Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn invented device announced as a finalist

A ground-breaking regional anaesthesia device, invented by clinicians at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust (QEH) and developed in conjunction with medical device company Medovate, has been named as a finalist for the 2022 Med-Tech Innovation Awards.
The revolutionary device SAFIRA® (SAFer Injection for Regional Anaesthesia) has been shortlisted for this year’s ‘Design Award’, joining 10 other finalists.
The award celebrates significant achievements in product design and engineering of medical device innovations that improve the quality of healthcare delivery and meet a clinical need.

Medovate’s SAFIRA® system is an innovative technology which is revolutionising the regional anaesthesia process. The NHS invented solution was developed by Medovate in collaboration with anaesthetists at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn.

Speaking about the nomination Dr Frankie Swords, Medical Director at QEH, said: “This is a fantastic achievement for the Trust and I am hugely proud of our teams behind this invention. We hope to see this innovation allow many more people have access to safer regional anaesthesia in future, preventing the need for a general anaesthetic in many cases, which can make a real impact on patient care”.

Managing Director of Medovate, Stuart Thomson, added “We are delighted to be shortlisted for this year’s prestigious Med-Tech Innovation Awards. Our company has achieved a great deal in its first few years, and this is further recognition of our unique approach collaborating with the NHS to develop high-value innovations that can significantly impact patient care and safety. SAFIRA® is a fantastic example of this and provides an intuitive to use technology which fits into existing protocols, reduces the risk of nerve injury and improves patient safety at an acceptable cost.”
The award-winning device gives anaesthetists full control of injection, as well as enhancing confidence through a built-in safety mechanism to automatically limit injection pressure to less than 20psi, thus helping to reduce the risk of nerve injury in patients.
The system has been designed to complement other patient safety initiatives with an NRFit® option, while the design and launch of a palm operator controller further provides clinicians with versatility and choice in how they use the system.

Over 20 million regional anaesthetic nerve blocks are performed each year throughout the EU and US. As the use of regional anaesthesia continues to grow globally, the SAFIRA® system provides a unique offering to anaesthetists and their patients and has the potential to make a significant impact on improving patient safety globally.

A winner of the HSJ Patient Safety Innovation of the Year 2021, SAFIRA® has been shortlisted for this year’s Med-Tech Innovation Awards due to its unique benefits to patient safety.
The winners will be announced on 8th June at the Hilton Metropole in Birmingham at the Medilink UK Healthcare Business Awards in association with Med-Tech Innovation.

Details of all the shortlisted finalists can be found here: https://www.med-technews.com/Medtech-expo-and-events/med-tech-innovation-expo-news/two-new-categories-and-35-finalists-for-2022-med-tech-innova/