Student Design Could Save the NHS up to GBP160 Million a Year

LONDON, February 2 - According to NHS experts, an ingenious new device will not only help save
lives, but could also save the NHS GBP160 million every year.

Approximately 100,000 UK health care workers are affected by needlestick
injuries annually, each one potentially exposed to number of deadly diseases
including HIV and Hepatitis B and C.

It's not just the risk of transmission that is a huge problem; healthcare
workers - and their families - suffer great emotional distress whilst they
await the results of blood tests, often taking as long as up to a year.

Michael Korn, an industrial design student at London's Royal College of
Art, decided to look more closely into the issue as part of a healthcare
design project.

Through the College's Helen Hamlyn Centre, Korn was paired with medics
from St Mary's Hospital, spending weeks observing ward practices.

The result was a complete redesign of the paper-pulp trays used by
nursing staff and a completely new way of using them. Korn's invention,
called StickSafe, incorporates a special safely feature that allows
one-handed safe use of needles.

The main feature however enables safe separation of the needle from the
syringe. The latter means vastly improved usage of sharps bins, which also
brings with it large cost savings.

Brian Winn, head of the NHS's National Innovation Centre (NIC) said: "We
have carried out a robust economic analysis of StickSafe and have found that,
if the entire NHS takes it on board it will save up to GBP160 million a year.
Everyone benefits - the staff, the NHS and ultimately the patient"

Professor Anne Marie Rafferty CBE, Dean of the Florence Nightingale
School of Nursing and Midwifery, King's College London, said: "With the
Health Protection Agency recently conducting examinations into occurrences of
needlestick injury, the potential contribution of this innovative device
couldn't be more timely."

Korn was also helped in the development of StickSafe by InnovationRCA,
the Royal College of Art's business unit, who helped him protect the idea and
introduced him to commercial partners.

Korn now plans to have StickSafe adopted widely across the NHS, saving
lives and money, and eliminate daily stress from the working lives of
thousands of nurses and doctors.

StickSafe is definitely not the last innovation we'll have from the young
inventor.

Contact: Aine Duffy, aine.duffy@rca.ac.uk or +442075904127

Contact: Aine Duffy, aine.duffy at rca.ac.uk or +442075904127