Cambridge brain injury partnership is launched

The Cambridge Brain Injury Healthcare Technology Cooperative (HTC) is one of eight cooperatives nationally to receive funding from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR). The Cambridge partnership is the only one in the country to focus on brain injury. It is hosted by Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) working with the University of Cambridge.

The NIHR Brain Injury HTC is collaborating with patients and patient groups, charities and industry to identify unmet clinical problems and develop new medical devices, healthcare technologies and technology-dependent interventions to improve treatment and quality of life for brain-injured patients.

Three people were interviewed about the event - Professor Pickard, clinical director of the NIHR Brain Injury HTC in Cambridge, Dr Tom Clutton-Brock, clinical director NIHR Trauma Management HTC in Birmingham, and stroke patient Robert Runcie.

Professor John Pickard, director of the NIHR Brain Injury HTC , based in Cambridge, explains the background to the creation of the HTCs: “Following the Cooksey report about the innovation pathway, the NIHR worked with the Treasury to look at how the benefits of innovation in healthcare could be exploited. There was recognition that there was a ‘black hole’ here: it’s all very well for inventors to have bright ideas and it’s all very well for patients to have great ideas. The purpose of the HTCs is to bring the patients, carers, inventors , academia, SMEs, industry and the NHS together to develop technology-based solutions to help patients and to help the UK economy.

“Cambridge has been chosen as the HTC for brain injury. Firstly, because of the ‘Cambridge phenomenon’, secondly because Addenbrooke’s is the regional major trauma centre and thirdly because we are a world-class neurosurgery centre with a global network.

“We also see a lot of patients, not just from Cambridgeshire, but from right across the country, and internationally as well. With this crucial mass of patients we can learn from each other and not have to reinvent the wheel.”

“It has created a groundswell of optimism and energy at a time when the NHS is under financial pressure; people can start thinking out of the box. It has also created optimism for patients in that they feel they are going to be taken seriously. Uniquely, through the HTCs, we will now be able to develop a systemic way of finding out what their experiences are and we can feed this intelligence back to the benefit of patients by developing new products and techniques.

“We do have some money to develop ideas but our funding from the NIHR is mainly for infrastructure. The key thing is working collaboratively and knowledge transfer between the partners.

“The new funding from the Engineering and Physics Research Council is very important because you can only get access to this money if you come through the HTC.”

Dr Tom Clutton-Brock said: “We have a lot of overlap with Cambridge in terms of traumatic brain injury. Being HTCs means we can avoid duplication and enable a quicker route of technology into healthcare. As well as that we both benefit by pooling resources and gaining an increased access to patients groups. Having this larger body of opinion means we acquire more evidence.

“There are an awful lot of clever ideas out there but engineers don’t always understand how to get them into healthcare. We support much larger grant applications, we have signed nine or so far since April. There is a challenge in working cooperatively, not competitively, but there is a huge amount of interest in this.”

Robert Runcie, 55, from Peterborough, is a trustee of Headway Cambridge: “I had a stroke and my journey was a very dark and grey time. I didn’t know where to look and I was not well enough to. My wife was the one who found the rehabilitation that I needed.

“Conferences and research on applied brain injury to help find solutions, that are more than just giving patients another tablet, have to be the way forward.

“If I can give something back for the support I have got then that is why I come and tell my story.

“For me when you’re very poorly in an acute state you are quite well looked after in hospital, when you move out of that acute stage you are almost on your own. The ability of either of your GP or whoever is caring for you to actually find the support and help you need is limited. There’s a lot of help and support out there but it’s hard finding it.

“The other thing I found is that you need somebody who would have benefitted from the outcomes of the research to help inform it. My experience, certainly early on in my recovery, is that I wanted to speak to someone who wasn’t a clinician who had actually been through this terrible set of changes in their brain and mind who I could empathise with.

Speaking about the HTC launch event Robert said: “I think it has been very interesting to see the range of involvement and the challenge that there is to bring that knowledge together and to enable it to transfer it to practical applications. I am very optimistic that things will improve.

“It’s three and a half years since my stroke and I can see glimmers of light at the end of some very long tunnels. But the knowledge transfer of that research to GPs, who see patients in their surgery who are looking for ideas about rehabilitation, is absolutely vital.”

 

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Adrian Ient| Media Relations Manager
Tel: 01223 274433 | Ext: 4433 | 07703 887759. 
http://www.cuh.org.uk
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