South Tyneside Hospital team wins top award

Members of the gastroenterology research team at South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust, from left, research nurse Ingrid Emmerson, research fellow Martin Walls, research lead Claire Livingstone, research nurse Gayle Clifford and endoscopy manager Zoe Clapham

South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust’s accolade in the Medilink Northern Powerhouse Healthcare Business Awards was for a research partnership between the NHS, industry, academic centres and patients which is delivering high quality, world-leading, gastrointestinal endoscopy research. As well as winning the Partnership with the NHS: Acute Care category, the entry was selected as the leading award in all categories and now goes forward to the nation final of the awards next month.

The judges described it as “an exciting partnership that was commercialising product innovation”.

The gastroenterology team piloted the innovative ‘Endocuff Vision’ device, developed by ARC Medical to improve detection of colorectal cancer and pre cancerous polyps.

Colorectal cancer is the UK’s fourth most common cancer and second commonest cause of cancer death, with 40,000 new cases and 16,000 deaths annually.

The device is used to detect and prevent colorectal cancer.

South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust’s director of research and development, Prof Colin Rees, said: “I am honoured to work with such a fantastic collaborative team and grateful for their hard work on these studies. We are all also grateful to the patients who took part.”

Ken Bremner, the Trust’s Chief Executive, said: “I want to congratulate Colin and the team for this well-deserved award for groundbreaking research which has such exciting potential to save lives. I’m very proud that, through their efforts, the Trust is at the forefront of research, locally, nationally and internationally.”