Size matters: £1.3 million awarded to make medical devices smaller, smarter and cheaper

Engineers and scientists from across Heriot-Watt University have been awarded £1.3 million to tackle one of the biggest problems facing the medical profession: making advanced medical devices smaller, better, smarter and cheaper than current versions.

Optical, mechanical, electronic and manufacturing engineering and science experts from across the university will form the new Medical Device Manufacturing Group, led by Professor Duncan Hand, who also leads the five-university EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Laser-based Production Processes.

The Medical Device Manufacturing Group will address the challenges in the manufacturing of medical devices, driven by the clinical need for efficient and cost-effective solutions, to develop miniature systems for micro-endoscopy and micro-surgery.

The group will now focus on finding new ways to customise medical devices for patients. Currently, customisation is primarily focused on medicines, but the Heriot-Watt team will explore the potential to customise devices for patients, such as drug delivery devices that respond to external stimuli, or parts tailored to ‘fit’ a particular patient by using flexible manufacturing processes such as laser machining or 3D printing.

Hand said: “We’re asking clinicians and industry representatives what their priorities and clinical needs are; then we’ll engineer realistic, cost-effective solutions for them.

“Medical devices pose their own particular manufacturing challenges, given the required operating environment and the need for cost effectiveness.

“We’ll be investigating how to miniaturise multi-technology systems with the functionality that clinicians, industry partners and, ultimately, patients require; devising packaging and integration systems that keep devices safe, stable and smart.

“The additional challenge is ensuring they can all be manufactured at a low cost, to make sure the healthcare sector can afford them.”

Through previous research and appeals from clinicians, the Heriot-Watt team has already identified some priority areas. They plan to develop a suite of medical devices that can be incorporated into, or onto, the end of optical fibres, so that lasers can target, treat or remove lesions or tumours better, and in a less invasive way for the patient. Also in the pipeline are miniature robotic systems that could detect or remove cancerous tissue.

Research into the manufacturing of medical devices at Heriot-Watt has increased significantly in recent years. The latest funding from EPSRC compounds its previous support for the university in this area, alongside significant investment from Science and Technology Facilities Council and the Medical Research Council.

A previous project saw engineers from Heriot-Watt University team up with surgeons at NHS Lothian/University of Edinburgh to develop a method of mechanically palpating human soft tissue, using micro-mechanical probes to assess tissue ‘quality’, or stiffness. They focused particularly on diseases of the prostate and have shown that mechanical palpation or touch can differentiate between benign and malignant prostate tissue, a valuable additional tool for robotic assisted surgery.

Led by Professor Bob Reuben (Heriot-Watt University) and Professor Alan McNeill (Lothian University Hospitals, University of Edinburgh) the group received funding from the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council, The Urology Foundation/John Black Charitable Foundation and the Medical Research Council.

As well as showing that their technology can indeed be used to diagnose whether prostate tissue is cancerous or not, the group is continuing to miniaturise it for use in robotic surgical platforms.

The group has now established a start-up company, Palpation Diagnostics, which has received Horizon 2020 Phase 1 funding to undertake a feasibility study and market research. This showed a real demand for a device to help in the diagnosis of men with prostate cancer and the company is looking for further funding to develop their device to market.

Reuben said: “Robotic assisted keyhole surgery is a tremendous tool, allowing surgeons to work with great precision even at a remove.

“The current systems rely on surgeons working with purely visual information. Cancer changes the texture of the prostate and so touch can be very useful in helping surgeons be even more precise. The palpation tool uses micromechanical technology to provide the surgeon with more information about prostate tissue during an operation than they could get even if they could actually handle it.

“Our section of the team are engineers, not medics, and when we started work to develop this tool we were thinking of it as a purely diagnostic option. However it has paralleled developments in robotic assisted surgical tools, and now we are hopeful that we can join the two together to provide a really sensitive yet powerful device to support prostate operations.”

The recent introduction of robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy by Professor McNeill and the team at the Department of Urology at the Western General Hospital presents a further opportunity for collaborative working between healthcare professionals, engineers and industry.

McNeill said: “Minimal access or keyhole surgery performed in high volume centres offers patients the best outcomes and a rapid recovery. Robot-assisted surgical systems help provide access to these undoubted benefits but currently lack the tactile feedback normally available to surgeons. Our experience of this type of surgery and collaboration with engineering colleagues at Heriot-Watt University provides us with an excellent opportunity to provide this missing element in robotic surgical systems.”