Two cutting-edge medical technologies from Addenbrooke's to tackle brain injury are among 35 awarded a share of £3m from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
The projects are funded through the Invention for Innovation (i4i) (opens in a new tab) Funding At the Speed of Translation (FAST) 4 Awards supporting healthcare technologies to prevent, diagnose and manage acquired brain injuries (ABI), and recovery from ABI as a consequence of traumatic brain injury, stroke, tumours and infections.
Funded projects will help fill evidence gaps identified in the Concussion in Sport Research Forum’s report (opens in a new tab), published in September 2024.
The funding opportunity was developed in partnership with the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Brain Injury (opens in a new tab) based at Addenbrooke's and the Defence Medical Services. (opens in a new tab)
FAST is aimed at innovators in need of a small amount of funding to answer a specific question, or to fund a single piece of activity to advance healthcare technologies and interventions.
One of the 35 funded projects is from Dr Virginia Newcombe of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust called: "Integration of interactive and passive movement assessments into an App for mild traumatic brain injury (I am brain aware - Movemed)."
She is a Royal College of Emergency Medicine Professor and an academic consultant in neurosciences and trauma intensive care medicine, and emergency medicine at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. This work is in collaboration with Dr Ben Davies, a neurosurgical resident at CUH.
Dr Newcombe said:
I’m delighted that this funding will enable us to expand the app I’m developing as part of my NIHR Rosetrees Trust Advanced Fellowship to include assessment of movement and coordination. Psychomotor slowing is a key issue following traumatic brain injury, and this development will help us better understand and monitor patients’ recovery.
Dr Virginia Newcombe
Psychomotor slowing refers to a noticeable slowing down of mental and physical activity. It can manifest as slowness in speech, thinking, and body movements.
Another winner is CUH's Dr Laura Watson called: "Predicting energy requirements in traumatic brain injury using 3D body shape app and indirect calorimetry."
Dr Watson is a metabolic physiologist and based in the NIHR Cambridge Clinical Research Facility at Addenbrooke's. Her work is a collaboration with Dr Alasdair Jubb who is a consultant in neurosciences and trauma intensive care medicine and anaesthesia at CUH.
Professor Peter Hutchinson, director of the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Brain Injury said: “We are delighted to partner with the NIHR i4i Programme on this competitive FAST themed call, and have been impressed by the number of high quality applications received.
“This significant investment will make a real difference for patients and their families, unlocking the opportunity to further develop novel HealthTech and generating evidence to support the uptake of these innovations. Congratulations to all 35 awardees.”
Professor Mike Lewis, NIHR’s Scientific Director for Innovation added: "We look forward to supporting these projects to unlock more effective treatments and improve patients' outcomes at critical times in their lives.”
Dr Philip Woodgate, Director of Research, Defence Medical Services, Ministry of Defence said: “We look forward to harnessing the outputs of the projects to better prevent, detect and treat TBI for the benefit of civilian and military patients.”
- Also included in the 35 is Dr Daniel Whitehouse, University of Cambridge, who was selected for: "Prehospital sampling of brain injury biomarkers in mild traumatic brain injury: a feasibility study."
- Listing picture: Gerd Altman from Pixabay