ADL Smartcare, in partnership with Kathryn Vowden of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Brenda King of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, O2 and Longhand Data, won the Software & Telehealth category for their SmartWoundcare telehealth system at the 7th annual Medipex NHS Innovations Awards, which aims to showcase NHS innovation champions across the Yorkshire and Humber region who have developed innovative ideas to patient care.

The SmartWoundcare system allows Tissue Viability Nurses to remotely assess the status of wounds that are being managed in the community by either district nurses or care home staff and to allow them to intervene only where necessary. This monitoring system should lead to more efficient time management and early detection of wound deterioration. Early indications from the trial are that a number of hospital admissions have already been avoided and more appropriate dressings are being used to accelerate the rate of wound healing.

The other finalists in the Software and Telehealth Category were Steven Wood and his team at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Howard Last from Oakley Medical Practice in Leeds, Alaina Challans and her team from Doncaster and Bassetlaw NHS Foundation Trust and Cathryn James from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

The other categories and winners were:

• Medical Devices - Professor Muhammed Imran Aslam and his team from the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust for his work developing a novel blood test for bowel cancer detection and screening.
• Mental Health & Wellbeing - Ian Colpitts and colleagues from Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust have developed a therapeutic package for young children called SMILES.
• GP & Primary Care - Alan Rouane from Prior Campus in Barnsley. Alan and other members of the health team have been involved in implementing a weight management project called Fit Reds.
• Acute & Secondary Care - Michelle Cooke and her team from Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust have developed a novel approach for intravenous iron administration in the community to people with chronic kidney disease.

Richard Clark, CEO of Medipex said of the awards "It's always a pleasure for Medipex to run our innovation competition; there are so many innovative people working within the NHS and these awards help to recognise their achievements as well as highlighting innovations which can be commissioned or adopted by other organisations.  The entries in this year's competition were some of the best we have seen in the last 7 years and all the finalists should be congratulated for the work they have done improving patient care".

Page last updated on 25 october 2011 at 16:36