service – TENYAS 
Improvements to spine board design and use.  The new board has rounded edges and tapered ends, making transfer of patients (on & off) easier and quicker. Centre section has an open space - meaning zero pressure on spine. Allows examination of the spine, with patient in-situ (either at scene or hospital), simply by rolling the board on its round edges. Other novel benefits are that it accommodates small (children) or taller persons. 

HIGHLY COMMENDED – Switch and Joystick Training Device 
Aejaz Zahid – Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 
Switch and Joystick Training Device for disabled children with special needs (in particular severe athetoid Cerebral Palsy). Often these children, in starting to control their environment, use a switch/a series of switches, or a joystick. Due to the difficulties of doing this for children with severe athetosis, many end up abandoning the devices and other methods of assistive technologies.  This innovation will help to bridge the gap assessment and training.