NNUH doctors up for national innovation awards

Doctors from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital have been shortlisted in the national NHS innovation awards for developing a procedure that “cooks cancers” and a computer system that improves the safety of patients in operating theatres.

The NNUH consultants were regional winners in the Health Enterprise East innovation awards held in June this year and have now been shortlisted for the national finals held in London on December 3 at the House of Commons.

Medical Devices category – Dr John Cockburn, Mr Simon Wemyss-Holden – Bimodal Electric Tissue Ablation (BETA)

Bimodal Electric Tissue Ablation (BETA) – new technique for the destruction of inaccessible soft tissue tumours using an intriguing development of current practice (radio frequency ablation). In contrast to RF Ablation, BETA keeps the tumour hydrated during the ablation process which increases the volume of tissue destroyed by eight-fold and decreases the tumour recurrence rate.

Software category: Dr David Wilson-Nunn, Jane Strivens – Emergency Theatre Sister, Huw Purcell-Jones – Emergency Theatre Team Leader, David Chapman – Web Services Manager

Electronic Booking and List Management System for General Emergency & Orthopaedic Trauma Theatres – web-based programme that allows clinicians to book general emergency and orthopaedic trauma cases directly on to an electronic theatre list. Includes a number of innovative features such as an automatic risk score, traffic light status and links to external internet resources (fracture classification).