NCLIH Catheter Guide

Medical need is a great motivator for innovation. Ideas for medical devices don’t just emerge from major healthcare companies but also from individuals identifying unmet needs or shortfalls in what is currently available. While the medicals companies have their own product development teams, it is often hard for individuals and companies that don’t specialise in the area to turn their ideas into products.

NCLIH had come up with an idea for diagnosing tuberculosis without the use of expensive x-ray equipment. In recent years a method has been devised for testing for the disease by taking fluid samples from the lungs, removing the need for expensive and bulky x-ray machines. However, even using this method, it is necessary to use fibre optic endoscopes in order to guide a catheter past the vocal chords. This equipment is very expensive and hard to transport.

These are major barriers to detection for a disease prevalent in the developing world and increasingly seen in people living in poor conditions in the UK. What was needed was a cheap and simple way of introducing a catheter. With this idea, NCLIH approached 42 Technology and they worked together to develop a specification for a device.

Nick Campling explains: “They simply described the problem to us, they had a means of diagnosing TB but they needed a way to get a catheter into the lungs. The first step was to interpret that into a meaningful specification.”

42 Technology focussed on the fact that the resulting product would need to be inexpensive and either disposable or sterilise-able. Campling says: “We produced some concepts, took it back and talked it through with them. The dangers of starting off down a route that the client doesn’t want are severe and can be expensive”.

Once this was approved, 42 started developing a handheld device with an adjustable mirror and an LED that allow the throat to be viewed and illuminated, allowing the insertion of the catheter.

“We designed for manufacturer and assembly, making sure the materials were approved for medical use. In this instance we also had to consider things like anti-fogging on the mirror and keeping the LED and other electronics out of the mouth, in addition to obvious things like hygiene and avoiding sharp edges.”

42 Technology’s role isn’t over once the development is finished. Rather than simply handing the designs back over to the client, 42 Technology is practised at finding and working with manufacturing partners.

“There are always niggles when a product goes into production. The standard way that consultants work is to just hand over a big pile of drawings. But then, from the client’s point of view, anything that goes wrong is the consultant’s fault”, says Campling: “Because most of us have a background in industry we know that’s where the relationship often falls apart. We like to stay involved and work through the initial problems.”

This, Campling believes, is why 42 Technology picks up so much business from companies that already have product development departments. “Often their engineers are tied up solving problems from the last few products they produced.”

As with every other area of industry, the little things like being able to supply the designs in the manufacturer’s preferred format and having the designers available on the phone make a great deal of difference to day-to-day operations. And if that helps speed to market a tool that could help provide more widespread treatment for a disease that kills around 2 million people a year, then most people would agree that it is something worth doing.