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In 2002 I was awarded an HEFCE funded ‘Medici’ fellowship that provided a year long training in entrepreneurship. At this stage the scheme involved five Midlands universities. This proved an excellent introduction to the field and has been of value to both my research and teaching (see Business Planning & Presentation Module),
Fetal Monitoring Collaboration between the Schools of Electrical & Electronic Engineering and Obstetrics & Gynaecology (Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham) researching novel means of fetal monitoring has led to a number of commercial opportunities. In 2004 we were winners of the bioscience category of the UK Research Councils Research Plan competition with ‘Monica’, a transabominal fetal ECG based heart rate recorder which had a £25k prize. Entry to this competition was part of our exploitation strategy and provided a catalyst for obtaining around £250k funding from the Lachesis and Catapult Venture Capital Trusts. A University spin-out company, Monica Healthcare, based in BioCity, Nottingham, is now selling these recorders.
A query during a seminar given by myself to the Department of Child Health in the University led to the realisation that work funded by Rio Tinto (via a CASE studentship in collaboration with the School of Chemical & Environmental Engineering to non-invasively and unobtrusively monitor the heart-rate of mine workers) could be applied to solve a long-standing problem in neonatal care. This is the monitoring of heart-rate of at-risk newborns during resuscitation. Research funding from Action Research and the MRC Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme (DPFS) is allowing us to continue development of this device, known as Heartlight, forward with intial clinical results looking very encouraging.
We have a long standing interest in the development of algorithms for quantitative spectroscopy on scattering media using both multi an hyperspectral data. Although our prime area of interest is in oximetry the methods have application in other areas, such as food science.
Laser Doppler Flowmetry In collaboration with Profs Steve Morgan and Barrie Hayes-Gill who have led the work I have contributed (primarily via algorithm development) to the group's work on novel full field high frame rate custom designed laser Doppler flowmeters.
Patents ... ... related to fetal heart rate monitoring and now being exploited by Monica Healthcare (WO2001026545) APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DETECTING A FOETAL HEART RATE (WO2005039410) FETAL SURVEILLANCE ... concerning Heartlight (WO2007122375) PHOTOPLETHYSMOGRAPHY
... regarding full-field high frame-rate Laser Doppler imaging of blood flow (WO2009056825) IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR IMAGING
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