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Manchester Gives Healthcare Innovation a Boost
A new research centre bringing medics and engineers together to solve clinical problems is set to make Manchester a world leader in patient care.
MIMIT (Manchester: Integrating Medicine and Innovative Technology) — the first international affiliate of the highly successful US centre CIMIT® — will draw together clinicians and scientists from a group of Greater Manchester hospitals, GP practices and the University of Manchester in major collaborations to apply the latest technology to clinical problems and transform healthcare in the UK.
It is being launched by CIMIT® founder and Executive Director Dr John Parrish today (Monday 21 January 2008).
Dr Parrish said: "Scientists and engineers may have lots of potential solutions but are not aware of the problems. Physicians have lots of ideas about clinical problems that technology could help solve. The challenge is to bring scientists and clinicians together and to create the right environment with the right resources to work quickly to adapt existing or develop new technologies to improve clinical care and outcome.
"There are many similarities between the CIMIT® approach to innovation and the organisational components which comprise the bio-medical-engineering research cluster in Manchester. I am looking forward to collaborating with our new colleagues."
Director of MIMIT Professor Jackie Oldham, Clinical Director Professor Philip Baker and Scientific Director Professor Simon Gaskell agreed: "We believe Manchester is in prime position to recreate the great success of CIMIT® in Boston. The city has both an eminent and dynamic clinical profession and a strong and distinguished community of engineers and scientists. Their collaborations will significantly improve patient care and transform this into one of the most important sectors in the UK."
MIMIT involves clinicians and researchers at the University of Manchester, Central Manchester and Manchester Children's University Hospitals NHS Trust, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Christie Hospital NHS Trust, University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust and Salford Primary Care Trust.
It hopes to recreate the success of Boston-based CIMIT® (Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology). Founded in 1998, CIMIT® fosters and nurtures interdisciplinary collaboration among world-class experts in medicine, science and engineering, in concert with industry and government, to rapidly improve patient care. A non-profit consortium of Boston area teaching hospitals and engineering schools, it provides innovators with resources to explore, develop and implement novel technological solutions for today's most urgent healthcare problems.
CIMIT®'s successes include the "Operating Room of the Future" (ORF).
Traditional Operating Rooms (ORs) are inefficient and overcrowded with patient data not integrated nor displayed to caregivers in a timely fashion, and turnover time between cases is lengthy. New technology and devices are often introduced in isolation, often failing to improve efficiency and safety or reduce costs. Good teamwork and communication is also essential.
To address many of these problems, CIMIT® pioneered the ORF at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in August 2002. A fully functional OR for minimally invasive procedures as well as for open surgery, the ORF represents an extraordinary convergence of disciplines — clinicians, institutions and private companies — and boasts a number of pioneering programmes. One is real-time workflow improvement including parallel processing of patients, novel IT architecture, asset management and patient tracking solutions. More than 4,000 patients have been treated in this living, working, flexible learning environment, through which CIMIT® and MGH clinicians have altered surgical care delivery.
Other CIMIT® successes include developing imaging capability to detect even the smallest cancer tumours leading to earlier diagnosis and treatment; making surgery techniques less invasive thus reducing complications and post-operative recovery time; and improving emergency care identification of serious heart problems thus decreasing un-necessary hospitalisations. CIMIT has also developed novel tiny diagnostic instruments that provide non-invasive, real-time microscopic images capable of "volumetric biopsies" without altering living tissue.
Professor Sir Robert Boyd, Chair of the MIMIT Board, said: "MIMIT has been established at a time when healthcare research is a priority for the Government. In the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the largest ever increase in Government funding for health research — more than £290 million — and ring-fenced almost £1 billion for the National Institute for Health Research through the Department of Health.
"The Government wants more effective translation of health research into health and economic benefits in the UK and this is exactly what MIMIT intends to provide."
Dr Maire Smith, Director of Technology and Product Innovation at the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, said: "The formation of MIMIT represents a real opportunity to combine the strengths of Manchester, CIMIT and organisations on the NHS Innovation landscape to help catalyse the adoption of medical technology into UK Healthcare."
UK Trade & Investment is also delighted to have been a part of this landmark alliance between the Manchester consortium (comprising Manchester NHS Trusts and The University of Manchester) and CIMIT®.
Cindy Bouthot, Head of UK Trade & Investment British Consulate-General in Boston, said: "This collaboration between a centre of excellence like the Manchester consortium with an innovator like CIMIT makes perfect sense. By drawing on the strengths of clinicians, inventors and industry leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, MIMIT will improve patient care and safety and be a model for other UK centres to follow in years to come."
" MIMIT will be launched at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, Liverpool Road, Castlefield, on Monday 21 January 2008. There will be an interview and photo opportunity at 2pm with CIMIT Executive Director Dr John Parrish, CIMIT Chief of Staff Dr Colleen Kigin, MIMIT Director Professor Jackie Oldham and MIMIT Clinical Director Professor Phillip Baker.
" Images of the work carried out at CIMIT® are available. CIMIT® must be credited when the images are used.
Ends
For more information, images or to attend the launch contact Media Relations Officers Mikaela Sitford or Aeron Haworth on 0161 275 2111 or 8383.
Editors Note:
MIMIT is collaborating with CIMIT® to adapt the original CIMIT® concept into a transferable worldwide model for translational research. A thriving multi-disciplinary organization of innovators could result in a pipeline of new healthcare developments, which would contribute to the care of patients and facilitate the establishment of Manchester as an international Translational Medical Centre. For more information visit www.mimit.org.uk or contact mimit@manchester.ac.uk.
CIMIT® is the internationally recognized model for excellence in translational research. Having developed a benchmark model for innovation, CIMIT works to transform healthcare through technology utilization. It is a well established and proven network that facilitates the collaboration of hospital clinicians and academics in a diverse range of internationally top rated university departments, with the express aim of improving the treatment of patients through the rapid development of new devices, diagnostics and clinical systems. For more information visit http://www.cimit.org/index.html
Further statements of support:
Margaret Parton, CEO of the National NHS Technology Adoption Hub: "MIMIT will create many new opportunities and mechanisms for innovative health care solutions within the Trusts involved. As the NHS National Technology Adoption Hub we are looking forward to working closely with the MIMIT team to disseminate those solutions across the wider NHS."
Richard Deed, Innovation Unit Manager at TrusTECH, which will train MIMIT staff to manage intellectual property rights and commercial development of products along with UoM Intellectual Property (UMIP) Ltd: "We anticipate that the MIMIT initiative will identify new interdisciplinary solutions to meet current unmet clinical needs, as well as speeding up the development of new devices, diagnostics and healthcare system solutions."
Michael Gill, Project Director, Medilink North West: "Medilink North West is a membership based, not-for-profit organisation that services medical and health technology companies within the region. Members have made it clear to us that their main priorities for achieving growth are innovation and the ways of doing this are through expertise. These priority needs will be met through the MIMIT initiative and our members will be keen to use MIMIT as an effective tool for new product development."