And the award goes to... previewing the Med-Tech Innovation Awards

With the deadline for entries to the Med-Tech Innovation Awards fast approaching, here we give a rundown of what the awards night will entail, and give you some inspiration with a round-up of the 2022 winners.

After the first day of Med-Tech Innovation Expo at the NEC in Birmingham, the evening will see the National Conference Centre host the Medilink UK Healthcare Business Awards in association with Med-Tech Innovation.

This year’s ceremony takes place on 7^th June 2023 at the National Conference Centre in Birmingham a short ride away at the NEC. Here we provide a brief overview of what to expect from the gala evening.

The categories and 2022 winners

The Medilink UK Awards finalists will be made up of the winners from the regional Medilink Award winners from the Midlands, North of England, Wales, South West and South East; and will span seven categories which are:

• Advances in Digital Healthcare: Awarded to the company who demonstrate how digital technologies were employed to enhance current service delivery or create new ways of delivering healthcare. Last year’s winner was Spirit Health – a digital health company which empowers people to take control of their own health with remote patient monitoring and virtual wards.
• Delivering Innovation into Health and Care: For the development of a collaboration with the NHS that has or will have a major impact or benefit to both business performance and patient care. In 2022, TUTUM Medical took home the prize. The company is spun out from TBG Solutions – an engineering company providing test capability on manufactured products to large corporate companies. 
• Export Achievement: For outstanding performance in international trade. After being recognised by the World Health Organization for its benefits of helping people recover from COVID-19, POWERbreathe was shown to help to lower blood-pressure, reducing heart attack risk as well as boosting cognitive & physical performance; and now has over 30 distributors worldwide.
• Innovation: For the development of an innovative technology, design or process that has produced a major improvement in business performance or end-user benefit. EarSwitch Ltd has developed a sensor that detects motion through the movement of one of the smallest muscles in the body. The company’s central ethos is to provide communication devices, and control of assistive devices, such as prosthetic arms for people with amputation, and arm exoskeletons for people with paralysis or stroke.  
• Outstanding Achievement: For an achievement that has had a significant or vital impact on the company and the sector. Paxman, a manufacturer of scalp cooling systems to minimise chemotherapy-induced alopecia, received the accolade in 2022. The company has an 80% share of the global scalp-cooling market.
• Partnership between Academia & Business: Awarded to the company who demonstrate how the collaboration / partnership has or will enhance current service delivery or create new ways of delivering healthcare. Last year was Somnus Scientific and the University of the West of England who were the winners, as its collaboration has resulted in the development of personalised sedation and anaesthesia which is safer for patients and better for the environment than anaesthetic gases.
• Start-Up: For newly established companies (trading for up to three years) in the medical and healthcare sector, that show a promising future. Drill Surgeries is developing technology to reduce the excessive amounts of radiation used in operations which use a metallic rod to bind broken bones. Drill Surgeries has created artificial intelligence to provide a precision guide allowing surgeons to place everything in the right place, first time – and were the 2022 start-up award winners.

Med-Tech Innovation Awards

There is a slight change to this year’s line-up for the Med-Tech Innovation Awards. Last year saw QuantuMDx recognised for its Q-POC in a special recognition award in response to COVID-19, while the Engineering category has been substituted for Manufacturing Excellence. Here is the rundown of this year’s categories:

• 3D printing: This award is for those who have shown how using 3D printing has enhanced or fundamentally improved the design of manufacture of medical devices. Lucid Implants were the 2022 winners having developed custom implants and cutting guides to improved surgical accuracy, resulting in a 53% decrease in-hospital stay, a 73% decrease in OT time, and an 88% decrease in recovery cost.
• Connected Health: Given to those who have developed or manufactured a cutting-edge medical device, whether through supplying miniaturised sensors or conductive materials; or involvement on the digital and software side of things. Acurable’s AcuPebble took home the prize. This wearable acoustic sensor became the first medical device to obtain the CE mark for the automated diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnoea in 2020 and has since gained FDA clearance for home sleep apnoea testing in the USA.
• Design – Focused on the design or redesign of a medical device, what clinical need was identified, and how this need was met through the innovative use of unique design developments. This prize went to Lightpoint Medical in 2022, who developed a miniaturised robotic gamma probe designed to significantly widen the field of minimally invasive radio-guided surgery, providing real-time, intra-operative cancer detection.
• Manufacturing Excellence - focusing on the manufacture of a medical device, entrants should detail an innovation in manufacturing process or technique which improved the outcome of the product. Last year’s Engineering award went to Adapttech INSIGHT for lower limb amputee socket replication and pressure distribution evaluation within the patient socket. With CAD/CAM export & integration abilities, INSIGHT shortens the number fitting appointments and enables a more accurate fit.
• Materials Innovation – Showing how a new or repurposed material was pivotal in the creation of a medical device. Birmingham Biotech’s anti-viral nasal spray was last year’s winner, as Norizite a patented blend of natural ingredients to help slow or prevent viral infection, coats the nasal cavity, creating a protective barrier to physically trap viruses.
• Sustainability – for demonstrating how innovation in design or manufacture has reduced the environmental footprint of a medical device. Meryl Medical was recognised in 2022 for its antimicrobial fabrics, which are fully recyclable with zero microplastic pollution through the innovative use of hydrogen bonding to create strong molecular chains that seal all microfibres into the filaments.

The host

The evening will be compered by the familiar face of presenter, speaker, and Invictus Games Medallist JJ Chalmers. Chalmers is also an ambassador for the Invictus Games as well as Help for Heroes. For those familiar with their sport, Chalmers’ face will be a recognisable one as he has hosted coverage for several sporting events including the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the London Marathon and Commonwealth Games.

For more details on this year’s Medilink UK Healthcare Business Awards, and to enter to the Med-Tech Innovation Awards, visit www.med-techawards.com