Medical technology (Medtech) is the use of technology to improve diagnosis, monitoring and/or treatment of medical conditions. Medtech development is important due to increasing demand on resources, greater patient empowerment, a challenging financial climate and developments in available technologies.
Involvement in Medtech development is an exciting way for AHP’s to improve healthcare whilst opening up many personal and professional opportunities.
This leaflet provides a handy top ten tips to help you understand the process and get involved in Medtech development.
Find out all there is to know about the problem you have identified including who and how many people are affected. This can be done with the help of clinical networks, healthcare technology co-operatives (HTC’s), health economists, patient groups and charitable organisations.
Spend time planning before actively starting the project (understanding intellectual property considerations, identifying collaborators, gaining adequate funding etc.). Time spent planning will enable you to avoid predictable obstacles.
Allow plenty of time for the development process as it inevitably takes more time than you think. The use of a Gantt chart will help you to identify the time required to successfully complete all aspects of the process.
Engage with the research and clinical departments in your institution to ensure that you have the support needed to carry out the project. This may be in terms of time, facilities, governance or financial support.
Identify collaborators who have the knowledge and skills required for your project and who share the same values and ethos as you. Be clear what each collaborators role is in the project and how that is going to be delivered.
Intellectual property (IP) includes knowledge, designs, data, processes and items and may have financial or societal value that should be protected. Consider IP from the beginning of the project and get support, from your institution or local Innovations Hub, with how to manage and protect it.
Projects are usually funded in stages with funding coming from different sources at different stages. To maximise success, read the funders guide for applicants carefully and only apply to funding streams where you and your project match the requirements. Funders include the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council (MRC).
Working with stakeholders will help to frame the problem in a meaningful and potentially different way. Keep an open mind about what the solution to the problem may be as it could turn out to be totally different to how you imagined.
There will be challenges and disappointments along the way. Learn from these experiences and don’t be put off. Even the best and most experienced researchers experience setbacks.
Plan from the start how the outputs from your project can bring the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people and make sure that this benefit is realised.
For contact details about your local hub and for further information about CAHPR please visit our website http://cahpr.csp.org.uk
Content provided by Dr Nicki Barker in association with the CAHPR Yorkshire Regional Hub and the Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care Yorkshire and Humber (CLAHRC YH)
