How Medovate helps bring innovation from the NHS to the NHS

Ian Bolland sat down with Chris Rogers, sales & marketing director from Medovate Ltd to discuss the company’s role in bringing NHS innovations to market, those behind the solutions, its business model and the kind of products the Cambridge-based firm is involved in.

Rogers explained that Medovate was spun-out of the NHS in 2017. Medovate works with 20 hospitals in the South and East of the UK, through its NHS Innovation partner Health Enterprise East.

He said: “Ideally, the products we review are non-commoditised. There has to be some clinical differentiation, or they add value through a change in process then we will take those technologies through our development pathway. We have a number of products that are at different stages of development in pipeline.

“I think what differentiates us from some of the other traditional medical device companies in that we have a strong association with the NHS – and the inventors are involved throughout the whole development process right through to commercialisation.”

The innovators Medovate works with are often those who work on the front-line and have spotted a gap in their specific area of care. Referring to the SAFIRA device which was developed by a clinical team at Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust, which provides a solution to some of the issues related to current regional anaesthesia practice, Rogers explains the kind of people who are involved in bringing the device to life.

“There’s a lot of data out there at the moment which indicates that if during a peripheral nerve block (a type of regional anaesthesia) you inject above 20 PSI then you are increasing the risk for either long-term or transient nerve damage to occur.

“The front-line clinical team who have invented and been involved with SAFIRA are NHS anaesthetists and intensivists. They spotted a gap in the delivery of care in their area of expertise and believe that a solution could provide safety improvements for the patient, optimisation or improvement of process. These benefits were fully validated as part of our development process.”

Recently, Medovate has received both CE and FDA approval with distributors already live in the US. They have also just signed a major agreement with Vygon Group who will launch SAFIRA across Europe and a further 60 countries, agreements have also been reached with distributors in Australia and New Zealand.

The company’s business model also involves remuneration from the commercialisation of the product going back to NHS Trusts to spend as they see fit and a portion of this will return to the innovators.

As for Medovate’s focus areas, there is a lot of work in the field of anaesthesia, critical care and airway, but ideas in surgery are also being considered in the not-too-distant future. The company portfolio includes HUMIDICARE – a Heat and Moisture Exchanger (HME), which visually alerts staff if connected to a humidified breathing circuit in error; GLUCOSAVE to help remove the human error of inappropriately administering insulin, resulting in the patient potentially developing hypoglycaemia that can lead to fatal brain injury via the arterial line; and ENDOVAC, a progression from Endoluminal Vacuum Therapy (EVT) which is a pioneering endoscopic surgical device to help improve survival of patients with life-threatening infection following a leak from their gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

“Our focus has been to stay in the area that we are building our expertise and credibility in which is anaesthesia, airway management, critical care and surgical solutions.

“I think we’ll make decisions as a business as to what products are right, where they fit and as long as they’re non-commoditised, they have commercial value and they differentiate and offer safety benefits, we may look at products outside of our sweet spot.”

One of the main reasons for Medovate’s foundation was to try and eliminate barriers to entry and allow innovations from the NHS to be adopted globally – as well as turning ideas from frontline workers into viable products capable of being commercialised.

“De-risking the early phase of development offers incredible value. I think that’s important because when clinicians find something they believe is fundamental and you actually dig into it a little bit deeper, there’s just not the volume there to allow real penetration of the technology. That’s why we tend to focus on clinically differentiated products that either change process, improve safety for the patients or offer total cost optimisation.”

Like any other business during 2020, Medovate has had to grapple with the business challenges of COVID-19, and there is also the question of the UK’s future trading relationship with the European Union. Both of these aspects, as well as regular U.S tariffs changes on goods, have affected the supply chain that need to be taken into account when working with manufacturers and distributors around the world.

“The Brexit issue provides significant challenge because I don’t think anyone can honestly predict what’s going to happen. However, we already have significant interest in our products from potential global partners so we are perhaps better protected because of the stage we are at as an organisation.”