Healthcare technology consultancy, Health Tech Enterprise (HTE), announced the successful procurement of £14,556 of funding for the further development of an innovative thoracentesis device, aimed at greatly improving patient safety during the treatment of pleural effusions.

The funding comes from Addenbrookes Charitable Trust (ACT), the charity for Addenbrooke’s Hospital. ACT invests more than £1m each year into research to improve patient health and the award is from ACT’s Innovation for Patient Benefit grants, which supports life-changing research and innovation.

The funding has been granted to a Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) team led by Doctors Ryan Seguna and Jurgen Herre, who previously won HTE’s Innovation Voucher competition. The Innovation Voucher competition, sponsored by eg technology, recognizes novel ideas in medtech innovation, with the winners receiving the equivalent of up to £5000 of eg technology’s time in-kind.

The time in-kind supports the innovators behind the technologies to refine their designs, and then to enable the manufacture of prototypes for feasibility testing. HTE’s hands-on support provided to their clients has led to many innovators procuring the funding needed to reach the next stage of product development, and the additional funding now secured from Addenbrookes Charitable Trust will help take the thoracentesis device one step closer to commercialization.

HTE’s mission is to build the future of healthcare through technology innovation, and this project is one of multiple which further cements its position at the forefront of the world of healthcare technology consultancy. To date, HTE has partnered with more than 180 technology companies from around the world, and has successfully won over £16M in funding and investment for different stages of product development and commercialization.

"It is always gratifying when we have a direct impact on the development of a product [that] can improve the patient experience, and the recent funding procurement helps to reiterate the importance of our Innovation Voucher competition," said Karen Law, had of innovation at HTE.