Make childbirth and surgery safer by preventing accidentally retained surgical items

分娩/手术的一个主要风险是可能会意外地将异物留在里面。在英国，每年约有1/12的人需要接受手术或分娩。手术是治疗许多健康状况的中流砥柱，比如癌症和慢性病，而喜悦则生下了孩子。在英国，每年大约有1200万例手术和75万例产妇事件。外科拭子(也称为海绵)是最常见的“留存异物”，也是最常见的程序性“永不事件”。其他保留下来的物品，如针和仪器，也很少见。有很好的数据表明，由于诉讼及其站不住脚的性质，这些事件在全球范围内被低估了。1884年首次报道，这种情况不应该在今天和这个时代继续发生。患者在同意的过程中不会意识到这一点，因为它被认为是可以预防的。保留的棉签可能会导致极端的伤害，如重新手术、严重感染、器官损害(16%的永久性损害，5%的死亡)。由于慢性刺激，它们还可能导致癌症。NHS每年因这个问题造成的成本约为20亿GB。数据显示，每11个程序中就有一个有计数错误，高达500个程序中可能有1个程序内留有棉签。这在复杂的不可预测的领域更为常见，这些领域有分心和干扰，如分娩和困难的手术。需要一种低成本的医疗设备来创建一个强大的系统，以防止意外滞留。我们已经开发了一种对接设备，允许用户在手术前、中和之后监测棉签，包括一种测量失血的方法。这一简单、经济实惠的解决方案获得了英国首次公开募股的专利，旨在让人们不会留下棉签，极大地提高了安全性和效率。尤里卡的愿景是让分娩和手术变得更安全。当在伯明翰大学医院的现实生活中进行类似条件的测试时，该设备系统被证明比计数(目前的NHS做法)更可靠和准确。这将降低成本并减少对第二个检查员的需求，这种做法容易出现人为错误和确认偏差。这笔赠款将使尤里卡能够与老牌设备制造商基马尔和皇家伍尔弗汉普顿国家医疗服务信托基金合作，朝着面向制造、患者和公众参与的产品开发以及现实世界测试的方向改进设计。

A major risk of childbirth/surgery is the possibility that foreign objects may be accidentally left inside. Around 1 in 12 people require surgery or go through childbirth each year in the UK. Surgery is the mainstay of treatment in many health conditions such as cancer and chronic diseases and childbirth brings joy. Every year in the UK, there are around 12 million operations and 750,000 maternity events.Surgical swabs(also known as sponges) are the most common 'retained foreign object', which is also the most common procedural 'never event'. Other retained items such as needles and instruments are rare. There is good data that these events are under-reported globally due to litigation and their indefensible nature. First reported in 1884, this should simply not continue to happen in this day and age. Patients are not made aware of this during the consenting process as it is considered preventable.Retained swabs can cause extreme harm such as reoperations, severe infections, damage to organs (permanent damage in 16%, death in 5%). They can also cause cancer due to chronic irritation. The costs due to this problem to NHS amount to around £2 billion annually.Data shows that 1 in 11 procedures have counting errors and as high as 1 in 500 procedures can have a swab left inside. This is more common in complex unpredictable areas with distractions and interruptions such as childbirth and difficult operations.There is a need for a low-cost medical device to create a robust system to prevent accidental retention. We have developed a docking device that allows users to monitor swabs before, during, and after a procedure, including a method to measure blood loss. This simple, cost-e?ective solution with a UK IPO 'granted' patent is designed to make it impossible to leave a swab behind, vastly improving safety and efficiency.Eureka's vision is to make childbirth and surgery safer. When tested in real-life like conditions in University Hospitals, Birmingham the device system proved to be to be significantly more reliable and accurate than counting (current NHS practice).This will lower costs and reduce the need for a second checker, a practice that is prone to human error and confirmation bias.This grant will allow Eureka to collaborate with KIMAL, an established device manufacturer and Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, a large teaching hospital towards refinement of design towards manufacture, product development with patient and public involvement as well as real-world testing.