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.