InnoScot Health reflects on five of its most successful homegrown collaborations

In the two decades since its inception, InnoScot Health – formerly Scottish Health Innovations Ltd (SHIL) – has formed seven spin out companies, evaluated over 2000 ideas, and successfully integrated 250 of them into healthcare settings in Scotland and around the world.

Breakthrough ideas have included a range of medical devices, products, and technologies commercialised for use in hospitals, care homes and on-scene emergency settings. However, while all have made a difference, some have continued to stand out – whether for their sheer bold thinking, their vast potential to transform healthcare, or their immense effectiveness following adoption.

A 2002 spin out of NHS Lothian and InnoScot Health – the organisation’s first – Touch Bionics is a provider of world-leading prosthetic technologies designed to achieve positive outcomes for people with upper limb deficiencies. It was also the first company to develop an electrically powered prosthetic hand with five independently powered fingers and the company continues to be a pioneer in upper limb prosthetic solutions. In 2016 it was sold to Icelandic firm Ossur - a global leader in the development, production, and sale of non-invasive orthopaedics.

In 2015, a nine-year-old boy named Josh Cathcart from Dalgety Bay became the youngest person in the world to be fitted with a ‘bionic’ arm.

At the time, Josh said: “I made myself a bagel yesterday. I can open bottles and packets with it, I can stack up blocks and I can build Lego with it. It will make me feel I'm the same as everyone else. It will make me happy.”

Aurum Biosciences is a further InnoScot Health spin out company – this time in partnership with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, University of Glasgow – which continues to attract international investment.

The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company develops novel therapeutics and diagnostics in areas of unmet clinical need. Its patented ABL-101 platform technology represents the first major advancement in the management of acute stroke patients in the past 20 years. The technology is being developed in other clinical indications such as inflammatory conditions, oncology, cardiovascular conditions, spinal cord injury and dementia.

Aurum’s CEO Jim McGuire said: “Our technology has the potential to significantly improve outcomes for acute stroke patients, not only by delivering oxygen to brain tissue under stress beyond the clot, but by providing acute stroke diagnostics which will direct the use of synergistic acute stroke treatments such as the use of thrombolytics (rtPA) and thrombectomy.”

Getting treatment to patients quicker is vital and an important product example involving InnoScot Health is the Structured CRitical Airway Management (SCRAM™) portfolio of emergency airway bags that enhance the performance of emergency airway management and tracheal intubation, reducing the time to treat critically ill or injured patients.

The Emergency Airway Bag provides a structured approach to airway management, when getting it right first time really matters. It forms a system of advanced preparation and organisation of equipment and drugs, promoting the delivery of safe, timely, and well governed emergency anaesthesia.

Invented by Air Ambulance Paramedics at the Scottish Ambulance Service and developed in collaboration with InnoScot Health and commercial partner OpenHouse, research has shown SCRAM™ has significantly reduced intervention time, results in fewer procedural errors, and reduces cognitive load.

Creator Paul Swinton said: “The SCRAM™ system promotes the delivery of safe, timely, well-governed emergency anaesthesia and tracheal intubation by standardising, and optimally organising, equipment and drugs prior to the procedure being required, thus significantly reducing delays and risks of error through the specific layout and pre-preparation of equipment and drugs. The human centred design methodology, reduces the cognitive burden of healthcare professionals performing emergency anaesthesia and tracheal intubation across the spectrum of age."

Marianne Murphy, Project Manager at InnoScot Health said: “As the only organisation set up to work with NHS Scotland on commercialisation activity, InnoScot Health recognises the value in maintaining strong relationships with all our inventors, supporting continuous improvement and development of products and ideas. We are proud to continue our support of the SCRAM™ portfolio which now includes a paediatric variation in addition to products for the tactical environment.”

Another successful spin out from InnoScot Health, and a result of its partnership with NHS Ayrshire and Arran, has been Clear Surgical, a medical device company focussed on the design and manufacture of innovative medical devices for use in surgery.

Clear Surgical operates globally within the medical, dentistry and veterinary sectors, supplying technologically advanced products such as the OpLight™. This revolutionary, single-use, sterile, disposable light source provides direct light into cavities during surgery due to its ability to be affixed to existing surgical instruments, eradicating shadowing from overhead lighting systems.

Measuring just 4mm thick and 5.5cm long, the cartridge adheres to surgical instruments and lights up the operating cavity from the inside so that surgeons can see more clearly.

The company’s CEO and Executive Chairman, Michelle Ward said: “By working directly with frontline surgeons and turning their ideas into reality we create solutions that have real and immediate benefits. Our products are not speculative because they come directly from the very people who want them and who will use them.”

The light was launched at the world’s largest medical trade show Medica and has attracted orders from hospitals in the USA, Canada, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Australia, and Saudi Arabia.

A timely innovation in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the SARUS-CPR hood continues to revolutionise the resuscitation process for first responders. The small, lightweight hood made from transparent fabric creates a barrier between the patient and the individual performing resuscitation. It reduces the risk of contamination and infection from bacteria and viruses such as COVID-19. The hood has been designed to reduce the time taken to initiate airway ventilation and makes resuscitation much safer for both patients and personnel. The SARUS-CPR hood can be used by trained personnel in a wide range of settings, including hospitals, GP surgeries and ambulances.

The hood was the idea of Professor Peter Stonebridge, Medical Director at NHS Tayside. The clinical requirements of the product were designed and prototyped by Rodney Mountain, an ENT Surgeon at NHS Tayside, alongside InnoScot Health and manufactured by Keela International.

A paper published by the Scottish Medical Journal compared the performance of 10 novices against 10 experts during mock resuscitation. Thereafter, 15 novices were tested with and without the hood, in a randomised cross-over study, one week apart.

Researchers found use of the hood resulted in “aerosol transmission reduced in the breathing zone” and that “laboratory analysis showed a > 99% reduction of saline particles detected 5 cm, 75 cm and 165 cm above volunteers wearing the hood.”

The paper stated that the SARUS-CPR Hood “removes uncertainty in the mind of the first responder and allows them to act quickly and safely while awaiting input from an experienced ambulance or hospital-based CPR team wearing full AGP PPE.”

Reflecting on the device’s development, NHS Tayside’s Medical Director, Professor Peter Stonebridge said: “In this instance, thanks to the input of other experts, the kernel of an idea has been developed into the fully realised SARUS-CPR hood. I am very grateful to all the collaborators on this project.”

Rod Mountain, NHS Tayside clinical lead for the project added: “As an NHS worker, I am immensely proud to have been part of its development. This has been a genuine collaborative effort between NHS Tayside, InnoScot Health, and Keela, drawing upon fantastic local engineering and garment manufacturing expertise. COVID-19 drove the innovation, prompting us to look at different approaches to PPE, but we now know its applications go well beyond the pandemic.”

Ideas originating within our NHS are transforming lives, creating jobs, attracting investment, and showcasing Scotland as a truly entrepreneurial nation with innovation in its DNA.

By harnessing the talent, entrepreneurism, and commitment of staff across the NHS, innovation can play a vital role in supporting the NHS recovery plan, and InnoScot Health is helping to drive that with dedicated innovation calls, a modern, streamlined website, and 20 years of expertise.