Belfast Health and Social Care Trust has licensed a new rapid meningitis diagnostic test for worldwide exclusive marketing rights.

The new test, developed by scientists at the Royal Victoria Hospital and commercialised by Irish start-up company HiberGene Diagnostics, uses an emerging molecular method known as loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), that can to provide reliable diagnosis within an hour.

Meningitis is a difficult disease to diagnose as symptoms are typically flu-like. Standard laboratory tests take at least 24 hours to process, and there is a need for rapid and accurate results to allow earlier confirmation to enable earlier treatment.

Brendan Farrell, CEO of HiberGene Diagnostics said: “We are particularly pleased to have secured exclusive rights to the meningitis test from the Belfast Trust. Clinical validation of the test has shown a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 99.7% which is excellent.”

Consultant Paediatrician Professor Mike Shields, who led the research, said: “Meningitis presents a clinical challenge for the emergency department doctor because the patient's symptoms can be non-specific.

“No doctor wants to send a seriously sick child home, which is why this new diagnostic test holds such promise. When this test is available it will have the potential to save many lives.”

HiberGene Diagnostics Ltd is a start-up client company of NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at the University College Dublin.

The company plans to market the test in the first half of 2012 and is in discussions with potential distribution partners in the US and Europe.

Sony has acquired Washington-based Micronics for an undisclosed amount in plans to enter the portable medical devices market.

Sony said it was looking to move into producing point of care medical devices that can be easily used on patients, in addition to their portfolio of printers, cameras and data recorders designed for medical use.

A spokesman for the company said: “Sony has sold such peripheral devices to medical device manufacturers in the past, but it will be a new business to sell directly to customers such as hospitals.”

He said that Sony will market the medtech devices in the US primarily, once they have been approved by FDA regulations. No timeline has been set for launches of devices.

Micronics specialises in manufacturing in vitro diagnostic products for disease diagnosis, prognosis and treatment monitoring.

The FDA has approved Roche’s new generation of Accu-Chek Aviva Plus test strips to monitor blood glucose levels in diabetes patients.

The new self-monitoring strips are designed to prevent the interference of maltose on blood sugar readings which occurs rarely when a patient takes medication metabolising to maltose.

Daniel O’ Day, Chief Operating Officer at Roche Diagnostics, said: “With its advanced technology and chemistry it is designed to support patients to manage their condition more effectively.”

More than 25 million people live with diabetes in the US, of which seven million are currently undiagnosed.

Roche’s Accu-Chek portfolio manufactures blood glucose readers, insulin delivery systems and lancing devices.

A new, hi-tech retinal imaging system that could help millions of diabetes patients from going blind has been launched in Europe.

EasyScan, developed by eye diagnostics specialist, i-Optics, is easy-to-use and more portable than systems currently used in retinal imaging.

The device aims to diagnose and treat diabetes patients quicker to prevent blindness earlier.

As pupil dilation is not required for diagnosis, the device reduces patients’ waiting times by at least 30 minutes. Patients can also drive immediately after examination.

Jereon Cammeraat, CEO at iOptics, said: “With aging populations and growing obesity, countries everywhere face a rapid increase in diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and other retinal diseases.”

He said that the current technology featuring fundus cameras are “large, exclusive, and expensive, as well as being slow and difficult to use”.

EasyScan’s non-invasive technology consumes little energy and can connect to a PC or laptop via a USB port. Using Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope (SLO) technology, the device can identify clinical features in the retina in the earliest stages, provide better contrast than traditional fundus cameras, and can better penetrate media opacities such as cataract and corneal opacities.

i-Optics is a worldwide eye imaging developer, aiming to develop affordable, quick retinal diagnosis solutions.

A new imaging technology could help to identify lung cancer more accurately, enabling earlier intervention and minimising surgery.

Diffusion-weighted MRI, which measures water movement in lung tissue, can differentiate benign from malignant lung lesions.

A Belgian study has found that the new scan can help to diagnose lung cancer more accurately than the current standard method, a PET-CT scan.

The new scan is non-invasive and requires no radiation exposure.

The research analysed 50 people who were due to be operated on for lung cancer or suspected lung cancer:

• With PET-CT scans, 33 patients were diagnosed correctly, 7 incorrectly and 10 were undetermined.
• With diffusion-weighted MRI scans, 45 patients were diagnosed correctly and 5 incorrectly.
• The 10 cases undetermined with PET-CT were correctly diagnosed using diffusion-weighted MRI.

Dr Johan Coolen, from University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium, said: "Our study has shown that diffusion-weighted MRI scans could become an appropriate diagnostic instrument for preoperative lung cancer patients in the near future. PET/CT scans can wrongly diagnose cancer as they can misinterpret inflammation in the lungs as a malignant lesion. Diffusion-weighted MRI is more accurate, which could help avoid unnecessary surgical procedures for those people without malignant disease.”

According to Professor Marc Decramer, President of the European Respiratory Society, the new European Respiratory Roadmap places strong emphasis on the need for more effective screening and the potential value of personalised, targeted medicine.

“With the development and evaluation of new technologies such as the diffusion-weighted MRI scan, we can work towards achieving these goals,” he commented.

New 3G mobile data routers have enabled a West Midlands breast screening service to achieve more effective communication of clinical information with local hospitals.

Herefordshire data handling specialist Hicks Associates Ltd has supplied and fitted the routers to three trailers (pictured) for the Warwickshire, Solihull & Coventry breast screening service.

The mobile data ‘dongles’ previously used by the trailers to access work lists from the hospitals caused network issues and problems with weak signals inside the trailer.

The new 3G routers offer several advantages over the previous solution:

• The use of two SIM cards, from different network providers, allows automatic switchover between networks if the signal level drops below a certain point.
• The external antenna fitted to the trailer gives much higher signal strength.
• The integrated four-port 100Mbps switch allows up to four devices to share the remote connection and to communicate using normal network protocols.
• The system allows (via a secure VPN client) the equipment supplier to perform remote diagnostics on the modality.

While the new technology would not be suitable for handling images, it promises to save time and improve reliability in communication of work lists and other text information.

The NHS wasted £625 million over the last decade on synthetic forms of insulin when recommended alternatives were cheaper and probably just as effective, research has shown.

The findings from publicly available data showed the NHS spent a total of £2.7bn on insulin in the last ten years but could’ve saved millions had human insulin been prescribed instead.

Authors of the research said there had been “no observable clinical benefit to justify” the investment and the “rise of insulin analogues has had a substantial financial impact on the NHS”.

The number of people diagnosed with condition has risen to 2.8 million in the UK, with 90% having type II diabetes. Those diagnosed with type I diabetes are immediately prescribed insulin, however those with type II start later with their treatment.

The NHS has seen the annual cost of insulin increase 130% in the last ten years from £156 million to £359 million. Synthetic insulin now costs £305 million a year – accounting for 85% of the total medicine prescribed.

But, over the same period, the cost of human insulin fell from £131 million to £51 million a year. And, if all patients had been prescribed the cheaper alternative, researchers say the NHS could have saved hundreds of millions of pounds.

“It is likely that there was and is considerable scope for financial savings,” said the research authors.

“Most worryingly, the clinical role and safety of insulin for use in people with type II diabetes is being questioned.”

The finding comes as a UN health summit in New York aims to increase international efforts to stop the rising global burden of non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes.

US biomedical scientist Dr Robert Langer (pictured), whose work led to the use of artificial skin to repair burns, has been named the winner by The Economist in the bioscience category of its tenth annual Innovation Awards.

The award, sponsored by Astellas Pharma Europe Ltd, recognises Dr Langer’s exceptional contribution to tissue engineering and drug delivery.

A pioneer of biomedical engineering, Dr Langer is the David H. Koch Institute Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he leads the world’s largest biomedical engineering laboratory.

The polymer-based artificial tissues developed by Dr Langer are now used as a basis for replacement skin, as well as the controlled administration of drugs and hormones.

“Robert Langer is one of the most innovative and influential biomedical engineers of our time,” said Tom Standage, Digital Editor at The Economist and chairman of the judging panel.

“His proven successes in drug-delivery and tissue engineering have made possible new forms of medication and treatment. He is a worthy recipient of our bioscience award.”

Ken Jones, CEO of Astellas Pharma Europe Ltd, commented: “Robert Langer has made an extraordinary contribution to the field of biomedical engineering and has been responsible for true breakthroughs in the global quest to discover better ways to manage diseases.”

To mark the tenth year of its Innovation Awards, The Economist is inviting all past winners to attend awards ceremony on 21 October. Those attending include Hermes Chan, developer of rapid HIV diagnostic testing, and Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, developer of low-cost medical devices for the developing world.

A test originally designed to predict cancer prognosis could save the NHS millions of pounds in treating patients with chronic wounds, scientists have said.

The test, developed by two Welsh life scientists, is set to be commercialised by Fusion IP and promises to improve wound care by analysing the genetic signature of a wound.

Chronic wounds, such as those caused by leg ulcers and pressure sores associated with diabetes, currently cost the NHS £180m a year in Wales alone.

Keith Harding, Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine and Wound Healing at Cardiff University, said: “At a time when we can cure many cancers and transplant organs at will, we still can’t get a patient in front of the right person at the right time when they have a wound. A majority of patients will be seen in routine clinical practice for many months or even years before the clinician will say someone else needs to see the patient.”

It can currently take up to 12 weeks to determine whether a leg ulcer wound is responding to treatment, but Professor Harding said in one case he came across, a patient had had his dressings changed weekly for 57 years with no improvement in his wound.

Approximately 60% of chronic wound cases are unresponsive to the current traditional treatment. The new test, however, has been shown to be 98% accurate in initial research.

The test is the result of a four-year collaboration between Professor Harding and Wen Jiang, also a professor at Cardiff University, and examines the genetic signature of the wound.

Professor Jiang, Professor in Surgery and Tumour Biology at Cardiff University, said: “The very close correlation between the genetic signature and the future outcome of the wound healing process gives us confidence this test will deliver real benefits to patients.”

The collaboration has been granted £150,000 from the Welsh Government’s Academic Expertise for Business (A4B) programme to validate the new wound test.

Both professors hope to set up a company to commercialise the product, with support from Fusion IP, Cardiff University’s commercial partner.

“The idea is to give the average clinician the opportunity, at almost the first appointment, to tell whether a patient is going to be easy-to-heal or hard-to-heal,” commented Professor Harding.

A new “electronic nose” is being developed to be used in routine screenings to “smell” out chronic heart failure (CHF).

The project’s results demonstrated that the technology is able to diagnose heart failure non-invasively with almost 90% accuracy.

Vasileios Kechagias, investigator of the study at University Hospital Jena, in Germany, said: “The early detection of CHF through periodical screening facilitates early treatment application”.

The system consists of three thick-film metal oxide-based gas sensors with heater elements, with each sensor tailored to react with different odorant molecular types. Reactions between the sensor and molecules are caused by oxygen on the heated sensor surface, altering the free charge carrier concentrations, which change conductivity in the metal oxide layer.

During the trial, the electronic nose assigned 126 patients to one of three groups: no heart failure, compensated and decompensated, with 90% accuracy. Compensated heart failure reacts to treatment, whereas the decompensated version of the condition has no treatment and can cause such conditions as infections, arrhythmias and electrolyte disturbances.

The sensor is simply placed on the arm much like a blood pressure monitor for three minutes at a time and then analyses for heart failure markers.

Heart failure is a common, costly and potentially deadly condition. Approximate 2% of adults suffer from the condition in developed countries, and increases to 6% in adults over the age of 65.

Scientists say more research is required, but ultimately hope to create a rapid, minimally invasive method to screen, diagnose and monitor compensated heart failure.