NEWS

Dr G André Ng, whose team has made the award-winning developments in identifying those at risk from sudden cardiac death.

Ground breaking innovations in healthcare receive prestigious awards

Team led by Dr André Ng recognised for heart research

Issued 23 March 2010

Pioneering research to combat heart disease and cancer and a new way of treating collarbone fractures were recognised last night at an Awards evening at Loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park.

The Da Vinci Health Technology Awards, managed by Loughborough University Enterprise Office, recognise scientists, engineers and clinicians working together in the East Midlands to save lives and improve patient care. A total prize fund of over £50k was awarded, with three innovative projects sharing £40k to accelerate their groundbreaking work.

The Clinical Impact Award goes to a team from the University of Leicester and the Glenfield Hospital, Leicester to improve the risk assessment of sudden death in heart attack survivors. Worldwide three million people a year die from sudden cardiac death (SCD). In most cases there is no warning and the heart is stopped by a sudden arrhythmia. Patients deemed to be at high risk of SCD have an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) implanted in a minor operation. The team has combined an electrical map of the heart with cardiac MRI images to identify patients at high risk of SCD so that their deaths can be prevented with ICDs. A patent application has been filed and a 160-patient trial is underway.

Click here to read the team's full citation. A video on the research is also online here .

The Breakthrough Award goes to a new device for collarbone fractures created in partnership with Queens Medical Centre (QMC). An extremely common and very painful injury, a collarbone fracture is either plated, which involves longer healing time, or externally braced. ClaviBraceTM brings the shoulders back into alignment, with individually adjustable straps to maintain a stable frame whilst taking the strain off the collarbone. Following promising early results, a patent application has been filed and ClaviBraceTM is about to undergo clinical trials.

The Newcomer Award goes to a partnership with Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) and Medibord, a Nottingham-based company, to improve radiotherapy precision. MedibordTM is a radio-translucent, MR compatible composite created in response to NUH oncologists’ need to fuse CT and MR scans in order to improve prostate cancer treatment. It is also enabling NUH to treat head and neck tumors for the first time with IMRT, a very precise form of radiotherapy. NUH has scanned 60 prostate cancer patients using MedibordTM and has ordered further bespoke immobilisation devices for its £22M radiotherapy building due to open in October 2010.

The winning teams, together with six highly commended projects, were recognised at a ceremony attended by 120 representatives from the East Midlands’ hospitals, universities, regional innovation partners and healthcare industries.

Guests were welcomed by Professor Shirley Pearce, Loughborough University’s Vice Chancellor and the evening was hosted by BBC East Midlands Today news presenter Anne Davies.

A key note speech on the region’s clinical challenges was delivered by Malcolm Lowe Lauri, Chief Executive of the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.

Above: The University of Leicester team collects their award from BBC East Midlands Today presenter Anne Davies. Credit: holllisphotography.com

More images from the awards ceremony are available by clicking here .

ENDS

For all media enquiries contact:

• Anna Seddon, Marketing Manager Enterprise, Loughborough University, T: 01509 223445, E: A.J.Seddon@lboro.ac.uk

Notes for editors:

Full details of the awards and films of the winning projects are available at www.davinci-net.org

About the Da Vinci Awards

The purpose of the Da Vinci Awards is to recognise collaborations between clinicians, researchers and industry to meet today's most pressing clinical challenges. The awards were established in memory of Professor Peter Smith, a Loughborough academic working at the forefront of health technology innovation.

Together with Tom Spyt, a Cardiac Surgeon from the Glenfield Hospital, Peter founded the Da Vinci network in 2005 to encourage Loughborough’s researchers to engage with Leicester’s clinicians to work together on new innovations to benefit patients. Today the Da Vinci network encourages collaboration throughout the East Midlands region.

The 2010 Da Vinci Awards are sponsored by a number of public and private sector organisations with a keen interest in driving healthcare innovation in the region:

East Midlands Healthcare and Bioscience iNet, Harvey Ingram LLP, IPSO Ventures, Loughborough University, NHS East Midlands Strategic Health Authority

About Loughborough University

Loughborough is one of the country’s leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled sporting achievement and its underpinning academic disciplines.

It was awarded the coveted Sunday Times University of the Year 2008-09 title, and is consistently ranked in the top twenty of UK universities in national newspaper league tables. In the 2009 National Student Survey, Loughborough was voted one of the top five universities in the UK, and has topped the Times Higher Education league for the UK’s Best Student Experience every year since the poll's inception in 2006. In recognition of its contribution to the sector, the University has been awarded six Queen's Anniversary Prizes.

Loughborough is also the UK’s premier university for sport. It has perhaps the best integrated sports development environment in the world and is home to some of the country’s leading coaches, sports scientists and support staff. It also has the country’s largest concentration of world-class training facilities across a wide range of sports.

It is a member of the 1994 Group of 19 leading research-intensive universities. The Group was established in 1994 to promote excellence in university research and teaching. Each member undertakes diverse and high-quality research, while ensuring excellent levels of teaching and student experience.