The development of these technologies has significantly benefited from our world-class MedTech ecosystem. Co-location within a major NHS Trust, enabling programmes such as our Venture Builder, and supporting new companies with their go-to-market strategy are a few examples of what is needed. It is not only about innovative R&D, it is also about innovation in the way we deliver progress at scale.
Professor Sebastien Ourselin FREng FMedSci, Head of the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences
27 January 2025
Professor Ourselin presents recent successes from St Thomas' MedTech Hub at the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee
Professor Sebastien Ourselin, Head of the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences was invited to present at the Science, Innovation and Technology Parliamentary Committee in connection with the Committee’s inquiry into Innovation Showcase.
The House of Commons' Innovation Showcase inquiry aims to map out the landscape for UK innovators, to give them a platform to tell their stories and to identify what more the government and industry should do to support them.
An overview of St Thomas’ MedTech Hub, a purpose-built ecosystem to support the development, translation and commercialisation of innovative healthcare technologies at a single geographical location was presented to the committee.
The Hub’s early success is a result of incorporating core collaborative partnerships (between academia, NHS Trusts and industry), enabling infrastructure and large-scale research projects to drive technology advancements and economic growth through the creation and support of new ventures.
Importantly, the ecosystem is primed to address the many health and care challenges we are facing today, able to transform patient outcomes and deliver precision medicine into clinics at an accelerated pace.
Two recent accomplishments of the Hub were shared. The first example addresses the challenges in treating hearing loss. A team within the School has developed a soft robot which serves as an inflatable, stabilising needle guide to improve precision, safety and patient comfort during ear injections.
“Over 430 million people are affected by disabling hearing loss globally. New drugs and gene therapies are currently being developed for the treatment of hearing loss. Our soft robotics technology is a very safe, efficient solution built in the UK, able to deliver these novel therapies with precision and will be more accessible to patients. This work is enabled through a fantastic collaboration between NHS Trusts, King’s and UCL. To ensure we can reach patients at scale with this technology, we are in the process of establishing a new spinout,” said Professor Ourselin.
The second example presented was Hypervision Surgical, a King’s College London spin-out which has developed the world’s first certified medical device using hyperspectral imaging for real-time surgical guidance. This pioneering technology combines hyperspectral imaging-enabled “superhuman” vision with AI to uncover previously invisible tissue details, enhancing surgical precision and patient safety. Their first product, recently cleared for open and minimally invasive general surgery in the UK, provides real-time tissue oxygenation insights that may help reduce life-threatening complications such as anastomotic leakage in colorectal surgery.
Professor Ourselin finished by emphasising why the MedTech Hub infrastructure is crucial to healthcare innovation in the UK.
You can watch the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee meeting here.
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Professor of Healthcare Engineering