This workshop is aimed specifically at:

• Clinicians who will be encouraged to identify unmet clinical needs and ideas for new products
• Researchers who will be provided with evidence of clinical needs and opportunities for collaboration
• Companies will be asked to explore how technology can meet the clinical challenges  

Within the healthcare sector urology has been identified as a growth area where technology can be expected to have a major impact on improving the quality and dignity of patients.  Through facilitated groups and open discussions participants will focus on the challenges and what technologies could be developed as solutions to the needs brought out on the day and what assistance is needed to get these developments taken forward.

The three key areas that the workshop will focus specifically on are:

• Urinary Incontinence
• Care in the community
• Diagnostic Devices  

Each area will be led by a renowned expert in the field and participants will choose in advance which of the areas they would like to attend.  Within each area, the key clinical challenges will be presented and there will be the opportunity in small facilitated groups to identify what the needs actually are and then to discuss what types of engagements would be needed and what potential products could be developed to solve the problems identified.  There will be the opportunity during the day for networking and to find out what the clinical problems identified in the other areas are. 

In addition to the three focus areas, the day will contain presentations on the Urology market over the next 5 years; Emerging technologies and their potential in the Urology sector; User-focussed design; Sources of funding for collaborative projects; and Technology Adoption in the NHS, as well as a presentation from Professor Chris Chapple of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals on the clinical challenges in Urology. 

If you would like to attend this free workshop then please fill out the attached registration form and send to:- 

Post: Stephanie Bridgford Events Manager, Medipex Ltd, NHS Innovation Hub, Clarendon Road, Leeds, LS2 9DF Email: Stephanie.bridgford@medipex.co.uk  Tel: 0113 344 3851

Registration Form and Programme

This competition closes at noon on 24^th November 2008. 

The Technology Strategy Board and the National Institute for Healthcare Research (NIHR) Invention for Innovation (i4i) programme are pleased to announce that the pilot SBRI competition in Healthcare Associated Infections is now open. 

Do you have a technology in development that could make a difference to the challenges outlined below? If so, we would like to hear from you. 

The new SBRI is a phased procurement programme, intended to deliver demonstrated leading-edge technologies and products to meet future needs of Government and its agencies ahead of commercial procurement, and also to support technology developments through the critical stages of demonstration and trial. SBRI competitions are open to all suppliers based in the EU; we are particularly keen to receive bids from early-stage, high-technology businesses. 

Developments are 100% funded and focused on specific identified needs, increasing the chance of exploitation. Suppliers for each project will be selected by an open competition process and retain the intellectual property generated from the project, with certain rights of use retained by the contracting Department. This is an excellent opportunity to establish an early customer for a new technology and to fund its development. 

The specific topics for this Healthcare Associated Infections competition are:

• Hand Hygiene. We are looking for technologies for improving hand hygiene effectiveness, compliance or both, in hospital wards.
• Pathogen detection in the hospital environment.  We are looking for a test for product residue that gives rapid results to facilitate immediate corrective action, yet is simple enough to be performed on the ward without the need for recourse to a laboratory. 

This competition closes at noon on 24^th November 2008.  For more details of how the SBRI programme works, please refer to the SBRI page on the Technology Strategy Board website www.innovateuk.org/deliveringinnovation/smallbusinessresearchinitiative.ashx. For more details on the Invention for Innovation (i4i) programme, see www.nihr-ccf.org.uk/site/programmes/i4i. The Invitation to Tender, Technical Specification, Application Form and Guidance Notes can be downloaded from there. The process is designed to be as helpful to small companies as possible.

This competition is one of a range of programmes to tackle Healthcare Associated Infections. The most appropriate one for your business depends on what stage the technology has reached, how focused it is on our specific requirements, and what is required to bring it to commercialisation for use in the NHS. SBRI seeks technologies that are a significant step beyond currently available products, yet can be commercialised within a few years.

Further SBRI competitions will be announced via the Technology Strategy Board website in the coming months. Following early evaluation of the pilots in the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Health, we anticipate full roll-out of the reformed model to other Departments in April 2009.

Medipex are now accepting nominations for the next Innovator of the Quarter Award. NHS members of staff in the Yorkshire and Humber region are invited to nominate colleagues who have identified a need or a problem and have come up with a solution to that problem. The winning nomination will receive £150 and the nominator a luxury hamper worth £50 for nominating them. The winner will be featured in our quarterly newsletter which is widely distributed to the NHS and to private companies throughout the Yorkshire and Humber area.

To nominate someone simply download and complete the application form below. Deadline for nominations is November 17^th 2008. Applications received after this deadline will be entered for the next award. Please send completed applications forms to Stephanie.bridgford@medipex.co.uk or via the post to Stephanie Bridgford, Medipex Ltd, Leeds Innovation Centre, 103 Clarendon Road, LS2 9DF.

Friday 19^th September 2008, 5pm is the next deadline for proposals to the Health Technology Devices (HTD) funding programme.

The Health Technology Devices (HTD) funding programme is being brought together with other programmes and new investment to form the NIHR’s Invention for Innovation (i4i) research programme. As part of this continuing funding stream, HTD would like to invite submission of Outline Proposals for matched-funding support for R&D into innovative healthcare technologies, involving collaboration between industry, academia and the NHS. 

For further information and to apply, please visit the Health Technology Portal at http://www.healthtechnologyportal.org.uk...

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Innovations in Health and Social Care
Level M HECS 5160M & Level 3 HECS 3207
This module is free to all NHS employees working in the area covered by the Yorkshire and Humber Strategic Health Authority.

Who should attend?
The module is aimed at Nurses, Midwives, Radiographers, Social Workers, Pharmacists and Counsellors.  Students should already be registered as a health or social care professional.

Download the attached PDF for further information.

Application forms are available from:
Admissions, Access and Marketing Unit
The School of Healthcare
Baines Wing
University of Leeds
PO Box 214
Leeds, LS2 9UT
admissions@healthcare.leeds.ac.uk
Tel: 0113 343 1347

Monday 10th March 2008, 5pm is the next deadline for outline applications to the Health Technology Devices (HTD) funding programme. 

HTD is a UK-wide programme sponsored by the Department of Health and aims to fund innovative health technologies towards the development of new medical devices.

Further information is attached. For details of how to apply, please visit the Health Technology Portal at www.healthtechnologyportal.org.uk or contact the HTD Programme Manager at Quotec Ltd htdenquiries@quotec.co.uk

Dr David Kessel, Consultant Radiologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals won an award and £2,000 prize money as runner up in the ICT category at the NHS National Technology Awards held recently at the Wellcome Trust Centre in London.  The award was for an augmented reality simulator for training image guided needle insertion (a previous winner of Medipex Innovation Competition).             

The National Technology Awards are given in recognition of leading edge technology innovations from NHS staff.  Each year over 500 people, across all disciplines of the NHS, put forward their ideas to regional competitions, run by the NHS Innovation Hubs including Medipex, and the best ideas from those are submitted to the National Awards. 

This year, 30 nominated regional finalists competed for the national awards in four categories: 

Therapeutics & Diagnostics
Medical Devices & Equipment (inc Assistive Technologies)
ICT/softwarePublications & Media (DVDs, web, etc.) 

Winners received £4000 and runners-up £2,000.  All prize money is used to further develop the innovations.   

The awards event was held at the Wellcome Trust in London on Dec 3rd.  Prizes were presented by Professor Heinz Wolff of Brunel University and by entrepreneur and innovator of the wind-up torch and radio, Trevor Baylis.  Ben Bradshaw, Minister of State for Health, also attended the event. 

Guests included senior managers from winning NHS Trusts, from the Department of Health, Innovation Hub staff and the finalists.

A new £120,000 Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Medipex, Innovations North and TrusTECH (the 3 NHS Innovation Hubs for the North of England) and Manchester Business School is set to attract more clinical research to the North of England by facilitating the placement of clinical trials.  

The KTP will enable the development of an online database of experienced NHS investigators and clinical expertise that gives pharmaceutical and medical device companies, wishing to place clinical trials, access to NHS experts.  

The database, an expanded project originating from original research by TrusTECH^® will play a vital role in supporting clinical trials across the North of England and will help to reverse the decline of clinical research in the UK, improve patient care, and boost the regional economy. 

The objectives of the KTP are to:

• Develop the strategic business model for the pooled NHS Innovations clinical trial placement resource
• Expand and enhance the resource to ensure the information needs of stakeholders are met and to maximise its functionality for users
• Explore the potential to extend the resource at a national level 

Mr Adrian Warner, business development manager at TrusTECH^® said: “The datasets the NHS Innovation Hubs hold are unique and already a powerful resource for organisations wanting to place trials with experienced NHS researchers.  I’m very much looking forward to working with Manchester Business School, to develop a more operationally and strategically robust tool that will make a significant difference to organisations wanting to place clinical trials in the UK.  This is also a great opportunity to further build on the synergy that already exists between The University of Manchester and the NHS.″  

Dr Judy Zolkiewski heads up the KTP at Manchester Business School and explained how the project will benefit the region: “This project highlights how our research expertise can make a tangible difference by improving the infrastructure that supports clinical trial placement in the North - it’s a win-win partnership.” 

Mr Richard Clark, Chief Executive of Medipex said:“This is an excellent project to be involved in as it brings together such a wide array of expertise to facilitate innovation.  There is a vast array of innovative technology across the North of England, and marrying this to the clinical expertise of it’s world leading NHS trusts will provide a place for it to flourish.”

The Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering Department at the Trust are celebrating yet another licensing deal brokered through Medipex, the NHS Innovation Hub for the Yorkshire and Humber region.  Link Medical, a leading supplier of image processing software for nuclear medicine applications have taken a licence to sell the image viewing application known as JView, developed by Trust employee Dr Peter Metherall.  JView was developed by Peter in response to the needs of clinicians to be able to view and manipulate nuclear medicine images on PC’s anywhere around the Trust so as to more effectively deliver care to patients.  The software allows different types of information, images and reports to be reviewed, and the progress of a patient through a course of treatment can also be monitored as old and new images can be compared alongside each other.  The software supplements the information which will be available through the Trust’s PACS system, which will be installed commencing in the autumn of this year. Link Medical will have JView on the market by the autumn of 2007 so that other hospitals in the UK can benefit from the expertise developed in Sheffield. 

This is the 10^th commercialisation deal that Medipex have done for the Trust (8 of which have benefited from the expertise of our Medical Physics & Clinical Engineering Department), making Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust one of the leading sources of Healthcare innovation in the region