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Collaboration delivers COVID-19 test kit in record
Collaboration delivers COVID-19 test kit in record time
The Binding Site has launched a new test to detect COVID-19 antibodies in people with recent exposure who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.
With the focus on mild non-hospitalised patient blood samples, the SARSCoV-2 Antibody ELISA assay was developed in partnership with the University of Birmingham’s Clinical Immunology Service, with the initial antigen being provided by the University of Southampton. This latest development is a natural progression for The Binding Site, utilising its knowledge of 35 years in developing highly precise, accurate blood tests that affect the immune system. The Birminghambased company already produces over 35 million IVD tests per year for sale globally and expects this UK manufactured product to be in high demand.
The new test specifically detects antibodies (IgG, IgA, and IgM) to the SARS-CoV-2 trimeric spike protein, which is an important protein for the virus infectivity. Targeting IgG, IgA and IgM, the assay will cover all the immunoglobulins which are vital in the body’s fight against the virus. These three antibodies appear at different times after infection. The test was designed to detect all three, to increase detection at the earliest possible stage after exposure to the virus.
“Humans make three types of antibodies – Anti-IgM, IgG and IgA. IgM tends to appear first, and IgG and lgA tend to appear later. By combining all three, The Binding Site test is able to detect COVID-19 infection in people who have only recently been exposed, or who have mild symptoms.”
Professor Adam Cunningham University of Birmingham
The CE-marked ELISA test is simple to use and provides up to 93 test results in 60-90 minutes.
Dr Stephen Harding, Chief Scientific Officer at The Binding Site, said: “We set out to develop a test with the University of Birmingham that would detect COVID-19 early, and validated the test in a non-hospitalised population that had mild symptoms, which is the largest target population for COVID-19 testing. We designed the testing kit so it can be used by any laboratory in the world.”
The test was developed using over 800 blood samples taken from people who had mild to moderate disease, including over 100 samples from healthcare workers in Birmingham.
The test is already being used in many of the clinical studies conducted at Birmingham hospitals, and is expected to be rapidly adopted by surveillance teams seeking to understand the distribution of infection in the population, as well as vaccine researchers who need to assess antibody responses in clinical trials.
Charles de Rohan, CEO of The Binding Site, commented: “The long-standing partnership with the University of Birmingham has brought together unrivalled academic, clinical and commercial expertise, and the combined team worked together seamlessly and quickly to deliver this unique and forward thinking test in record time.”
Professor Alex Richter, Professor of Clinical Immunology at the University of Birmingham, who led the team that identified the antibodies to the spike protein, added: “There are two things to get right in an antibody test – which antibodies are we looking for, and what are they recognising? Testing for IgM, IgG and IgA antibodies to the spike protein should give an advantage in terms of early and accurate detection of people with recent exposure who are not showing symptoms.”
The Binding Site has provided free kits to support work in developing countries where the disease continues to spread quickly and is impacting on children through Paediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (PIMS). The test has been submitted for rapid FDA approval and is expected to be available in quantities of over 2 million tests per month.
Bringing to life NHS breakthrough innovations for anaesthesia, airway and critical care
In the complex world of anaesthesia, airway and critical care, where people may be fighting life-threatening conditions, preventing harm and cross-infection remains important for both patient and clinician. This is particularly poignant at a time where the world is battling a highly infectious respiratory disease.
Innovation is becoming increasingly Furthermore, the European Society for important as the healthcare Regional Anaesthesia (ESRA) and the industry faces unprecedented American Society of Regional Anesthesia challenges, with efficient and and Pain Medicine (ASRA ) have recently successful outcomes forming the released joint COVID-19 recommendations cornerstone of quality care. stating that regional anaesthesia – which avoids aerolisation – should be preferred UK-based innovation development company if appropriate over general anaesthesia Medovate is helping to bring to life pioneering whenever surgery is planned for COVID-19 medical devices – designed to improve care in patients. anaesthesia, airway and critical care for patients across the world. In enabling regional anaesthesia to be carried Chris Rogers, Sales & Marketing Director, out as a one-person procedure, Medovate’s explains: “Medovate was established to provide innovative system further helps to reduce the NHS with a structured pathway that is the risk of viral infection amongst healthcare dedicated to developing and supporting staff than the current two-person practice, as clinicians’ innovations to market. We specialise one less person is required for the procedure in bringing together all of the aspects that are to be carried out. required for successful product development such as finance, expertise, proven experience, With both European CE Mark approval a robust quality system, and partnerships and and FDA clearance, SAFIRA can be readily networks.” integrated into markets across Europe and the US and other CE Mark territories across “As a company, our vision is to improve the globe. The class IIb medical device has patient care on a global scale. We do this by Based in Cambridge, Medovate recently been successfully launched in the United working with clinicians to develop pioneering brought to market their first medical States. A major distribution partner for technologies, with the potential to create real device, SAFIRA (SAFer Injection for Regional Europe, Vygon, has been secured, as well value and impact by addressing unmet clinical Anaesthesia), developed in collaboration with as distributors for Israel, Australia and needs. Our goal is to identify and support NHS clinicians and designed to help make New Zealand, with additional distributor high-value innovations at every step of the regional anaesthesia safer for patients across discussion in progress. development pathway.” the world. Medovate was spun out of the NHS in 2017 Chris adds: “Medovate has shown we can and was created to identify and develop high take an NHS idea from concept through potential innovations within the NHS, providing to commercialisation, and there are many vital expertise and funding to support these other innovations that we are looking at. through clinical trials, regulatory approval and While we continue to focus our efforts on the market launch. In current procedures, anaesthetic anaesthesia and care critical space, we have solutions can be inadvertently injected also recently taken on our first surgical device The company operates on a unique business at high pressure, which can cause and are looking to build complementary model. With the NHS as a key partner, they transient or even serious nerve damage. products in the coming years and expand our offer direct benefits to the UK’s health system, SAFIRA improves patient safety by global footprint.” supporting NHS innovation at the same time preventing anaesthetic from being as delivering direct commercial benefits and re- injected at high pressures, thus helping investment to the NHS. Today the company has to reduce the risks of nerve damage.established itself as a key player in the medtech industry for medical devices.
Enhancing a COVID-19 test with digital capabilities
Bond Digital Health explains how COVID-19 quickly demonstrated the need for connected diagnostics and accelerated the company’s development plans.
In January this year, before it had even been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organisation, we wrote about how the emerging coronavirus outbreak demonstrated the need for digitised rapid diagnostic tests. Within a month we were putting our words into practice, having joined a global consortium led by our Canadian partners Sona Nanotech to digitise their new rapid test for the virus and make it better with data.
By this point we had been developing our white label platform, called Transform, for two years, and were due to launch it officially at an international trade show towards the end of 2020. But the coronavirus outbreak changed everything. We quickly realised that we would have to bring forward our development timeline if we were to add this invaluable functionality to Sona’s muchneeded test.
The new test is based on lateral flow technology, which is used in a wide range of human diagnostics, including for infectious diseases such as cholera, malaria and HIV. It can be administered at the point of use without the need for skilled technicians or additional laboratory equipment.
Sona’s test is a direct antigen test that looks for a specific coronavirus protein. Using a nasal swab sample, it produces results in 15 minutes. The test is currently under review for emergency use authorisation with Health Canada and the Sona Connect app, powered by Transform, was launched on the Google Play Store in September. This is the test that governments and health authorities across the world want. It will have no competition in situations where quick and accurate information is needed – for example At the start of the year we moved into our
at airports, in the health service, going into work, etc.
Testing is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to COVID-19. We need to go beyond just testing and capture the data at the point of testing, manage it in the cloud and then geo-map the results visually. Only then will we stand a chance of controlling the spread of we won the Innovation in Technology Award
the virus in real time and deploying resources fast and effectively.
That’s what Transform does. It’s a secure and compliant platform with end-to-end connectivity, which transforms traditional lateral flow devices into web connected diagnostics with accessible, shareable data. Adding this to diagnostic tests will allow valuable test data to be securely captured, This could ultimately allow authorities to monitor the spread of this and future disease outbreaks.
In April we received a huge boost to our efforts when we received £700,000 in equity funding that would allow us to hire additional technical and admin staff to help speed up development of the technology. At the time of writing we’re currently in the middle of a follow-up investment round.
2020 has been a challenging year, but for Bond there has also been much to celebrate. new offices at The Maltings in Cardiff – a new base for our growing team. During lockdown we recruited six new members of staff remotely, essentially building a new development team from the ground up.
Our growth and innovation has led to a series of award nominations. In November stored, analysed and shared in real time.
at the inaugural Wales STEM Awards, and we have been shortlisted for the Digital Engineering / Technology Award at the Insider Made in Wales Awards. We were also listed in BusinessCloud’s Wales Tech 50 2020, a ranking of the country’s most innovative technology companies.
We knew that 2020 was going to be an important year for Bond Digital Health and our technology. But we could never have imagined that a global pandemic would be the thing to prove the urgent need for that technology. Alongside our partners, we’re proud to be playing our part in the global fight against this devastating virus.
Transforming data into actionable insights to tackle COVID-19
Paul Johnson, CEO of Radar Healthcare, explains how digital technology can help clinicians and carers to save lives in the context of COVID-19.
Data is transformational
Using technology more effectively can help save lives. From using data to analyse the efficacy of particular treatments, to prompting clinicians and carers to take a particular action at a key moment, utilising information in creative ways can be transformational for healthcare. We have seen these successes in our sector, from Google’s pioneering work to help doctors speed up the detection of Acute Kidney Injury through their ‘Streams’ app, to Babylon’s remote GP consultation software. Personal protective equipment (PPE) is no doubt a vital component for keeping doctors and patients safe. But focusing solely on PPE and ventilators as weapons for fighting infections is not enough to win the battle. Organised, real-time data is crucial in helping healthcare professionals to reduce the spread of infections and should be considered an essential frontline tool.
Pandemics are different
Pandemics are unusual because there are so many complex data points: the rate of infection in the population and how that differs between settings; how the virus is being transmitted; which interventions are being made and how effective they are; the list goes on. This information is often disparate and there are knowledge gaps at an organisational level. Resolving this would enable us to gain a full understanding of what’s happening regionally and nationally.
Information is our weapon
At Radar, we transform data into actionable insights. We know safe environments exist where decision making is supported by real-time data. Clinicians and carers are more effective when outbreak workflows are automated, symptom information is communicated effectively and hazards are digitally audited. At regional and national levels, a range of infection control methods are used such as syndromic surveillance, which is useful but usually suffers from a time delay that can hamper the response. Decision support tools, like we provide, can significantly impact outcome likelihoods by putting patient management strategies in place. This is effective and based on organising information and identifying trends which may have otherwise been hidden. The role played by AI in COVID-19 to complement human intelligence has been significant, demonstrating the vital role of data collection. Used correctly, the ability to collect and analyse data and use the results to initiate interventions is extremely powerful. Imagine a situation where an outbreak occurs in a nearby care home. Custom protocols can identify this event and trigger automatic interventions, like flagging to staff a requirement to suspend visiting and increase resident monitoring, helping carers to react in time to save lives.
Thoughts on the future
The battle against a virus isn’t fought in Whitehall. It is fought in the hospitals, surgeries and care homes across the country. It is fought by nurses, practice managers, doctors and carers. The battlefields are the handles, hugs and hands, and we’ll need more than soap to win. We need information – it’s there, we just need to start collecting and using it. Global collaboration is needed for AI to make an impact on a higher level. We can be better prepared for future pandemics, respond better and contain outbreaks more effectively with the help of an innovationled approach that embraces data sharing. The key is to be brave and embrace the transformative potential of information.
Spirit Digital has announced that CCGs across the UK whose Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation services were suspended during COVID-19 will be able to restart these services supported by its digital, remote monitoring platform, CliniTouch Vie.
As the government aims to substantially increase referral rates, CliniTouch Vie will enable clinical teams to remotely monitor patients’ progress with minimal impact on clinical caseloads and offer patients essential education and guidance within a home care setting. Patients with heart failure and certain lung conditions, such as COPD, asthma and bronchiectasis, or lung problems due to other conditions, may be referred to undergo Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, which is a supervised programme that includes breathing techniques, health education and exercise training.
With respiratory disease in the spotlight, NHS England and NHS Improvement aim to increase the number of patients who would benefit from this treatment, by increasing referral rates to Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation from 13 to 60 per cent by 2023. To support this expansion, the updated GP Contract includes a new Quality Outcome Framework incentive to encourage these referrals, as well as the availability of targeted funding to support expansion of services.
The CliniTouch Vie Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation programme aims to help patients breathe easier, educate them on their condition, monitor their exercise and improve overall quality of life. Evidence has revealed that Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation can support better patient self-management, with 90 per cent of patients who complete the programme having higher activity and exercise levels, and reporting an improved quality of life. Additionally, clinical studies have found that the treatment helps to reduce the number of exacerbations, acute and emergency admissions and primary care appointments.
“With cardio and respiratory disease identified as a national clinical priority within the NHS Long Term Plan, it’s more important than ever to ensure that patients with these conditions can continue to access their treatment programmes, while also facilitating increased capacity without adversely impacting clinical teams’ workloads. As a digital platform, CliniTouch Vie enables remote access to Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and collaboration between clinicians and patients, meaning more people can benefit from the treatment from the safety of their home, while still being monitored by their healthcare practitioner.”
Simon Applebaum Managing Director Spirit Digital
Hospital Direct signs exclusive distributor agreement for infection control solution
Hospital Direct (Marketing) has signed an exclusive distributor agreement with CopperTree Forensics for their innovative infection control solution, the CiFi Torch.
The CiFi Torch is one of the most powerful high-quality LED forensic light sources currently available on the global market. Standing for ‘Cleaning Inspection Forensic Investigation Torch’, the product can locate traces not visible to the naked eye, even in bright light ambient conditions. Developed by CopperTree Forensics, this new technology has changed the landscape of crime scene investigation, with clients including the NYPD and MET Police.
Supported by research conducted by Professor Cassella and presented to the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences, the time was right to introduce the unique CiFi Torch to the healthcare market. Hospital Direct was the clear partner of choice to introduce this product throughout the NHS, private healthcare organisations, community and care home establishments. At the height of COVID-19, the need for the CiFi Torch became apparent within these sectors. Holding both a national and global presence in the healthcare market and being a 2019 Shropshire Chamber of Commerce award winner, they were also chosen to be the supplier of specialty equipment for the nationwide Nightingale Hospitals.
Hospital Direct is a trusted supplier across the healthcare market. The company has been manufacturing and supplying the NHS and associated healthcare establishments with UK-made patient handling aids for over 25 years.
The COVID pandemic heightened the need for effective ways of identifying poor cleaning. The CiFi torch can see what the naked eye cannot, as its powerful LEDs can locate and detect traces of latent fingerprints, sweat, urine, saliva, blood, and other biological traces which can encourage the spread of infection and viruses. The torch uses specific colour wavelengths of light to highlight unclean and potentially infectious surfaces during forensic examination.
Hospital Direct has been developing and enhancing their services for the healthcare sector to tackle and solve problems created by COVID-19, such as developing new PPE products. This opportunity came at just the right time, as they embarked on providing deep cleaning technology and services to the care home and healthcare sector. The CiFi Torch highlights the problematical areas and shows where they have been treated and eradicated post cleaning, thus serving as part of a 360-degree solution..
The link between CopperTree and Hospital Direct was made by Medilink West Midlands. Helen Gutteridge, Technical Director at Hospital Direct (Marketing) Ltd, commented: “Medilink West Midlands has been instrumental in introducing our two companies, previously unknown to each other, but linked by a common desire to help healthcare organisations and their staff manage cleaning effectively during and post the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The two companies are excited about opening up the healthcare market to the CiFi Torch and its ability to manage their cleaning protocols effectively and efficiently to the benefits of all – organisations, staff and patients.
Chris Dyke at Medilink West Midlands was delighted that two ‘look ahead’ companies struck a deal via the B2B Opportunities service: “It has been great to help another two companies that have been supporting the health and care sector during the COVID-19 crisis with this newly launched service. It also goes to show that working together with our colleagues at the WMAHSN, NHS and other business support organisations, such as the West Midlands Combined Authority and the Department of International Trade, we can pool our support and services to make a difference not only for people using health and care services, but for the region’s economic prosperity. This new service is gaining a lot of attention and is allowing us to help companies engage with one another and develop new business arrangements and relationships, whilst enabling them to see new business opportunities and growth in these difficult times.”
Examples showing a microwave and kettle which had been deep cleaned, but the CiFi Torch showed a different reality...
