Medical Engineering Receive NEAT Grant
Posted: 22 June 2007
The Medical Engineering Research Group at the University of Hull has been awarded a Department of Health NEAT grant to optimise the design of a novel speech valve for use in patients who have had a laryngectomy - where the voice box is removed, usually due to throat cancer.
The project led by Dr Michael Fagan, is in collaboration with Mr Stephen Ell (ENT Consultant) from the Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust and Dr Tim Paget from the Medway School of Pharmacy, University of Kent.
Speech vales are used to connect the windpipe (trachea) to the throat (oesophageus) allowing air from the lungs to be diverted into the throat, which vibrates, and this is formed into speech. The valves currently available on the market are manufactured from a silicone elastomer, and typically last only 3 months before biofilm contamination prevents them from working properly. The patient must then return to hospital to have the valve changed, a procedure which is often uncomfortable and distressing. The current cost to the NHS of these frequent valve changes is estimated to be £10 million per year. The new valve developed at Hull is not susceptible to these problems and is expected to operate for a significantly longer period of time before requiring replacment.
This grant follows on from earlier research funded by Action Medical Research, which investigated the effects of the biofilm on the silicone valves, and Department of Health funding to prove the new valve concept. It will allow researchers to optimise the new valve design, maximise its resistance to the biofilm and undertake a proof of concept trail, while preparing the product for market exploitation.
For further information, contact info@medicet.co.uk