Medovate’s SAFIRA® wins “Best Regional Anaesthesia Safety Solution 2020” at Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Awards

Medovate – a pioneering medical device development company – have announced that its game-changing medical device SAFIRA® (SAFer Injection for Regional Anaesthesia) has won an award at Global Health & Pharma’s (GHP) Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Awards 2020.

SAFIRA® was named the winner of the “Best Regional Anaesthesia Safety Solution 2020”. The award celebrates innovations within the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries and honours pioneering companies who successfully develop crucial new ideas and products that contribute towards furthering the advancement of patient care.

SAFIRA® was chosen for the unique safety benefits it brings to regional anaesthesia. The Class IIb medical device – which transforms regional anaesthesia into a one-person procedure – provides a revolutionary solution that limits injection pressure, helping to improve patient safety by reducing the risk of nerve damage in patients resulting from injection at high pressures.

Medovate’s latest award reflects the company’s mission to bring to life essential new technologies that can realise improved outcomes for patients across the world.

“Since we were established three years ago, our focus has been to develop and commercialise innovative medical technologies to benefit the areas of anaesthesia, airway management, critical care and surgery, which currently present a number of unmet needs and challenges pertaining to patient safety,” Managing Director Stuart Thomson said.

“We are incredibly proud that our technology has been recognised at this year’s Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Awards for the benefits it can bring to regional anaesthesia as a unique device which helps to reduce the risk of patient nerve injury.”

During regional anaesthesia, injections are directed at a specific region of the body to allow a surgical operation. Current practice requires two operators, an anaesthetist to hold an ultrasound probe in one hand and a nerve block needle in the other. An assistant operates a syringe to inject the anaesthetic solution at a required pressure.

This is highly subjective, and ‘syringe feel’ varies between individuals. By giving the anaesthetist full control of the injection, SAFIRA® enables consistent, reliable flow and pressure of anaesthetic during a regional block procedure.

Medovate worked closely with consultant anaesthetists Dr Peter Young, Dr Emad Fawzy, Dr Joseph Carter and Dr John Gibson from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust during the development of SAFIRA®.

Dr John Gibson, one of the co-inventors behind the technology, explains: “Nerve injury is a complication that can arise from regional anaesthesia and is a potentially life changing injury. SAFIRA® was developed to put control of the injection in the hands of the anaesthetist, and to reduce as far as is possible these variables. The device allows the anaesthetist to position the needle as usual and then control the aspiration and injection of local anaesthetic and will not allow the injection to proceed if the pressure within the syringe goes above a certain threshold level.”

Based in Cambridge, Medovate is a dynamic medical device company dedicated to developing and commercialising innovative medical technologies created within the NHS and beyond. The company works to identify high potential innovations, providing vital expertise and funding to support these from design, manufacture, clinical trials, regulatory approval through to market launch.

For further information, please visit Medovate’s website or for enquiries email [email protected]