We are delighted to have joined the Mayor’s International Business Programme as part of their 11th Cohort of the Go To Grow programme.
Partly funded by the ERDF, the Programme supports innovative SMEs helps scale-up to expand overseas. Over the next 12 months, we will have the opportunity to participate in workshops, attend trade missions as well as gain access to corporates and mentors.
Watch this space for future news!
The future of preventative care, infection control, antimicrobial resistance and patient safety are routinely undermined by lazy attitudes towards urine collection, the most common diagnostic process. Despite mounting evidence to support the need for a respected protocol, incumbent methods are failing modern medicine, patient health and the work of diligent clinicians.
Want to know more about our mission – visit us on stand 23 – and see first hand our world-class diagnostic specimen collection technology; Peezy Midstream reduces false-positive dipped urines by almost 70% and specimen contamination to just 2%. Current contamination is 23.5%, leading to 1 in 4 failed urine specimens – that’s over 14m annually or 56,000 every day. The unique Peezy Midstream delivers diagnostic integrity leading to targeted treatment; it helps address growing problems of infection control, unnecessary broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing, AMR, and failed treatment of conditions that can become chronic.
Today’s NHS Long Term Plan rightly focuses on prevention, not least to introduce ways of making healthy living and exercise integral to patient lives. But surely these lessons should start within the education system? Teaching pupils the basics of health economics and nutrition, how to cook, the value (or not) of each food group and the implications of those foods to a healthy body and mind would, together with informed parenting, be a good start. The catastrophic erosion of cooking lessons and sports facilities attached to State schools has had, arguably, the most devastating effect on the long term physical and mental health of children and young people. Government guidelines state that each pupil between 5 and 15 should engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day, of which 30 should be in school. Reading the woefully short PE Education programmes for key stages 1 and 2, 3 and 4, I find no statutory requirement for time spent on this physical activity within schools.
If prevention is truly a Government priority, it will look to invest responsibly in our education system, sports facilities, nutrition lessons and school meals; only then will the NHS be relieved of dealing with so many preventable conditions. If people are taught from a very young age to understand what they are putting into their bodies and why they need to keep themselves fit, they can take informed choices around living well for the rest of their lives.
The NHS is an incredible institution; it successfully treats millions of patients a year and does a fantastic job, often against the odds. Money will help, but averting avoidable conditions before they take hold seems to be a no-brainer. Connecting the dots of education and health is long overdue.
Diagnostic parity yet one had a collection protocol and the other does not!
Following a successful Peezy Midstream Usability Study with the NHS National Institute for Health Research, Giovanna Forte was asked to write a blog explaining how urine can fuel AMR; the piece starts with the author’s unedifying visit to a sexual health clinic. Read all about it.
’Rubbish In, Rubbish Out’; if you don’t make the effort to collect the specimen properly, all the clever stuff that is done in the laboratories makes it pretty pointless.” – Dr Mark Wilks, Clinical Scientist and Prinicipal Microbiologist, Barts Health NHS Trust
This was one of a number of key messages from this year’s Forum and one that resonated throughout the various discussions around the role of urine in healthcare as a diagnostic element.
Other highlights saw
Scroll down for the full summary or click here
Date for diary – the next Forte Medical Forum is: Wednesday, 18th September 2019.
Our third Forum entitled Urine Trouble : How Poor Collection Standards Are Failing Modern Medicine proved another insightful opportunity to discuss and debate the inadequacies of specimen collection as well as celebrate areas where progress is being made and highlight how much more can be done to improve this overlooked and maligned area of basic healthcare.
If there is anything that you would like further information about, please do email us.
Urine Trouble: Sample Collection
Dr Mark Wilks, Clinical Scientist and Principal Microbiologist, Barts Health NHS Trust summed this up in one phrase “’Rubbish In, Rubbish Out’; if you don’t make the effort to collect the specimen properly, all the clever stuff that is done in the laboratories makes it pretty pointless.”
The quality of urine samples is not fit for purpose and the way they are collected is unreliable. We know that 65 million samples are collected every year of which 1 in 4 will be contaminated; that’s 59,000 patients every day not being correctly diagnosed and treated.
Each London laboratory takes 500,000-600,000 urine specimens every year but he said this could vary either way by a 100,000. Analysis is automated and there is a need for a catch all algorithm to decide if the urine should be cultured and rules are also needed for interpreting results which may or may not be modified depending on number of white blood cells and the patient group.
EH Kass said in 1965 that urine should not be left at room temperature for more than an hour as bugs will increase and make the sample unreliable. The reality is that samples might sit in a surgery, ward or clinic for a number of hours before being picked up for transportation to the lab. Conversely blood is booked into the system immediately and sent for analysis.
The path to change is challenging and beset with problems but more of that later.
Urine Trouble: Focus on Ante-Natal and Clinical Evidence For Change
There is much angst about antenatal urines. Dr Nina Wilson, a Sussex based GP and Chair of the Petals charity, spoke about the health system’s dependency on antibiotics working and the life enhancing operations and preventative surgery that may not happen
UTIs, often considered run of the mill within primary care, are common in pregnancy. Lower tract infections affect 1-4% of pregnancy with higher tract infections about half that. In pregnancy there are more serious consequences for both the mother and baby. Kidney infection can lead to sepsis and there is greater risk of prematurity and increased mortality.
Once, pre-antibiotic maternal deaths from sepsis were 3 in a 100; today it’s fewer than 3 in a 100,000 but with increased AMR the question sits as to whether this will be the same in the future. It relates to back to Jim O’Neill’s Review on Antimicrobial Resistance pointing to potentially 10 million deaths attributable to AMR by 2050.
The issues around antenatal urines, the way they are collected and the emotional effect on expectant mothers, was something that Sylvia Bone, Clinical Lead Midwife confronted when she joined West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust. She found that numerous urine samples were being sent unnecessarily to the laboratory on a daily basis; that patients were being prescribed unnecessary antibiotics for mixed growth and 90% of the results were No Abnormalities Detected (NAD) with many false positive results.
She conducted a trial using the Peezy Midstream with 647 women in the antenatal clinic and found it delivered almost 70% reduction of false-positive urine specimens, leading to far lower unnecessary antibiotic prescribing as well as more personalised clinical care – and much happier patients – as well as substantial financial savings for the Trust. There is a way forward where there are open-minded individuals such as Sylvia.
Urine Trouble : The Technology Adoption Battle
“Innovation is about team work – it cannot be considered in isolation” – was the message from Piers Ricketts, Chief Executive of the Eastern Academic Health Science Network (EAHSN), one of 15 in the network tasked by NHS England to oversee the introduction of new technology into the NHS. The UK is blessed with great innovators and researcher but the bureaucracy and infrastructure of the NHS makes it one of the most difficult organisations for innovation to infiltrate. Change is needed, along with appropriate funding, to get technology adopted and spread across the system. The adoption pathway needs improvement and one suggestion Ricketts made was for the introduction of Directors of Innovations for each NHS Trust.
He concluded “Change has to come from the front line. The biggest asset the NHS has is its people and for adoption and spread of innovation we need ‘boots on the ground’.”
Urine Trouble: Changing Mindsets and Instilling Knowledge
“I didn’t’t realise the importance of urine until now … we’re not told about it” said a medical student in the audience. This misconception of urine just being a waste material and not having the parity of blood was reinforced by Louise de Winter’s presentation and The Urology Foundation’s survey for Urology Awareness Month. (More detail here.)
Of the 1,000 people interviewed:
Astoundingly the research highlighted that whilst the NHS talks about 6 million people suffering from urinary incontinence; it could be nearer the 20 million mark.
UTIs are the most common urological problem with just under 40% of the population having suffered from one. 14% of men and 20% of women had missed work because of a UTI – in men that’s 1 in 7 which in turn has an impact on productivity alongside the impact on their mental health and wellbeing.
Alison Pearce from CUTIC – a patient advocacy group – told of stories where patients have to go to the toilet every ten minutes, are unable to sleep at night, are unable to work, are unable to have a sex life and in some cases unable to leave their home, and children unable to go to school. UTIs “totally ruins lives; people are unable to live a normal life – and the suicide rate is high within this patient group so we desperately need better testing and better treatment” she said.
“This means better urine collection from the point of collecting the urine at the GP surgery, storing and transportation and better accurate testing when it reaches the laboratories.”
In summary:
On 11th September, delegates from microbiology, patient safety, urology, Emergency and antenatal medicine gathered at the RCP, London to hear Forte Medical Forum speakers and panel discuss the value of accurate diagnoses.
Well, they didn’t just listen, many took part as the Q&A session evolved into a lively conversation about urine; believe me, there were some impassioned views from lab and frontline professionals to Consultants and patient groups.
It seems all parties agree: urine is the perceived poor relation to blood, yet is a far more common specimen, used for arguably a greater variety of diagnoses; it is also cheaper and less invasive to collect.
Much of today’s discussion focused on the reasons for this medically pitiful overlooking of an essential and invaluable basic diagnostic tool. It is not for me to reveal here the thrust of many of the strong views held as these will be released on film and by way of VoxPop interviews in days and weeks to come.
What I can tell you is that Forte Medical is on to something big; we always have been, yet bringing innovation into the nation’s health providers is no small task. Piers Ricketts, CEO of the Eastern AHSN asked me why Forte Medical makes such an effort to disseminate lessons from our journey to others.
The answer is simple: we have been at the forefront of delivering innovation in an overlooked, often ignored and unglamourous area of science, medicine and public health. One of the biggest rewards is to know that our experience can mitigate the struggle of those innovators coming along behind us.
If, whilst changing paradigms around basic medicine, we can forge a clearer path for the next generation, then this will deliver a second reward – for no SME, no young business should have to spend twelve years and £2.8m of privately generated investment to deliver £millions in desperately needed cost savings to a publicly funded health system, and even more importantly, to save lives.
This is not a chest-beating exercise, it is a genuine plea to the NHS to exploit the invaluable work of the AHSN Network and the National Institute for Heatlh Research (NIHR) to improve, to innovate, to transform and do what it already does so well even better, at lower cost.
“All” it takes is a little collaboration and belief between innovator and healthcare provider; the army of frontline staff, clinicians and consultants that have worked with us over the years show that it can be done.
Now we must work on the transfer of innovation into adoption and growth. While we persuade the medical powers that be that wee matters, this translation piece is where the expertise of all the wonderful AHSNs lie. Mr Ricketts and colleagues: over to you!
A full overview of the event will be published in the next couple of weeks – if you would like to be sent a copy please email: forum@forte-medical.com
URINE TROUBLE: HOW POOR COLLECTION STANDARDS ARE FAILING MODERN MEDICINE
11th September 2018
at the Royal College of Physicians, London
Despite mounting evidence to support the need for a respected protocol, incumbent methods are failing modern medicine, patient health and the work of diligent clinicians. With the Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP highlighting ‘Prevention’ and ‘Technology’ as two of his three priorities – it’s particularly poignant this year’s Forte Medical Forum asks: why are basic diagnostic urine processes persistently overlooked by those that shape health policy?
Looking at the antenatal sector new clinical research will be unveiled demonstrating improved outcomes through the use of a gold standard urine collection process followed by insights into the impact of AMR in this vulnerable and currently, much discussed area of healthcare.
The future of preventative care and infection control will be investigated looking at the implications of good and bad urine specimen to microbiology and updates will be shared on the role of innovation and technology in advancing healthcare and patient safety.
Chaired by Ashley Yeo, Principal Analyst at IBI Informa, speakers and panelists include:
Some key stats:
The NHS National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) will be holding their national industry event on 10th October and our CEO, Giovanna Forte will be participating in the session focusing on “Maximising Our Medtech Might”.
The theme for this year’s event is: The Future Now and provides a platform to discuss the latest developments and opportunities in the UK clinical research environment. We’ll be examining the new era of clinical trials, focussing our lens on patient centricity and asking ‘where is clinical development heading next?’
Click for further information on the NIHR CRN National Industry Event 2018
This week saw the launch of Forte Medical’s Series A investment round for growth, export and new product development. Seeking £3.5m, the company is engaging with prospective investment partners who can attract investors with an interest in evidenced, disruptive diagnostic medical devices with digital potential.
Institutional, corporate or personal investors who can assist the business long term are seen as the most promising and attractive partners. For more information, contact our CEO Giovanna Forte.
Barry Shrier, Founder of annual health innovation event Giant Live, presents the third Disruptor Giant Health Innovators TV interview featuring Giovanna Forte, CEO of Forte Medical, Francis White from AliveCor, Dr Sophie Bostock of Sleepio and Etienne Bourdon from Healthy Health. Watch the half-hour programme here with Disruptive Live