Paramedic Wins Innovation Voucher
Wednesday, 17 April, 2013
Left to right: Simon Coward, Director of Innovation, Hethel; Sally Boor, East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust and Chris Armstrong, Marketing Manager, Health Enterprise East.
A paramedic from East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust is celebrating winning funding worth £5,000 to help progress her idea for a medical technology product in the first Innovation Voucher Scheme launched by Health Enterprise East (HEE), the NHS Innovation Hub for the Eastern Region. The award was sponsored by Hethel Innovation, based at Hethel Engineering Centre near Norwich.
Sally Boor designed a new spinal longboard for safer and more effective mobilisation of patients, both adult and paediatric, who have suffered spinal, neck or head injuries.
Chris Armstrong, Marketing Manager at HEE said: "Congratulations to Sally for her award-winning idea. This is our first Innovation Voucher Scheme focused on medical technology, which was designed to support the development of new ideas. It was open to all levels of staff at all our member Trusts and we were overwhelmed to receive 42 entries of a very high standard which made the judges' job very difficult indeed."
Sally Boor added: "I was delighted to hear that I'd won the Innovation Vouchers and look forward to working with 20-20 Group, Hethel Innovation and Health Enterprise East to create a prototype."
HEE's Innovation Voucher Scheme invited ideas for medical devices, clinical equipment, diagnostic assays and kits or software applications. The Voucher can be used to progress the idea in terms of feasibility research, product design and development or filing IP, patents or design rights.
Director of Innovation at Hethel, Simon Coward, said: "We are extremely pleased to be working with HEE on the Innovation Voucher Scheme and to support innovation in the East. We congratulate Sally on her success and look forward to working with her and the 20-20 group to develop her idea further."
