Symptoms of urinary tract infections can be acute and in many cases, very debilitating. The need for a protocol around the collection of urine specimens to correctly diagnose and treat is critical.
Doctors can tell a lot about your health from your urine sample, if taken properly.
Insightful piece by Rob Eley and Michael Sinnott from The University of Queensland
Read the full article: The Conversation
An advocate and active player in healthcare infection prevention, we will participating at the Knowlex Infection Prevention and Control 2018 exhibition being held on Wednesday, 21st February 2018 at The Brewery, London EC1Y 4SD. It is the event to hear more about the latest research, science, innovation and discover real-world solutions in the challenge against infection prevention Further event information can be found here.
Paul Benton, International Director at the ABHI shares our story as to how we entered the US marketplace
Appointed sales and distribution partners, dedicated warehouse facilities and new US customers are just some of the outcomes from the UK MedTech missions to Texas. Read more
Encouraged by the growing national recognition of the value of urine in diagnostic medicine, health leaders are being approached to join a new Forte Medical Advisory Board. Three leading exponents of accurate basic medicine have so far been appointed: Mike Farrar (pic) who will Chair the panel, Dr Katherine Brown and Rachel Cashman
Mike Farrar is a management consultant with 15 years of CEO experience in the NHS, having stepped down as the Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation in September 2013. Mike has been a member of the PwC Health Industries Oversight Board and has worked on major projects across the country. Mike has also built alongside this a successful business practice working with clients such as Celesio, ROGP, ABPI, NHS Quest, NHS Leadership Academy, Health Foundation, Vanguard Health Solutions, Pfizer, CIPFA and others, as well as starting up a number of small companies aimed at promoting health innovations, and links between health and sport.
He has been Chief Executive of North West England SHA, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire Strategic Health Authorities and Tees Valley Health Authority and Head of Primary Care at the Department of Health. Mike remains a prominent thought leader and consultant to the NHS throughout the UK
Dr Katherine Brown is an academic based in the UK and the US with over 100 peer-reviewed publications. She is affiliated with Cambridge and Imperial Universities and the University of Texas. With over 25 years in medical applications, she has extensive expertise in biochemistry, biophysics, infectious disease and bio/nanotechnology.
Rachel Cashman is Managing Director, The Soircas Consultancy and former Head of Clinical and Scientific Policy and Strategy, NHS England
During her 20+ years in the healthcare and life sciences sectors, Rachel has delivered large-scale change and innovation through inter-sectoral collaboration and the development of networks. At NHS England, she led the establishment of Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) and the process to create the first nationally commissioned network of Genomic Medicine Centres, utilising the latest scientific techniques in understanding human DNA in order to better predict, precisely diagnose and personalise treatment of cancers and rare disease.
She has worked with NHS Trusts and CCGs and their local health and care system partners to develop appropriate governance and infrastructure in response to the NHS Five Year Forward View and the emergence of the Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships. As a Board member at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and Heart of England NHS Trust, Rachel designed the strategic business case and engagement process for the proposed merger. Rachel has played an integral role in helping the NHS utilise rapid assessment protocols to evaluate potential partnership opportunities such as hospital chains, franchise models, mergers, accountable care organisations and multi-specialty community provider organisations.
We have been talking prevention for some time so are pleased to see this report from Public Health England advocating right-first-time devices.
The Hippocratic Post is a widely read blog engine for GPs and other physicians. Our Peezy Midstream technology has been acknowledged as a credible method of reducing the huge variation in urine specimen quality. Read all about it here.
Forte Medical Forum
26th September 2017, 0900-1400hrs
Royal College of Physicians, London
Our second annual Forum highlights the urgent need for a urine collection gold standard; disparate methods in use across the UK result in contamination rates that range from 0.3% to over 70%, making successful urine-based diagnostics a national lottery. Come and meet leading NHS and other game-changers who gather here to present the case for accurate basic medicine, without which Hospital Acquired Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance cannot be successfully challenged. Register at Eventbrite.
Forte Medical is just back from a successful and educational ABHI MedTech Mission to Texas.
The most valuable intelligence we gleaned was the way in which Clinical and Procurement leadership teams collaborate; this means a more joined up introduction of innovation that will deliver clinical and economic effiencies.
Read more about our visit and who we met, on LinkedIn.
We are proud to be part of Urology Awareness Month this September:
“Clinical Innovation in Specimen Collection and Diagnostics”
Royal Society of Medicine
Tuesday 13 September 2016 – 9.30 am to 12.30 pm
A Urology Awareness Month Event
Imagine if blood specimens were delivered to the laboratory with mixed growth rates ranging from 0.38% to over 70%. Unlike blood specimen collection, there is no protocol for the collection of urine and this disparity in specimen quality is a reality across today’s NHS.
Like blood, urine is used for diagnosis and treatment that saves lives. Yet in this basic area of medicine, where 65 million urine specimens are analyzed annually in the UK, high numbers of unreliable specimens are wasting money and jeopardising the health of the nation.
Forte Medical is the leading designer of specimen collection systems that make right-first-time analysis, diagnosis and treatment implicit to routine medicine and this Forum, with the support and participation of The Urology Foundation, Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI) and the South East Health Technologies Alliance (SEHTA), will address the needs and incite debate around the adoption of improved collection processes.
Chaired by Dr Dawn Harper with an introduction from Louise de Winter, Chief Executive of The Urology Foundation, the Forum includes presentations by:
Miss Linda Collins, BSc MSc RN, Whittington Health NHS Trust, on the outcome of a three year, randomized, single blind comparative study on urine sampling method.
Professor Frank Chinegwundoh MBE, Barts and The Royal London NHS Trust, on Quality Improvement Audit results around diligent specimen collection, associated hygiene and what improvements mean for clinician and patient.
Professor James Barlow, Professor of Technology and Innovation Management (Healthcare), Imperial College Business School, on how innovation can transform health outcomes, with implicit cost and efficiency savings.
There will also be a discussion panel with the above participants and other key opinion-formers in health and patient care, including Professor Alan Sinclair, Director of Foundation for Diabetes Research in Older People, and Senior Editor of Pathy’s Principles and Practice of Geriatrics and Gerontology, followed by audience Q&As.
Places are limited: to book, please contact:
Nicola Hyde +44 (0)7801 187757 forum@forte-medical.com
Note to Media Editors:
Forte Medical: Introducing an accurate, hygienic and dignified solution to an overlooked area of basic medicine has been the mission of Forte Medical for the past ten years. Co-founded by Giovanna Forte and her NHS GP brother, Dr Vincent Forte, it began with Dr Forte’s repeated problems in getting reliable midstream urine specimens from patients from which he could diagnose their symptoms and accurately treat. He designed a solution, the Peezy Midstream. Today, the Peezy is in use within over 40 NHS Trusts and the private healthcare system. Proud to make in Britain, Forte Medical has recently started exporting to the USA.
All media enquiries to Nicola Hyde