News
Disposable Eye Surgery Packs: NHS Innovation in Action
The TrusTECH® Innovation Unit, together with Surgeons and staff at Central Manchester and Manchester Children's Hospital NHS Trust (CMMC), has worked with AMG Medical to devise and produce packs of disposable metal instruments for use in eye retrieval operations. The three new disposable instrument sets minimise the risk of prion transmission during corneal transplantation operations and are specifically designed for each stage in the procedure.
The CMMC eye retrieval sets have been licensed to AMG Medical and have been adopted by UK Transplant for use in all eye retrieval procedures in the UK, which amounts to approximately 1500 retrieval sets per year. The CMMC eye processing sets are also used by 4/5 of the eye banks (Manchester, Bristol, Norwich and East Grinstead), which amounts to approximately 3000 processing sets per year.
Italy and Germany have placed their first orders for the sets and the USA is currently considering using the new disposable instruments.
CMMC was able to work with AMG medical via TrusTECH®, the North West Innovation Hub, who provided IP advice and product development management support to the Trust.
Further surgical innovations have been developed and adopted by the healthcare market including a cost effective disposable optic snare for severing the optic nerve during eye removal.
These examples illustrate the potential for the NHS to work with industry to develop solutions to healthcare problems in an innovative and cost effective manner.
Editor: Further information is available from Philippa Hollidge, TrusTECH®, The Innovation Unit, 1st Floor, The postgraduate Centre, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9WL Tel: 0161 276 5789 Fax: 0161 276 5766. E-mail: philippahollidge@trustech.org.uk