St Thomas’ MedTech Hub will build on King’s expertise in healthcare engineering to develop a leading centre for medical technology and biomedical engineering on London’s South Bank.
By combining King’s research expertise with the clinical knowledge of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust alongside King’s Health Partners, industry and healthcare collaborators, St Thomas’ MedTech Hub has the potential to become the largest community of health tech innovators in Europe. In doing so it will ‘act as a growth catalyst that will drive investment across south London and beyond’, said Nic Durston, Chief Executive of the South Bank Employers’ Group and South Bank Business Improvement District.
The Hub extends the research programmes and infrastructure within the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences in the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, including the London Medical Imaging & AI Centre for Value-Based Healthcare and the planned London Institute for Healthcare Engineering. Healthcare engineering researchers within the School are already working alongside clinicians at St Thomas’ Hospital, industry scientists and regulatory specialists to develop innovations such as miniature surgical tools, three-dimensional cardiac imaging and advanced surgical navigation software.
However, many such medical technologies don’t ever reach patients – in the UK and globally – because of a disconnect between research activity and clinical practice. By bringing together King’s research expertise with the NHS infrastructure already in place, the MedTech Hub will see innovative medical technologies reach the capital’s patients faster than ever before.
‘Our aim is for the MedTech Hub to become a key research, commercial and clinical centre for the life sciences sectors, generating healthcare innovations that will have a genuine impact on patients in London, across the UK and around the world,’ said Professor Sebastien Ourselin, Head of the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences.