17 December 2019
Cardiff’s National Museum was awash with innovation at last week’s fourteenth annual MediWales Innovation Awards, held on 4th December. The awards, designed to celebrate the advances in human life science, provide an opportunity to congratulate the outstanding achievements made by those employed by NHS Wales and the Welsh life science and health technology Communities.
Amongst the sponsors of the event were design engineers, GX, who sponsored the Innovation within NHS Wales Award. The award was won by Cardiff & Vale University Health Board Palliative Care team led by Clea Atkinson.
Commenting upon the night, GX’s business development manager, Claire Banks recalls, “It was a lovely evening under the watchful ‘eye’ of Dippy a replica of the Natural History Museum’s iconic Diplodocus cast.
Meeting Clea and her team it was easy to see why the judges had chosen their entry to win the award we sponsored. Their ingenious idea had a huge impact.”
The Palliative Care team developed a transitional cross-boundary Supportive Care Pathway for heart failure patients who were towards the end of their lives. By connecting different agencies and medical teams patients saw an improved quality of life, which resulted in a reduction in readmissions to hospital in their last year of life.
“Our idea sought to improve inter-speciality connections and this is such a good example of how an innovative idea, coupled with good teamwork can make a huge difference to both patients and their families at an incredibly stressful time in their lives,” noted Clea.
Pictured from left to right:
Rhian Barlow, Heart Failure CNS, University Hospital of Wales, Professor Zaheer Yousef, Cardiologist, University Hospital of Wales, Ifan Evans, Director of Technology and Transformation, Welsh Assembly, Government.
Receiving the award is Dr Clea Atkinson, Palliative Care Physician, University Hospital of Wales, with sponsors, Mark Helmich, GX, Claire Banks, GX and Eve Bowen, GX.
Dr Mark Taubert, Clinical Director of Palliative care, Velindre Cancer Centre, Sian Hughes, Supportive/Palliative Care CNS, University Hospital of Wales and Ann Parkes, Heart Failure CNS, University Hospital of Wales.