Winners Announced

2021 Medilink SW Innovation Awards

The 2021 Virtual Medilink SW Innovation Awards took place on Monday the 22nd March, 2021. Congratulations to the winners; the standard was incredibly high this year. The Medilink SW Board had a tough job selecting from such an impressive shortlist. Read all about this year’s winners:

FLUORETIQ

This year’s Start-Up Award goes to a company who are fighting antimicrobial resistance with rapid POC diagnostics. NANOPLEX is a rapid diagnostic platform that identifies bacterial pathogens in 15 minutes. This is a groundbreaking technology that enables clinicians to confidently use antibiotics at the very start of patient treatment. NANOPLEX uses a library of glycan-based probes that mimic the adhesion phase of infection. Using low-cost imaging techniques we can identify the bacterial species and determine whether a clinically significant concentration is present. Their probe library can currently identify 95% of commonly identified uropathogens. We were impressed by the sophistication of this company’s innovation and anticipate their ongoing success as they continue to develop and grow. Congratulations FluoretiQ!

TECHNICAL HEALTH

This year’s Digital Health Award goes to a company who have developed a free patient cancer App designed for NHS Cancer Centres. The MySunrise App provides a complete up-to-date information and reference tool for Cancer patients and their families, which guides and supports them through their cancer journey. It is complete with a whole range of videos, relevant links, cancer resources and contact information all specific to their own NHS Hospital cancer centre. The App was first developed with the Oncology Team at Royal Cornwall Hospital and following the success in Cornwall and with support from the Peninsula Cancer Alliance is now Live across all 5 NHS Cancer Centres in Devon and Cornwall (Exeter, North Devon, Torbay, Plymouth and Cornwall). We were impressed with the strong software foundation of this app, combined with the clinical knowledge of the design team and its accessible interface. Congratulations Technical Health!

NEURONOSTICS

This year’s Innovation Award goes to a company who are developing a smartphone app that empowers people with epilepsy to better understand and manage their condition. ConnectEP offers data collection and visualisation providing a personalised understanding of the factors that impact risk of seizures. By connecting people with epilepsy to their data, and further linking them with researchers, charities and clinicians, ConnectEP improves users’ at-home management of epilepsy and enables broader opportunities to advance understanding of the condition using long-term analysis of the data at the cohort level. Supported initially by £75K from Innovate UK in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ConnectEP’s development was informed by the views of over 150 people with epilepsy from around the world who were asked what support they needed. Through £150K NIHR funding, we are developing a wireless and gel-free electrode headset that will enable EEG recording by the individual and allow generation of the BioEP risk scores through the ConnectEP app which are then sent securely to our clinical platform. We were impressed by the sophistication of this company’s innovation and anticipate their ongoing success as they continue to develop and grow. Congratulations Neuronostics!

PATIENTCARDS

This year’s Partnership with the NHS Award goes to an organisation who have developed an App that seeks to enable and empower patients towards their own self-help: to put a controlled-by-the-surgery directory of local, regional and national services into a tool for easy management and dissemination. The Help at Hand service is a native ‘app’ technology which is free to download for end users to seek their bespoke GP Practice social prescribing health and wellbeing activities as well as the support services available from national, regional and, most importantly, local organisations. The Help at Hand Community Info App has been adopted by 34 subscribing GP Surgeries serving in-excess of 320,000 patients across Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire and there are a further 28 GP Surgeries trialling the App at present. A phenomenal achievement, we look forward to the continued implementation of this app across the UK. Congratulations Patient Cards!

AIRWAY MEDICAL

This year’s Outstanding Achievement Award goes to a company who are developing a range of patented, novel, emergency airway suction devices. The first of these is the Airway Medical Suction Unit (AMSU) which is aimed at developing countries where the demand is for a low cost, light weight, easy-to-learn-and use device which is biodegradable and intrinsically anti-viral yet compliant with all international standards. The AMSU is ideally suited for use in developing countries where it is intuitive to use and requires no training, does not require a reliable electricity supply, does not use expensive Lithium batteries, is intrinsically anti-viral so does not need alcohol-based sanitizer and is biodegradable. This outstanding achievement award is presented in recognition of the fact that this young company was able to secure significant funding from Innovate UK alongside partnerships with leading Universities, the NHS, advanced manufacturing and materials organisations together with local business support agencies. Congratulations Airway Medical!

These Awards are all about celebrating the often unseen work of healthcare innovators in the South West. The Health Tech community here is thriving and its many businesses and organisations have risen to the immense challenges of this year with hard work and dedication.

The winners of these regional Awards will automatically be entered into the national Medilink UK Awards which will take place in collaboration with the Med-Tech Innovation Expo 2021 on 28 September 2021, at the NEC Birmingham (exact date to confirmed nearer the time). Learn more here