11th December 2014

Strength of Welsh connectivity highlighted at MediWales’ Awards

The MediWales Innovation Awards 2014 celebrated the fantastic achievements of life science companies and individuals from the NHS in Wales. A priority sector in a tough economy, Welsh industry’s innovative partnerships with the NHS and academic institutions significantly contribute to the health and wealth of Wales.

The Awards Dinner, sponsored by National Institute for Social Care and Health Research (NISCHR), Abel & Imray, Geldards LLP, GX Group, Elite Electronic Systems, Swansea University and Grant Thornton was held at Cardiff’s National Museum on Wednesday 10th December to an audience of senior industry, NHS and government representatives.

Director of NISCHR (The National Institute for Social Care and Health Research), John Bisson, opened the ceremony by presenting the Innovation within the NHS award. A further 3 awards were awarded to NHS Wales departments in addition to the 6 prestigious awards presented to industry.

Sponsored by Rocialle, the Innovation within the NHS Award was won by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s Department for Acute Medicine which sees 1000 acutely unwell patients per month. Led by three consultants, this department has transformed services to respond flexibly to patients’ needs as in or outpatients.

AMPLIFiRE (Assessment of admissions to Medicine for personal Preferences, Life circumstances and Frailty using Information technology to drive timely Re-Enablement) is a software package, developed by the Board, which allows patients to document their own social history and preferences for care with the help of an iPad style tablet computer.

A true industry- NHS collaboration was recognised this year- led by Dr Lewis of Hywel Dda University Health Board this project was a randomised trial of auto-servo ventilation in people with sleep apnoea and severe (stable) heart failure and was a collaboration between Hywel Dda Health Board and Philips-Respirionics International (Home Care Solutions® section).

Together, Hywel Dda and Philips, developed a novel protocol, which tested the efficiency of a new type of ventilator, the Auto-SV, in managing people with both sleep disturbed breathing and severe heart failure. The results demonstrated that these ventilators were safe, as they did not adversely affect blood pressure, improved sleep efficiency, abolished sleep disturbed breathing and improved blood markers for heart damage. This award was sponsored by Abel & Imray.

The award for the NHS’ Collaboration with a Welsh Company, was presented to Aneurin Bevan Health Board for the Welsh Wound Innovation Centre which is funded by the NHS and Welsh Government to lead on wound healing within the NHS across Wales.

Sponsored by Teamworks Design, this was awarded for the collaboration between staff at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr, the Welsh Wound Innovation Centre (WWIC) and Direct Healthcare Services.  The Welsh Wound Innovation Centre and Direct Healthcare Services worked jointly to develop a new mattress surface which would conform to a profiling bed with no loss of mattress length to avoid the problem of heel pressure ulcers.

The NHS Judges’ Award, sponsored by GX Group, was won by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board which has developed a wearable device to enable patients who are permanently ventilated with a tracheostomy to live a more active and pain reduced life by means of supporting the tube entry into the throat.

This collaboration involved engaging industry, Monmouthshire-based E2L, to develop the concept prototypes into a market-ready product which was launched at MEDICA this year.

The Innovation Award was won by Asalus which was established to commercialise the inventions arising from Cardiff University’s Welsh Institute for Minimal Access Therapy (WIMAT), the leading UK centre for training of laparoscopic and other surgical disciplines.

This award, sponsored by Blackwood Embedded Solutions, was in presented in recognition of Ultravision, which handles the surgical smoke produced during laparoscopic surgery by energy-based surgical instruments. Ultravision is a system which clears the visual field to allow best practise by accelerating the natural sedimentation of the smoke onto the tissue in the body cavity.

Sponsored by Finance Wales, the Start-up Award was picked up by Jellagen which produces medical grade collagen sourced from jellyfish, a sustainable and novel source of biomaterials. Jellagen supplies Type II and Type V collagen for the medical device, regenerative medicine, cell culture reagent and in vitro diagnostic markets.

Collagen is a highly valued biomaterial due to its ability to form strong fibres. This property allows it to be used in many forms, including gel scaffolds and membranes applicable across a wide range of medical applications from wound and cartilage repair to bone grafts.

Sharp Clinical Services was recognised in the Outstanding Achievement Award, sponsored by Grant Thornton. Sharp Clinical Services is a leading provider of specialist clinical supply chain services, from drug product development and manufacturing services to increasingly complex clinical supplies packaging, labelling and distribution services.

Sharp has secured ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 certification for packaging, storage and distribution of goods globally. Depots in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Belarus, Singapore, India, Israel and South Africa have been audited, approved for use and added to Sharp’s licenses allowing for the storage and distribution of controlled, dangerous and temperature sensitive products to local markets.

Sponsored by Elite Electronic Systems, the Award for Partnership with the NHS was won by Microvisk Ltd which has developed a unique handheld medical device for Point-Of-Care & Prescription-Home-Use monitoring of anticoagulant therapy. The easy- to-use system will make INR (International Normalised Ratio) monitoring simpler and more convenient

Leading with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB),clinical studies were initiated and completed at 16 Welsh sites working with a mix of primary and secondary care as well as a range of healthcare professionals from Healthcare Assistants to Consultant Haematologists.

CellPath won the Judges Award- sponsored by ehi2 this is for a company that the judges feel embodies the spirit of the Innovation Awards and shows the most promise. CellPath provides both products and services for histology and cytology laboratories within pathology departments at major hospitals worldwide. A family business, it was started by its current chairman in 1970 and is currently managed by his two sons.

CellPath has developed a service tailored to saving space and medical technician time, and hence money, for cancer diagnostics within the pathology provision at NHS hospitals. CellNass (Cellular National Archive Solution) first conceived at the Millennium has proven its worth though market acceptance- with more than 50% of UK Hospitals currently using the service. The service enables hospitals to concentrate their resources and space on providing faster turnaround times.

The Export Achievement Award was won by DTR Medical, a leading manufacturer of high quality sterile single-use surgical instruments which provide patient and clinical value with exceptional standards of service.

DTR Medical is exporting sterile single-use instruments primarily for ENT and Gynaecology to more markets and in increasing volumes. Myringotomy trays used for insertion of grommets to relieve glue ear in Saudi Arabia has become the lead product and with extra distributors in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain and Holland DTR Medical has increased its export sales by 354%. This award was sponsored by Wipak.

For further press information contact Lucinda Dargavel Scott-Morgan on 029 2047 3456, lucinda.dargavel@mediwales.com