Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (HUTH) has been central to the further development of the unique MyPorter software management system aimed at transforming patient flow in hospitals.

MyPorter was developed by porter managers, for porter managers, with its creator GlobalView Systems working with more than 100 NHS Trusts to gain their insight before developing the unique solution. The team at GlobalView worked most closely with Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (HUTH) to ensure the software is optimised to suit the reactive, high volume and time critical nature of the tasks carried out by the portering service.

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (HUTH) is a large Acute Trust and one of 27 Major Trauma Centres. HUTH treats around a million patients every year. Based across two hospital sites approximately five miles apart, the portering service underpins the effectiveness of the clinical services throughout the hospital, affecting every aspect and fundamental to providing the very best patient care. With over 20,000 portering tasks carried out each month, if just one in 10 of these were delayed for 15 minutes this would equate to 500 hours in lost portering time each month.

“MyPorter gives us great insight into porter availability, and how long they have been waiting or on task, ensuring tasks can be allocated effectively across the team to improve productivity and the patient experience. The data and insight MyPorter gives us enables us to make the right decisions at the right time.”

Portering provides a vital function within hospitals, without which clinical and non-clinical services cannot operate effectively. MyPorter is a unique task management system, which enables tasks to be allocated, communicated and tracked, with details sent via text message to digital two way radios.

 The system is robust and resilient, providing an independent communications system purpose-built for critical services. Management reports are quickly and readily available, reducing the demand on management time and providing objective information to help plan future service delivery. MyPorter provided HUTH with the insight it needed to be able to adjust shift patterns to align more closely to peaks in demand, meaning more could be achieved with existing portering staff, and the new approach has enabled less reliance on casual worker staffing and over-time.

 The system is proactive; the helpdesk receives notifications before the start time for a task is missed, ensuring reliability of service and alerts to help meet SLAs. Data capture enables paused events, the reason, their duration and their location to be recorded. This makes it easy to identify the causes of delays, and to work with relevant departments to reduce time lost.

Richard Iveson at GlobalView Systems explained; “Portering is a finite resource, and it’s critical that the right levels of resource are in place at the right time. Without this, patient flow can be significantly adversely impacted, potentially delaying treatment and transfers of care, and reducing clinical effectiveness. MyPorter uses data insight and effective reporting to clearly identify when peaks in demand are occurring, and enable resource to be planned accordingly. It can also improve the patient experience, streamlining their movements within the hospital for minimum disruption, and increasing privacy and dignity.”

MyPorter has also improved the patient experience. There is a smoother flow throughout the patient journey, with porters arriving when needed, resulting in fewer delayed or missed appointments, more effective use of essential equipment, and reducing demand on nursing and clinical staff for patient movements.

 “Having a task management system that can quickly and easily identify the nearest available porter in relation to the next task, location and priority is key. It helps to improve the service we deliver to our patients by ensuring they arrive to and from their appointments safely and in good time. It also ensures the team workload is more efficiently managed across our sites.  Our team have full visibility of all  portering activity across our hospital sites including within the Emergency Dept, enabling our service to plan, respond and coordinate resources more effectivley.”

About GlobalView Systems

GlobalView is a UK based software development company, operating across a wide range of verticals including luxury marine, manufacturing, energy and with a specialism in healthcare. Established in 2003, GlobalView takes a highly consultative, collaborative approach, working to understand its customers key challenges and requirements before creating groundbreaking solutions to meet their needs.

Its mission is to create smarter solutions through enhanced communication and an emphasis on data insights and informed decision making.  The MyPorter porter management software is an example of this philosophy, providing ‘useful’ data insight and trend analysis to help improve hospital support services; those that form a vital part of the smooth running of an effective hospital and underpin effective clinical care.

Northwell Health, Illinois’ Lake County, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, among others are using Salesforce technology to streamline vaccine management

Salesforce announced the launch of Vaccine Cloud technology to help government agencies, healthcare organisations, businesses, non-profits and educational institutions more rapidly, safely and efficiently deploy and manage their vaccine programmes. Current users of Salesforce technology specifically for vaccine administration reportedly include Northwell Health, Illinois’ Lake County, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and more.

As per a press release, Vaccine Cloud is part of Salesforce’s COVID-19 response technology solutions, which include vaccine inventory management, appointment scheduling, outcome monitoring, public health outreach and more.

Government agencies and public health agencies can reportedly use Vaccine Cloud to monitor their vaccination progress with data and insights, which helps enable them to maximise their programme effectiveness. This includes securing enough doses, monitoring patient outcomes, and making data-driven decisions based on community health needs and risk factors. And, with integration capabilities in Vaccine Cloud, these agencies can bring data from all relevant systems together within the platform, ensuring vaccine data is managed and tracked in one place.

Healthcare provider organisations can use Vaccine Cloud to streamline vaccination processes, such as inventory management, staff training and education, and payment and reimbursement. Vaccine Cloud can also handle all external communication to communities, such as a notification to schedule an initial shot or a reminder to come in for a second dose. And, because it’s built on Salesforce, providers can manage millions of patients across hundreds of sites and care locations with a platform that is efficient, safe and accessible from anywhere, according to the company statement.

Slated from October 7-8, 2021 in Visakhapatnam, the joint effort aims to provide further impetus to indigenous manufacturing of medical devices and bring forward innovations and specialised medical tools and technologies that can attract domestic and global investors

With an objective to draw attention to the growth opportunities and latest developments in the Indian Medical device industry, Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India has joined hands with India’s first integrated medical devices manufacturing ecosystem: Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone (AMTZ).

The joint effort aims to provide further impetus to indigenous manufacturing of medical devices and bring forward innovations and specialised medical tools and technologies that can attract domestic and global investors.

The launch of MedTech Innovation Forum aims to create a collaborative platform for medical device manufacturers, innovators and technology experts to exchange advancements and innovations for the development of the Indian medical device industry, as per a release.

Slated from October 7-8, 2021 in Visakhapatnam, the first edition of this key business event is expected to bring industry leadership together with government and medical consultants to address integral challenges of import dependency, need for technology collaborations as well as medical technology advancements that can be introduced in the industry. The forum has received strong support from apex industry bodies – Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AIMED) and (Association of Diagnostics Manufacturers of India (ADMI).

Commenting that India’s response and agility in scaling up manufacturing of medical devices together with strong initiatives by the government on making the sector ‘Atmanirbhar’ makes it opportune time to introduce a forum that focuses on bringing medical technology innovations to the forefront, Raj Manek, Managing Director, Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India said they are proud to combine strengths with AMTZ in this goal and are confident that the critical insights on MedTech advancements and challenges will enable the sector to create an environment for improved trade and investment opportunities.

The Indian medical devices market, which accounts for more than 1 per cent of the Asia-Pacific (APAC) medical devices market, is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.5 per cent through 2025.

Dr Jitendra Sharma, MD & CEO, Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone elaborated that the industry is poised for significant growth in the next five years, however, it is still largely import-driven with 90 per cent of sophisticated devices being imported from around the world. He believed that the dialogue with medical device manufacturers and innovators will open up opportunities to empower the country’s strong healthcare and medical device industry in the post COVID-19 era.

Dr Sharma further added that AMTZ aims to put the Indian medical device industry on the global map by encouraging sector innovations, and they were happy to join hands with Messe Frankfurt in this endeavour as their expertise and reach across sectors in India will help bring in key stakeholders together.

3D Systems announced its decision to significantly expand its development efforts focused on regenerative medicine and bioprinting solutions. This decision was driven by the tremendous progress made in collaboration with United Therapeutics Corporation and its organ manufacturing and transplantation-focused subsidiary, Lung Biotechnology PBC, on the development of 3D printing systems for solid-organ scaffolds. Leveraging this work as well as accomplishments with additional partners, 3D Systems intends to invest, further develop, and commercialize solutions for the diverse application opportunities in regenerative medicine, including the development of non-solid organ applications requiring biologically sustainable vasculature.

“Human vasculature model created using Print to Perfusion process” (Image courtesy of United Therapeutics)

In 2020, 3D Systems and United Therapeutics achieved significant progress in the development of a next-generation additive manufacturing platform solution for lung scaffolds that is capable of full size, vascularized, rapid, micron-level printing. 3D Systems’ capabilities as a technology innovator, spanning hardware, software, and materials science, combined with United Therapeutics’ renowned expertise in regenerative medicine has enabled advances in lung modeling, 3D printing, as well as material formulation using a unique rhCollagen, and material handling to yield significant capabilities in bioprinters and biomaterials for lung manufacturing. As a result, 3D Systems has built a portfolio of unique capabilities specifically designed to address the requirements of regenerative medicine applications. The newly developed Print to Perfusion™ process enables 3D printing of high-resolution scaffolds which can be perfused with living cells to create tissues. The ability to print large, vascularized, highly detailed hydrogel scaffolds at rapid speeds is now opening new opportunities for a range of tissue applications. To advance these efforts, 3D Systems is expanding its high-speed Figure 4® technology through innovation tailored to bioprinting and regenerative medicine. Building upon these capabilities, the company – in collaboration with its partners – will be able to advance innovation into numerous applications within the human body. The company also believes these capabilities have the potential to enable novel laboratory testing methods to accelerate the development of new drug therapies while reducing the need for animal testing.

“Over the last years as bioprinting and regenerative medicine have evolved, we’ve seen a growing need to place cells at high-resolution in a nurturing matrix to produce complex tissues,” said Chuck Hull, co-founder, executive vice president and chief technology officer, 3D Systems. “Precise 3D printing with hydrogels, followed by perfusion of cells into the printed scaffold is the best way to achieve this, and we are thankful our work with United Therapeutics has given us the opportunity to advance and perfect this technology.”

“Our collaboration with 3D Systems has allowed us to take a first-principles approach to regenerative medicine,” said Derek Morris, associate director of engineering, Lung Biotechnology PBC. “The full size, vascularized lung scaffolds produced by 3D System’s printers allow our cellularization teams to focus on our mission to build an unlimited supply of transplantable organs.”

Building on the progress the company has made to date, 3D Systems is infusing additional resources into its regenerative medicine R&D efforts to accelerate development programs that expand on the scope of potential applications. The company intends to add additional regenerative medicine domain expertise to its team, complementing the deep technology experience and expertise focused on these advanced applications. Additionally, the company is growing its roster of partners to broaden the portfolio of solutions the company offers. 3D Systems previously announced collaborations with CollPlant Biotechnologies (NASDAQ:CLGN) and Antleron that expanded its capabilities in regenerative medicine.

CollPlant is the developer of proprietary recombinant human collagen (rhCollagen) BioInk technology, which is also being used in collaboration with United Therapeutics. Bringing together 3D Systems’ expertise in 3D printing and healthcare and CollPlant’s expertise in rhCollagen-based BioInks will enable joint development of tissue and scaffold bioprinting processes for third party collaborators. As a result, the companies are jointly addressing an unmet market need for a comprehensive solution to produce tissues and scaffolds for regenerative medicine applications.

Antleron co-creates, as an innovation pioneer in the field of regenerative medicine, personalized manufacturing solutions for advanced therapy applications. Antleron integrates core technologies such as 3D printing, bioreactors, and artificial intelligence with bioprocess know-how to enable disruptive manufacturing workflows that convert cells into living therapies. The 3D Systems/Antleron partnership wants to make 3D printing an integrated part of modular and digital factory-of-the-future solutions to enable sustainable and personalized manufacturing of cell & gene therapies, vaccines, tissues, and organs.

3D Systems has delivered additive manufacturing solutions to the healthcare industry for more than 25 years. The company is renowned for its VSP® surgical planning solutions which have enabled the planning of more than 140,000 patient-specific surgical cases, as well as the production of more than two million medical devices from its operations in Littleton, Colorado, and Leuven, Belgium. 3D Systems’ NextDent® 5100 digital dentistry solution is recognized as the industry leader in transforming prosthodontic and orthodontic production at dental laboratories and clinics. The company also has a long-standing relationship with Align Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALGN), the makers of Invisalign clear aligners, iTero scanners, and exocad CAD/CAM services, for which it has co-developed proprietary solutions comprised of customized hardware, software, and non-aligner materials that are used to mass-produce more than 500,000 unique patient-specific aligners per day.

Commenting on the future of regenerative medicine at 3D Systems, Dr. Jeffrey Graves, president and CEO, said, “The progress that Chuck Hull and his team have made over the last three years, in collaboration with the Team from United Therapeutics, has been absolutely remarkable. Through unique developments in new printer hardware, software, and biomaterials technology, they have laid the foundation needed for accelerated commercialization of bioprinting at 3D Systems. Taking a strong application focus we will now expand our commercialization efforts in this nascent industry, which we believe will experience significant growth over the next decade. We expect these efforts to bring substantial benefits to the healthcare patients in critical need, both through direct applications within the human body, as well as in accelerating the development of drug therapies in the pharmaceutical industry. We anticipate regenerative medicine to be an exciting growth driver for our healthcare business over the next decade.”

Multinational firm HCL Technologies is partnering with the University of California (UCLA) in Berkeley to create a lab dedicated to health technology innovations that will meet future healthcare challenges.

The Health Technology Collaborative Laboratory (CoLab), will be housed on the university’s campus in Berkeley. CoLab’s multidisciplinary teams will work on rapid problem-solving, prototyping and testing of breakthrough healthcare technologies. The lab aims to ring together stakeholders in healthcare (patients, clinicians, regulators and insurers), the business community and investors to create and commercialise solutions, from their initial concept through to prototyping, systems architecture and distribution.

As a founding member of the CoLab, HCL is contributing $750,000 over the course of three years.

HCL Technologies provides services and products to organisations around the world through its three business units: IT and Business Services, Engineering and R&D Services, and Products & Platforms. A subsidiary of HCL Enterprise, a company founded in 1976 in India, HCL Technologies operates in 50 countries.

The company has recently provided significant contributions in the US to the CDC Foundation, United Way, Gates Foundation and Feeding America.

“As a responsible global technology leader, we are proud to contribute and support the creation of macro-scale solutions to healthcare issues for a better future for all” said GH Rao, President, Engineering and R&D Services at HCL Technologies.

“We’re honored to support UC Berkeley in this initiative, especially as the healthcare industry is undergoing tremendous transformation. As a founding member, HCL will have the opportunity to contribute to promising solutions and projects underway and looks forward to engaging the CoLab Ecosystem to develop new and unique health technology solutions for the future.”

HealthLynked Corp., a global healthcare network focused on care management of its members and a provider of healthcare technologies that connects doctors, patients and medical data, announced that it will host the first annual Future of Healthcare Summit that will convene the top leaders in the $5 trillion healthcare industry at Arthrex’s corporate campus that features a 30,000-SF fitness center and 200,000-SF Innovation Hotel in Naples, Florida from March 15-17th.

The summit is an invitation only event for healthcare providers. The event features world-class CEOs, innovators and industry experts who will come together to present a series of lectures on a wide range of healthcare topics and explore what can be done to both catalyze innovation and improve healthcare.

Dr. Michael Dent, HealthLynked’s CEO has developed an agenda that focuses on genomics, functional medicine, anti-aging, stem cells, artificial intelligence, diagnostic advances, telemedicine, intellectual property, tissue regeneration, cancer treatments and medical devices.

The summit venue will be open to the public on Tuesday, March 16th, where a series of Ted Talk style lectures will cover the latest healthcare trends, technology, and treatments. This open forum will allow the public the opportunity to learn about the latest advances in healthcare and how they are being applied today and what to expect in future.

HealthLynked has confirmed a world-class slate of speakers including:

Bob Gasparini, Former President NeoGenomics Laboratories
Robert Mino JD, Healthcare Patent Attorney
Michael Dent M.D., Chairman and CEO HealthLynked Corp and Founder NeoGenomics Laboratories
Gagan Babber, Former Co-founder & CTO of Collaborate Cloud
Edwardo Maristany M.D., Naples Center of Functional Medicine

Attendees of the summit include doctors, hospital executives, academics, researchers, venture capitalists, pharmaceutical firms, policymakers, philanthropists, and future leaders. The seating for the summit will follow COVID-19 spacing guidelines and Arthrex campus facilities are equipped with Synexis air purification systems that kill airborne COVID-19 to add an additional layer of safety for the attendees.

For a look at the full agenda, as well as speaker bios, please visit the 2021 Healthcare Summit website. For additional sponsorship opportunities please email summitsponsors@healthlynked.com.

Dr. Michael Dent, Chief Executive Officer of HealthLynked stated, “The next 15 years will bring a wave of medical breakthroughs in new therapies, medicines, medical devices and data analytics. We have achieved new milestones in gene editing, cancer immunotherapy and artificial intelligence. All of these advances will allow us to more effectively treat disease and find cures that have eluded us. Our goal is to provide an informative series of lectures to show the future of healthcare and create an environment for innovate thought leaders to turn ideas into actionable solutions.”

About HealthLynked Corp.

HealthLynked Corp. provides a solution for both patient members and providers to improve healthcare through the efficient exchange of medical information. The HealthLynked Network is a cloud-based platform that allows members to connect with their healthcare providers and take more control of their healthcare. Members enter their medical information, including medications, allergies, past surgeries and personal health records, in one convenient online and secure location, free of charge. Participating healthcare providers can connect with their current and future patients through the system. Benefits to in-network providers include the ability to utilize the HealthLynked patent pending patient access hub “PAH” for patient analytics. Other benefits for preferred providers include HLYK marketing tools to connect with their active and inactive patients to improve patient retention, access more accurate and current patient information, provide more efficient online scheduling and to fill last minute cancelations using the Company’s “real time appointment scheduling” all within its mobile application. Preferred providers pay a monthly fee to access these HealthLynked services. For additional information about HealthLynked Corp.

Olympus Corporation (Olympus – Director, Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO: Yasuo Takeuchi)  announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Quest Photonic Devices B.V. for up to EUR50 million including milestone payments to strengthen its surgical endoscopy capabilities.

Headquartered in the Netherlands, Quest offers advanced fluorescence imaging systems (FIS) for the medical field, enabling more surgical endoscopy capabilities, compared to conventional imaging technologies.

Fluorescence imaging refers to special light imaging technologies that utilize the properties of fluorescent dyes directed to specific anatomical structures. By using targeted dyes, in combination with specific light wavelengths, tissues or lesions that are nearly invisible under normal white light become visible. Olympus’ existing laparoscopic imaging system, VISERA ELITE II, is already equipped with fluorescence imaging technology. VISERA ELITE II uses near-infrared light to identify blood vessels or lymph nodes under the surface tissues, aiming to assist surgeons in performing safer procedures with lower complication risks. The Quest technology acquired is intended to expand opportunities for Olympus in this field.

Making the Invisible Visible

Quest offers innovative technologies for multi-spectral imaging and imaging systems for medical applications, ranging from fluorescence imaging to photodynamic therapy. The acquisition strengthens Olympus’ position as a world leader in medical imaging solutions, and delivers innovative capabilities (including 3D and 4K imaging) to surgeons, to “make the invisible visible.”

Quest’s lead product line is the Quest Spectrum Fluorescence Imaging System, which enables fluorescence-guided surgery for open and minimally invasive procedures. Kanichi Matsumoto, global head of Surgical Endoscopy at Olympus, said: “We are delighted to incorporate Quest’s advanced FIS capabilities into our comprehensive medical imaging portfolio. The combination of the Quest Spectrum product line’s leading FIS technologies with Olympus’ existing laparoscopic imaging system VISERA ELITE II will enable Olympus to offer surgeons a wide range of high quality fluorescence imaging solutions.”

New Applications and Market Growth

The global market for FIS devices is expected to grow at a compounding annual rate of more than 12%, from around US$310 million in 2018 to over US$827 million in 2027*. Increasing demand for minimally invasive procedures and reconstructive surgery is helping to drive FIS growth worldwide. Furthermore, application of the FIS technology is expected to expand over the coming years, as additional fluorescent dyes are paired with targeted antibodies. Among other applications, molecular imaging will allow healthcare professionals to visualize cancerous lesions in vivo and perform cancer surgery in unprecedented ways, potentially lowering recurrence rates.

Quest also works with biotechnology companies that are developing next-generation molecular imaging dyes. These innovative dyes may enable Quest’s technology to advance diagnostic opportunities in fluorescence-guided cancer surgery.

*Source: Transparency Market Research; Near-Infrared Fluorescence Imaging System Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2019-2027.

About Quest

Quest Photonic Devices B.V. is a multispectral imaging leader and focuses on the medical markets of fluorescence image-guided surgery and cancer-targeted probes. Quest’s next generation Spectrum Florescence Imaging System has the ability to “see through tissue” with enhanced sensitivity, capable of accessing otherwise inaccessible information to aid the surgeon in improving clinical outcomes.

About Olympus’ Medical business

As a leading medical technology company, Olympus’ Medical business uses innovative capabilities in medical technology, therapeutic intervention, and precision manufacturing to help healthcare professionals deliver diagnostic, therapeutic, and minimally invasive procedures to improve clinical outcomes, reduce overall costs, and enhance the quality of life for patients and their safety. Olympus’ Medical portfolio includes endoscopes, laparoscopes, and video imaging systems, as well as surgical energy devices, system integration solutions, medical services, and a wide range of endotherapy instruments for endoscopic and therapeutic applications.