A NEW alliance between the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and Tyndall National Institute plans to create innovative medical products by bundling together seemingly unlikely bedfellows.
Last week the chief executives of the two institutions signed a memorandum of understanding to officially announce a mind-meld between the surgeons and the manufacturing and ICT experts which they hope will spawn a raft of new medical devices.
It all started with an article in The Irish Times Innovationmagazine, according to Carlo Webster, business development executive at Tyndall's central fabrication facility in Cork.
"The article was about the gap that exists between surgeons and engineers, that there was no mechanism currently in place where surgeons who had ideas could translate those ideas into actual devices," he said.
"From our side, this was also something I had identified in the healthcare segment of Tyndall."
Mr Webster contacted Derek Young, who heads the Centre for Innovation in Surgical Technology at the RCSI's Colles Institute, as he was quoted in the article. It quickly became apparent that one institution could help the other in developing and validating new medical devices.
This type of convergence between ICT and healthcare is where the next wave of innovation will be, according to Mr Webster.
"The idea is to make smarter, more efficient devices so that surgery can be more efficient and diagnosis can be improved."
The medical devices market is one worth pursuing, he added.
"The global market for medical devices is growing at approximately 10 to 12 per cent per annum and although last year it suffered from the global recession it is still delivering strong growth figures compared to other markets."
To sound out the alliance, groups from the RCSI and Tyndall met for brainstorming sessions. It was something of a revelation for both sides, according to Mr Young.
"If you look at [ non-diagnostic] medical devices, they are very mechanical, fairly straightforward. Technology really hasn't broken into those areas yet," he said.
"And we have this group in Tyndall, which has fantastic technology but not knowing the clinical applications for it. It was an eye-opener that we had all this state-of-the-art technology right here on our doorstep."
Many of the collaborations identified by the two institutions do not even have to start from scratch, he added. "A lot of this stuff is on the shelf [ at Tyndall], it has probably been around for a while and all of a sudden we realise there is an application for this."
An area ripe for collaboration is improving screening for colorectal cancer: smart imaging techniques can help a surgeon identify tumours during an endoscopy, said Mr Young.
Other potential applications include devices that improve alignment and consistency in orthopaedic surgery, lighted guidewires that thread through veins and highlight diseased segments to surgeons, point-of-care analysis devices, wound-healing and drug delivery systems.
Both sides have strong links with industry and academic centres, and the RCSI's network can help ensure the ideas and devices are being developed to meet real clinical needs, said Mr Young.
But how quickly will this translate into commercial devices?
"I think we will see devices or spin-outs within two years," said Mr Young.
