Make childbirth and surgery safer by preventing accidentally retained surgical items

分娩/手术的一个主要风险是异物可能意外留在体内。在英国，每年约有1/12的人需要手术或分娩。手术是治疗癌症和慢性病等许多健康状况的主要手段，分娩带来欢乐。英国每年约有1200万例手术，75万例产妇事件，手术拭子（又称海绵）是最常见的“滞留异物”，也是最常见的程序性“从不事件”。其他保留的物品，如针头和仪器是罕见的。有充分的数据表明，由于诉讼及其不可辩护的性质，这些事件在全球范围内报告不足。1884年首次报道，这种情况不应该在这个时代继续发生。在知情同意过程中，患者并未意识到这一点，因为这被认为是可以预防的。保留的拭子可能会导致极端伤害，如再次手术、严重感染、器官损伤（16%的永久性损伤，5%的死亡）。由于慢性刺激，它们也可能导致癌症。由于这个问题，NHS每年的成本约为20亿英镑。数据显示，11个程序中有1个程序存在计数错误，高达500个程序中有1个程序可能会留下拭子。这种情况在复杂的不可预测领域中更为常见，例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。我们开发了一种对接设备，允许用户在手术前、手术中和手术后监测拭子，包括测量失血量的方法。这么简单，成本？尤里卡的愿景是让分娩和手术更安全。当在伯明翰大学医院的真实条件下进行测试时，该设备系统被证明比计数更可靠和准确（目前的NHS实践）。这将降低成本，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与KIMAL合作，KIMAL是一家成熟的设备制造商和皇家伍尔弗汉普顿NHS信托基金，一个大型的教学医院，致力于改进设计，制造，产品开发，患者和公众参与以及真实世界的测试。

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.