Sheffield Children’s colleagues named as finalists for this years Medipex NHS Innovation Awards

Paul Dimitri, Clinical Director of Innovation and Technology has been named a finalist in the ‘Improved treatments, therapies and rehabilitation’ category for his Luna Light, Home-Based VR Upper Limb Rehabilitation project in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University.

 

Children with upper limb injury and burns find their rehabilitation physiotherapy, painful and uninteresting and often disengage, risking delayed recovery and long-term problems. Luna Light addresses these challenges of long-term Upper Limb Motor Impairment (ULMI) rehabilitation in children. This project is an immersive virtual reality system that brings physiotherapy exercises into an exciting and immersive games platform, children can now do their physiotherapy exercises at home with the enjoyment of play orientated rehabilitation.

 

Paul said: “Virtual reality is one technology that is producing outstanding results as a support to clinical therapies across different branches of medicine. Experiencing a fantasy world like Luna’s Light not only helps to improve health outcomes for patients undergoing upper limb rehabilitation, but it also dramatically improves their experience during recovery. One patient who uses Luna’s Light described how becoming fully immersed in a game as part of their treatment helps them walk further without them realising and has made them feel excited about rehabilitation they previously used to dread.

 

“Collaborating with Sheffield Hallam to develop Luna’s Light is an exceptional example of what we can achieve when we bring leading universities together with the NHS and we’re looking forward to doing more of this groundbreaking work at Sheffield Children’s.”

 

Ivan Phelan, Director of the Impact VR Lab at Sheffield Hallam University, said: “The team at Impact VR and Sheffield Hallam University are delighted that Luna’s Light has been selected as a finalist for the Medipex NHS Innovation Awards. It’s only by working closely with staff and patients at Sheffield Children’s that innovative solutions like this are made possible.”

 

Nicki Barker, Advanced Physiotherapist is also a finalist for her CLE Kit in the ‘Delivering benefits through diagnosis of health conditions or disease’ category.

 

Inducible laryngeal obstruction (ILO) is a condition that causes severe breathlessness affecting a child’s quality of life, social functioning, and educational achievement. IIO could be diagnosed using a small camera (laryngoscope) placed in the nose during exercise, but it is currently not possible to comfortably and securely attach the camera to a child when they’re exercising. The CLE Kit is a new method for mounting the laryngoscope on the chest of the child and holding it securely in place in the nose throughout the duration of the child’s exercise test, providing a more accurate diagnosis. Using the new device will remove the risk of unnecessary and harmful medications and improve quality of life through quicker and better treatments.

 

“As a team we’re really pleased and it’s an honour to be a finalist in the Medipex Awards as it recognises the importance of the device we’ve created and the positive impact it will have on children’s healthcare and their lives.

 

“It’s also encouraging that a piece of work has been chosen that is being led by an Allied Health Professional, which is not always common in the research world. With the project being shortlisted for an award it is really positive both for the project, but also to highlight and showcase to other Allied Health Professional that there are these opportunities out there and it is possible to be a part of research.”

 

Good luck Paul and Nicki, we’re rooting for you!