Tag Archives: medtech

Appointments, News

Cambridge health technology consultancy gears for growth with new hires

Health Tech Enterprise (HTE), a Cambridge-based health technology consultancy, has expanded its team with two strategic new hires, marking a period of ongoing growth for the company. Joining HTE are Max Bardwell, Head of Business Development, and Ema Douksaite, Health Economist.

Max, formerly of the Medical Technologies Innovation Facility, has significant experience in technology development for both public and private sector organisations. Max will oversee domestic and international business development for HTE, focusing particularly on building new strategic partnerships with industry, academic and governmental organisations in the health technology space.

Ema has been appointed to further develop HTE’s Health Economics service offering. She will be delivering cost benefit impact models, costing tools and health economic evaluation reports to enable innovators to identify market opportunities, secure funding, and gain access to healthcare markets such as the NHS. Prior to joining HTE, Ema contributed to the OECD Strategic Public Health Planning COVID-19 model by analysing multi-country economic responsiveness to teleworking practices.

Commenting on the company’s continued expansion, Dr Anne Blackwood, HTE’s CEO said: “We offer a full-range of services to support medical technology innovators throughout the product development journey, from concept to commercialisation and final roll-out. The appointment of Max and Ema reflects our ability to connect more organisations than ever with the tools they need to provide future-ready innovations to international healthcare markets and our own NHS partners here in the UK.”

Medical innovators and the health technology community will have the opportunity to meet Max and Ema at the HTE MedTech FUTURES conference. The conference returns to Cambridge on 1 March 2023 with a stellar line up of speakers, which includes some of the biggest names in health and technology; Dr Pegah Salashouri Consultant Cardiologist, Royal Papworth NHS Foundation Trust, and Dr Louise Jopling, Eastern Academic Health Science Network, Dr Robert Tansley from Cambridge Innovation Capital and representatives from the University of Cambridge, Age UK and BIVDA.

This year’s conference, sponsored by Venner Shipley, will be held at Wellcome Genome Campus, and offers delegates a unique opportunity to hear from some of the leading experts in the fastest-growing areas of health and medical technology, alongside the perspective of clinicians on where the opportunities are for technology growth and adoption within the NHS.

To secure tickets to the conference please visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/medtech-futures-conference-tickets-398794724757?aff=HTEwebsite

Health, News

Irish oncology care platform announces collaboration with NCCN

Irish oncology software company ONCOassist teams up with NCCN to improve HCP’s day-to-day and patient care across 150+ countries

The Irish-founded oncology software company, ONCOassist, today announces a new agreement with The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®). The collaboration will focus on integrating NCCN Content to create a digital tool that will help oncology professionals around the world stay up to date with relevant clinical content about cancer care. ONCOassist is a CE-approved decision support app for oncology professionals around the world. It is currently the only oncology app on the market with regulatory approval for use in a hospital setting.

ONCOassist hosts tools and content specific to oncology and is used by more than 73,000 professionals across 150+ countries. It is estimated that 40 percent of oncology healthcare professionals (HCPs) globally use ONCOassist. ONCOassist is revolutionizing the delivery of global cancer care and aiding in reaching the goal of improving the quality of patient care globally. 

NCCN is a not-for-profit alliance of 32 leading cancer centres devoted to patient care, research, and education. NCCN is dedicated to improving and facilitating quality, effective, equitable, and accessible cancer care so all patients can live better lives. 

By joining forces, NCCN enables ONCOassist to make key decision support information available to their users around the world, advancing their mission of helping HCPs make more-informed oncology decisions. The new agreement will allow oncology clinicians to access relevant, up-to-date tools and content at their fingertips on the ONCOassist smartphone app. ONCOassist and NCCN are working together to bring their content to oncology clinicians around the world, irrespective of their resources. Through the leadership and expertise of clinical professionals at NCCN Member Institutions, NCCN develops resources that present valuable information to the numerous stakeholders in the healthcare delivery system. 

According to Cancer Research UK, there are around 375,000 new cancer cases in the UK every year which is around 1,000 every day. Globally, 18,094,716 million cases of cancer were diagnosed in 2020 alone according to the World Cancer Research International Fund. With that in mind, DATA-CAN found that there was a significant drop in urgent referrals for early cancer diagnosis along with a noticeable reduction in chemotherapy attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic. This indicates that COVID-19 may have impacted and prevented patients from being diagnosed early on. ONCOassist aims to make life easier for both oncology professionals as well as patients themselves. 

When speaking about the agreement, Co-founder and CEO of ONCOassist, Eoin O’Carroll said, “We are thrilled to announce this opportunity to collaborate with the NCCN. This project has been in the pipeline for some time and we are very much looking forward to working together. This is an exciting step forward for ONCOassist for our work in cancer care and goal to facilitate healthcare professionals by gaining access to the right information and delivering better care to patients.”

When speaking about the collaboration, Robert W. Carlson, MD, CEO of NCCN, said, ”Clinicians need to have frequently-updated, evidence-based, expert consensus information available at their fingertips. This collaboration will help make sure the gold-standard recommendations from NCCN’s expert panels are easily accessible to the people who need them. Ultimately, this means more people with cancer will receive the kind of treatment that is most likely to lead to better outcomes.”

Healthcare Tech, News

New Research Careers Initiative Launched to Support Careers in Surgical Technology

A new initiative has been launched to support academics and healthcare professionals to further develop their careers in the emerging world of surgical technology paving the way to improve patient outcomes in years to come

The SurgTech Career LaunchPad is led by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Advanced Incubator for Surgical Technologies in partnership with the NIHR Surgical MedTech Co-operative, powered by global super connectors, Empact Ventures.

The free virtual event will take place on 8th June from 9:30 am – 1:30 pm as a bridge between the academic community and the healthcare sector to explore new collaboration opportunities to better prepare the next generation of surgical health professionals. The initiative is supported by the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the MedTech Foundation and HealthTech World

It will feature 20+ speakers from organisations including University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, the Association of Perioperative Practice, the Council for Allied Health Professions in Research (CAHPR) and more.

The event will also feature MedTech startups and scaleups across the UK and Europe including Medisieve and Proximie in London, QV Bioelectronics in Manchester, CanSense in Swansea, and AZmed in Paris. Each company will share their journey from their academic roots to commercialisation.

For those that are seeking to explore new collaborations, attendees can connect through the Speed Video Networking area and Digital Exhibition area or receive warm email introductions after the event to potential partners facilitated by the Empact Ventures team.

Professor David Jayne, Clinical Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Surgical MedTech Co-operative, commented: “I am really looking forward to this exciting event. This is a rare opportunity that brings the whole community together to discuss the training needs and academic opportunities for health professionals allied to surgery. I am confident that we will produce some concrete proposals to grow research capacity and capability in advanced surgical technologies”. 

Professor Martin Birchall, Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Advanced Incubator for Surgical Technologies, commented: “The future of advanced surgical technology depends on the research contributions of those who need to be involved in its delivery. However, developing the research skills and careers of these surgeons, theatre nurses, ODPs and surgical care practitioners faces significant personal and systemic challenges. We believe that anyone interested in surgical technology research will find this meeting compelling. Come and join our online discussions so that we can progress theatre research careers together”

Awards, Health, Healthcare News, News

Winners of 2020 HSJ Partnership Awards revealed

The 14 high-calibre winners of the 2020 HSJ Partnership Awards were announced during an awards ceremony at Park Plaza Westminster last week.

The HSJ Partnership Awards – now in their 3rd year – are independently judged by experts from across the healthcare sector, looking specifically for organisations from the private and charitable sectors that clearly strive to improve collaboration and innovation within the NHS.

A great variety of different sectors and industries from all over the country were represented throughout the evening. The diversity on display – both in terms of the projects undertaken and the teamwork showcased – demonstrated a growing dedication to work efficiently and effectively with the NHS.

The awards ceremony was hosted by the lively and engaging Ellie Taylor who led the evening with the passion and respect that the finalists and winners rightly deserved.

Of the 14 winners, Best Pharmaceutical Partnership with the NHS was awarded to Kite Pharma, a Gilead Company, NHS England and NHS Partners for its work on an innovative treatment that has offered the hope of disease-free years to people suffering from lymphoma.

The judges saw this as transformational treatment which couldn’t have been done by the NHS alone. It demonstrated a passionate and ambitious approach to transformational medicine.

Further winners from the evening were:

  • The Perinatal Institute was awarded Best Not For Profit Working in Partnership with the NHS for the low-cost – 50p per birth – of their work on the Growth Assessment Protocol (GAP). GAP was able to demonstrate that most unexplained stillbirths were associated with growth restriction. For its work, judges praised the institute for the excellent nation-wide reach of the initiative and for the team’s consistent commitment to low costs whilst putting saving lives first.
  • Most Effective Contribution to Clinical Redesign was won by Lloyds Pharmacy Clinical Homecare which has redesigned how patients receive oncology drugs by moving many routine treatments to a centre run by Lloyds Pharmacy. This helped Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Foundation Trust to improve services allowing them to cope with the increasing demand for outpatient appointments. Judges praised the project for making a really good use of data and clearly articulating benefits for patients and for the NHS provider, highlighting the elevated level of patient engagement and improved patient experience.

HSJ Editor Alastair McLellan said,

“The HSJ Partnership Awards are always a wonderful showcase for the outstanding work across healthcare today. I am always extremely honoured to be involved in recognising high standards in healthcare. Congratulations to all our winners and nominees at this year’s awards.”

“It is always inspiring to hear of how organisations work together to help improve and continually contribute to innovation in the healthcare sector.”

The full list of award winners and those highly commended can be found on the HSJ Partnership Awards website.