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Tag: ITM News

COVID at home: ‘virtual ward’ app designed in Midlands

A digital remote care solution including a mobile phone app is helping Covid-19 patients manage their symptoms at home after being developed with the support the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network (WMAHSN).

The app developed by medical software company, Dignio, has been implemented by Dudley CCG and allows patients stay at home safely, thus avoiding unnecessary admissions to hospital as well as alerting clinical staff of patients more seriously ill who need prompt admission.

Patients participating in the pilot download the MyDignio app and use Bluetooth enabled medical devices provided as part of the pilot to monitor their temperature and oxygen levels at home. The App connects to a dashboard at the local health centre allowing these readings to be assessed by the clinical team so they can safely keep track of patients with COVID while they remain in their own home.

Users also report their symptoms through a questionnaire within the app to provide a clearer overview of their condition. The platform enables patients to become more engaged in their own health through daily monitoring and communication.

Previously self-isolating patients would receive a call to establish symptoms, but the easy-to-use app now works as a ‘virtual ward’. Patient readings are recorded automatically, and alerts sent to healthcare staff at the first sign of any deterioration, prioritising care for patients who need it most.

Dignio has recently joined the Serendip Accelerator programme which, operating in partnership with the WMAHSN, is designed to support the scale up of digital innovations. Both the WMAHSN and Dignio are based within the Institute of Translational Medicine.

Dr. Julian Sonksen, WMAHSN Clinical Advisor, said: “The AHSN plays an important role in ensuring the NHS benefits from innovation, including digital solutions to challenging clinical scenarios.

“Early in the pandemic the WMAHSN supported Dudley CCG to find a digital solution which would compliment and improve their COVID at home service. Subsequently, after the CCG settled on a solution the WMAHSN has coordinated a comprehensive evaluation of the service focusing on the digital remote care platform provided by Dignio.”

Following successful implementation, MyDignio could be used on a wider scale, for COVID-19 monitoring across more of the West Midlands or nationally.

Dr. Ewa Truchanowicz, Managing Director of MyDignio said: “We were delighted to be accepted for the Serendip Accelerator. Having experienced support from the WMAHSN experts in our oximetry at home with the Dudley CCG project, we look forward to enhancing our growth in the region and beyond. Our connected care solution offers a safe and effective remote care management and working with WMAHSN allows us to ensure that it reflects the ‘best in class’ not just in technology, but also in methodology and content.”

NHS Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group is also planning to expand the solution to care homes across the area. The technology is able to monitor other conditions such as diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure and general health of all care home residents.

For further information on Dignio, visit https://dignio.com/en/

Royal visit to UHB vaccination hub at the ITM

Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall visited the COVID-19 vaccination centre for University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) staff on February 17 2021.

Their Royal Highnesses, joined by The Right Honourable Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, visited the hub here at the Institute of Translational Medicine with key members of the UHB vaccine research team, vaccine rollout team, and members of the public who have taken part in COVID-19 vaccine research in the West Midlands. They also saw people in the top four priority groups receiving their first dose of the vaccine.

Dr David Rosser, Chief Executive Officer at UHB, said: “The Trust is working with our colleagues at Birmingham and Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group, GP partners, pharmacies, Millennium Point and Aston Villa Football Club on the continued successful rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine programme. To date, hundreds of thousands of people across Birmingham and Solihull have received their first dose. As supply increases and eligibility widens, we are looking forward to vaccinating more people and bringing us closer on the path back to normal life.”

Safe and effective vaccines were developed in record time thanks to vaccine research which began in early 2020. The vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and Astrazeneca, one of two currently in use in the UK, was trialled on more than 20,000 people in 2020.

Recruitment to the Oxford vaccine trial was led in the West Midlands by UHB, with almost 1,000 people taking part in vaccine research in the region – the highest total of any area in the country.

Dr Chris Green, UHB Consultant in Infectious Diseases and the trial lead in the West Midlands, said: “The rollout of vaccines is only possible because of the help of the many members of the public who were willing to take part in clinical trials.

“Thanks to them, the successful results are now leading to a wider rollout which will result in protection for the public, and a reduction in the risk of the disease that will allow us to return to a more normal world.

“Alongside the rollout, vaccine research continues with recruitment to new trials, including the testing of other vaccines and the potential to mix and match already approved vaccines.”

Health Secretary, Matt Hancock said: “I was delighted to visit the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham alongside their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, and to thank the staff for their heroic efforts throughout the pandemic.

“From treating those suffering from COVID-19 to recruiting record numbers of patients to take part in vaccine clinical trials, each and every one of those working on the frontline has played an incredible role in our nationwide fight against this virus.

“The University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust has played a vital part in helping us reach our target to vaccinate the top four priority groups by mid-February, delivering over 200,000 doses of the vaccine to the most vulnerable people in their community – a truly fantastic achievement.

“There is still more to do, and I urge anyone eligible for the vaccine to come forward and take up their appointment.”

Birmingham research paves the way for new anti-fibrotic therapy for glaucoma

Scientists at the University of Birmingham have shown that a novel low molecular weight dextran-sulphate, ILB® could play a key role in treating open angle glaucoma (OAG), a neurodegenerative disease that affects over 70 million people worldwide and causes irreversible blindness.

OAG develops slowly over many years.  Excessive matrix deposition (fibrosis) within the eye’s main fluid drainage site can lead to increased intraocular pressure (IOP), resulting in damage to the optic nerve.1

The research, reported in npj Regenerative Medicine, has shown that that ILB can normalise matrix deposition inside the eye and lower IOP in a pre-clinical model used to mimic these aspects of human glaucoma, paving the way for new anti-fibrotic therapies to be developed for the disease.

OAG is a complex disease and it has proved difficult to develop effective therapeutics to target the biochemical pathways involved.   Existing therapies mainly work by reducing fluid production in the eye, not the underlying causes, and even the newer therapies have shown limited success in the clinic.2

The Birmingham scientists focussed on an inflammatory pathway that is common to several diseases, and involves Transforming Growth Factor β (TGFβ), a signalling molecule that communicates between cells and orchestrates both inflammation and fibrosis.  TGFβ’s role in OAG is well known, with patients demonstrating higher levels in their aqueous humour and laboratory studies showing that artificially increasing TGFβ within the eye can lead to fibrosis3,4.

The scientists found that ILB has multimodal actions across many genes that resolve inflammatory and fibrotic cellular processes.  When they progressed their work into a pre-clinical experimental model of glaucoma, they found that daily subcutaneous injections of ILB significantly (p<0.01) reduced extracellular matrix levels within the eye’s main drainage site, normalised the eye’s pressure and prevented degeneration of retinal neurons.  The research was conducted by Dr Lisa Hill, from the Institute of Clinical Sciences, and Dr Hannah Botfield, from the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing.  They commented:  “We are truly excited by these results, which show a way forward for a glaucoma treatment that can reverse the fibrotic process that causes the disease.”

Clinicians working in ophthalmology generally prefer local over systemically delivered therapeutics, as it is a safer route of administration that is more acceptable to patients.

Dr Hill is leading a project to formulate a topical alternative that will avoid the need for injection.  She is working closely on this with Mr Imran Masood, a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust and Professor Liam Grover, a biomaterials expert from the ITM-based Healthcare Technologies Institute, to assess the use of a novel shear thinning fluid gel for the resolution of glaucoma.

The shear thinning fluid gel was developed for use as eye drops that are retained for an extended period of time following administration, and patents have been filed for its use both alone, and in combination with other therapeutics.5  Previous studies have shown the fluid gel reduces corneal scarring when applied topically, and it is an effective carrier molecule for other therapeutics.6

ENDS

ILB® resolves inflammatory scarring and promotes functional tissue repair has been published in NPJ Regen Med.  DOI:  10.1038/s41536-020-00110-2

For further media information contact Ruth Ashton, Reputation and Communications Development Manager, University of Birmingham Enterprise, email: r.c.ashton@bham.ac.uk

For further information about the fluid gel patent, contact Helen Dunster, Business Development Manager, University of Birmingham Enterprise, email: H.Dunster@bham.ac.uk

About ILB®

ILB® is a unique and distinct LMW-DS formulation whose structure, formulation, synthesis and relevance to fibrotic diseases like glaucoma has been described in detail previously in two published patents (WO 2016/076780 and WO 2018/212708).  For this study, ILB® (batch number 3045586) was provided by Tikomed AB.

The study also benchmarked ILB® against an approved anti-fibrotic drug, pirfenidone, in cultured human cells, where it showed a unique anti-inflammatory response.

About University of Birmingham Enterprise

University of Birmingham Enterprise helps researchers turn their ideas into new services, products and enterprises that meet real-world needs.  We also support innovators and entrepreneurs with mentoring, advice, and training and manage the University’s Academic Consultancy Service.

References

  1. Tektas, O. Y. & Lutjen-Drecoll, E. Structural changes of the trabecular meshwork in different kinds of glaucoma. Experimental Eye Research, 88(4), 769-75 (2009).
  2. Friedman, S. L., Sheppard, D., Duffield, J. S. & Violette, S. Therapy for fibrotic diseases: Nearing the starting line. Science Translational Medicine 5(167), 167sr1-sr1 (2013).
  3. Fuchshofer, R. & Tamm, E. R. The role of TGF-beta in the pathogenesis of primary open-angle glaucoma. Cell and Tissue Research, 347(1), 279-90 (2012).
  4. Kim, K. S., Lee, B. H. & Kim, I. S. The measurement of fibronectin concentrations in human aqueous humor. Korean Journal of Ophthalmology, 6(1), 1-5 (1992).
  5. Patent numbers: WO/2020/115510; WO/2020/115508; GB2008919.9
  6. Hill et al.  Sustained release of decorin to the surface of the eye enables scarless corneal regeneration.  npj Regenerative Medicine. 3, 1-12 (2018).

High-performance, low-cost ventilator project awarded grant of £768K by UKRI

An international team of scientists and engineers have been awarded a grant of £768K by UKRI as part of the Newton Fund’s Agile Response Call to develop high performance, low cost ventilators for use in low to middle income countries, it has been announced today.

Prompted by a shortage of ventilators in low income countries highlighted by the 
COVID-19 pandemic, the HPLV project aims to reengineer a High Energy physics Ventilator (HEV) previously developed by Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) to create a highly effective, low-cost system that can be easily used in situations where access to reliable power supplies and oxygen may be limited. The system also aims to address the shortage of staff who are trained to operate ventilation devices in these countries, offering a web interface, accessible at local healthcare stations or via a mobile device to open up the potential for remote consulting and clinical training which is crucial for remote areas.

Building upon work by CERN the High Performance Low-cost Ventilator (HPLV) project brings together experts from the Universities of Birmingham, Liverpool and Rio de Janeiro with the Medical Devices Testing and Evaluation Centre (MD-TEC) at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) through Birmingham Health Partners (BHP).

The project team combines expertise in engineering and software development with in-depth experience of ventilator testing and regulatory requirements as well as front-line experience from clinicians in Brazil. The project will also involve business and innovation support from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the knowledge transfer team at CERN who will lead work to engage with potential industrial partners.

Professor Tom Clutton-Brock, Director of MD-TEC at UHB and Deputy Director at the Institute of Translational Medicine said: “MD-TEC is a purpose built medical devices testing and evaluation centre situated in Birmingham, UK. With a fully equipped, but simulated, intensive care unit, it has been heavily involved in many aspects of the UK’s Ventilator Challenge for the management of the sickest patients with COVID-19. With the equipment and expertise required to test ventilators from prototype to production ready, it is a privilege to be part of this exciting project.”

Karl Dearn, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Birmingham said: “My colleagues and I in mechanical engineering are delighted to work with our international partners at CERN, STFC and our clinical and academic collaborators to develop this innovative low-cost respiratory ventilator.  Based on our Edgbaston campus, our engineering team, so close to our colleagues in MD-TEC,  means that we can be very agile in developing and optimising the ventilator, quickly and at low cost.  There is a shortage of respiratory ventilators across the globe, and this machine has the potential to fill this gap.”

Phil Allport, Professor of Particle Physics at the University and lead at the Birmingham Instrumentation Laboratory for Particle physics and Applications (BILPA) said: “Having been involved in helping CERN as a member of the ‘Support Panel’ for the original HEV ventilator development I also chaired the International Review of the project back in April. The medical experts on the review confirmed this to be a really innovative design, with the functionality needed for ventilators not only addressing the current COVID-19 crisis but offering significant cost savings with respect to equivalent performance commercial systems.

“This funding gives us a great opportunity, with the original HEV team and STFC, to take forward this exciting development from CERN to meet the unmet needs (highlighted by the current pandemic) for ventilators and for training in their operation in many parts of the world where other respiratory diseases requiring ventilators continue to be major killers.”

Chemical engineering expertise helps in fight against COVID-19

From hand sanitisers and nasal sprays to improved PPE, the University of Birmingham’s School of Chemical Engineering and Healthcare Technologies Institute (based here in the ITM) have made significant contributions to the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 CTL hand sanitizer lab

In March, staff set up a manufacturing facility at the Collaborative Teaching Laboratory to produce hand sanitiser, desperately needed at the time by frontline care workers to prevent the spread of COVID-19 due to a national shortage. The facility used chemicals donated from Schools across campus and produced 20 litre batches in accordance with the World Health Organization’s formulation for hand sanitiser. They dispensed the batches into 50ml containers, and packaged them for Birmingham City Council to distribute around the region.

Also amid our response has been a project led by Dr Sophie CoxDr David Bassett and Dr Thomas Mills, which saw students and staff from across campus team up to manufacture face visors for frontline medical staff.

The team used their 3D printing expertise to set up a production line at the Collaborative Teaching Laboratory, and used a design taken from a commercially tested blueprint that was supplied by Czech Republic-based PrusaPrinters. The 3D printing technology was used to produce the headband part of the visor, which fits across the user’s forehead, and is attached to a clear plastic visor.

The team produced 2,600 visors to provide additional protection for frontline workers treating people with COVID-19, and donated these to local care homes, hospices and hospitals.

From the outset of the pandemic, it was clear there were issues with wearing facemasks for prolonged periods, such as abrasion and bruising of facial tissues. By early April, Professor Liam Grover and Dr Sophie Cox had started a rapid and intensive collaboration with clinicians and research scientists from King’s College London, to improve the seal and fit of facemasks used by healthcare professionals.

The collaboration brought together expertise in facial imaging, skin interfacing devices and 3D printing, to produce a prototype for a customised mask seal that will improve comfort and reduce exposure risk for people who need to wear facemasks all day, every day.

The researchers worked with University of Birmingham Enterprise to file patent applications, and assign them to a company with an experienced management team and a network of manufacturing partners. MyMaskFit will use the technologies developed at Birmingham and King’s to deliver a service where the care worker scans their face using a smartphone, and within days receives a custom-made, reusable, medical grade facemask within days.

DRs INK video 300

In the early stages of the pandemic, medical staff were faced with rising numbers of critically ill patients, and shortages of PPE. There was the very real concern about transmission during procedures such as intubation or CPR, which put pressure on the chest or forces exhalation of viral-laden aspirate. Dr Richard Williams, Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham’s Healthcare Technologies Institute, and Matthew Campbell-Hill, from the University’s Institute of Clinical Sciences, worked with clinicians and medical experts to come up with a solution. They designed a transparent pop-up tent that can be assembled in 20 seconds to cover the patient’s head and neck area and shield staff, and called their product AerosolShield. AerosolShield can be assembled in 20 seconds, is lightweight and collapsible for easy transport, storage and disposal, and has self-closing access points, allowing easy hand access in and around the patient’s airway, with full line of sight for medical staff.

The team went from design brief, to final design, securing a manufacturing deal and first orders in under a week. Since then AerosolShield devices have been used in GP practices and care homes around the UK, and helped protect an estimated 3,000 staff working in the frontline.

The science suggests that the COVID-19 virus is transmitted in aerosol droplets that not only carry, but also protect, the virus.

A team of researchers headed by Dr Zhenyu Jason Zhang is working on the development of additives that can be included in existing commercial products such as detergents, or integrated within packaging to form an invisible and long-lasting film of sub-micron thickness.

Recent evidence suggests that different surface characteristics such as porosity, rigidity, and roughness all affect the virus’ viability. The team will be drawing on their expertise in soft matter, surface chemistry, formulation engineering, microbiology and the product development capabilities offered by industrial partners to develop new antiviral sprays, films and other products.

The research will take place over the next 18 months in partnership with the University of Cambridge and three key industrial partners: Dupont Teijin FilmInnospec, and FiberLean with the aim of rapidly commercialising the formulations produced.

Researchers led by Professor Liam Grover and Dr Richard Moakes set out to create a formulation for an antiviral nasal spray that can be used as a prophylactic, and also to help prevent person-to-person transmission. Fully aware of the urgency of the situation, they developed a formulation from materials that are already approved by regulatory bodies in the UK, Europe and the US, widely used in medical devices, medicines or food products, and already manufactured to pharmaceutical grade.

They tested a range of compounds for their ability to ‘plume’ when sprayed using a typical nasal spray applicator, and to stay inside the nose after application, before selecting a gellan polysaccharide as the carrier for an antiviral agent, called λcarrageenan.

The researchers then tested the mixture at various different proportions for its antiviral affect in cell culture, and found it could deliver significant suppression of infection compared to untreated controls. This effect was seen up to 48 hours after application, and when the formulation was diluted many times.

University of Birmingham Enterprise filed a patent application for the formulation and is now seeking to license the patent to an organisation that is committed to manufacturing a consumer product and managing its distribution it to the widest possible audience.

‘Rapid science’ makes custom-fitted facemasks for NHS workers

A company working with experts from the University of Birmingham and King’s College London has been awarded funding by Innovate UK to produce custom-fitted, reusable, medical grade facemasks that will fit all people regardless of age, sex or ethnicity.

MyMaskFit will focus on producing masks at FFP3 standard, which filter 99% of aerosols.  The FFP3 standard is recommended in healthcare settings where there is a risk of COVID-19 transmission.

The masks will be the first fully custom-fitted, reusable, filtering face piece (FFP) masks made to this standard in the UK.

The issue of mask fit is critically important in healthcare settings, where an adequate seal is required between the mask and the face.  Yet the wide variations in mask design and the inevitable variation in the shape of human faces mean that this fit can be difficult to achieve, and when healthcare staff find a mask that fits, it may not be available at the next round of supply.

Scientists from the University of Birmingham and King’s College London recognised these issues at the outset of the UK lockdown, and started a collaboration that brought together expertise in facial imaging, skin interfacing devices and 3D printing.

Starting in April, this intensive project involved Professor Liam Grover, Director of the Healthcare Technologies Institute based at the ITM, Dr Sophie Cox, Senior Lecturer in Healthcare Technologies, University of Birmingham, and Professor Owen Addison, Chair of Oral Rehabilitation, and Dr Trevor Coward, Reader in Maxillofacial & Craniofacial Rehabilitation, at King’s College London.

Supported by the EPSRC as part of the UKRI COVID-19 response, the combined team rapidly produced a promising prototype for a customised mask seal to reduce exposure risk and fitting time, while also improving comfort for professionals who need to wear FFP masks all day, every day.  Both universities filed patent applications during the course of the project, and the rights to these patents are being licensed to MyMaskFit.

MyMaskFit will now take the product through regulatory approval and bring it to market to meet the growing demand for FFP3 masks.  The first masks will be manufactured in Swansea, Wales.

Paul Perera of MyMaskFit, who conceptualised the project, commented:  “MyMaskFit is bringing clinical knowledge, chemistry and manufacturing engineering expertise.  The company is working with technology partners in the spirit of the UK’s Ventilator Challenge to accelerate the pace of innovation and development so we can supply the NHS and care homes with masks that fit their workers, who will be able to use a mobile device to scan their face, and receive a mask within 24 hours.”

MyMaskFit plans to make technology behind the mask available to developing countries.  It will be assisted in this by the Emergent Alliance, a not-for profit collaboration consisting of large corporates, individuals, NGOs and Governments that aims to build economic resilience in the post-COVID world.

Dr James Wilkie, CEO University of Birmingham Enterprise, which filed the Birmingham patents, said: “This is a fantastic example of bringing university research ideas to market quickly so they can improve people’s lives as soon as possible.”

Professor Owen Addison said: “Both UKRI’s rapid support of COVID-19 responsive projects and outstanding collegial working environment between universities, industry and policy makers during this difficult time is enabling the early translation of this work which can deliver real benefit to the point of greatest need.”