Grant to assist in medical device research

A Cambridge Design Partnership product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jun 27, 2005

Cambridge Design Partnership has taken up the challenge of developing new breakthrough technology which could dramatically cut the cost of treatment of coronary heart disease.

Cambridge Design Partnership (CDP) has taken up the challenge of developing new breakthrough technology which could dramatically cut the cost of treatment of coronary heart disease, and improve patients' quality of life.

The research, which is being assisted by Len Shapiro, a leading Consultant Cardiologist from Papworth Hospital, aims to identify a new technology solution to unblocking completely blocked coronary arteries.

CDP has been awarded a GBP 75,000 grant from the Department of Trade and Industry to undertake the research.

Heart disease is the human race's number one killer, accounting for about 40% of all deaths each year.

The global economic burden of coronary artery disease, the most prevalent category, is estimated to be in excess of $100 billion per annum.

Coronary artery disease is a condition in which the arteries supplying blood to the heart's muscles become narrowed or completely blocked by lesions, cutting off the vital oxygen supply to the heart muscles.

The traditional treatment for unblocking totally blocked arteries involves an extremely invasive procedure known as coronary artery bypass grafting in which surgeons bypass the diseased arteries in a complex operation which is expensive, painful and has extensive patient recovery time.

A well-established alternative treatment called angioplasty, which is primarily used to enlarge narrowed arteries, is less invasive and costly and has shorter recovery times.

However, this technique is rarely successful in opening fully blocked arteries and is therefore infrequently attempted in these cases.

Commenting, Matt Schumann, a Director with CDP says: "By combining our experience in micromechanical medical product development, together with Len Shapiro's expertise in interventional cardiology, we will be looking for a new technique which combines the desirable outcomes of bypass surgery with the low cost and fast recovery times of angioplasty".

"Our aim is to assess the feasibility of a new technique to successfully open a blocked coronary artery, then allow current angioplasty procedures to insert a stent to hold open the artery, thereby restoring blood flow to the heart muscles".

The CDP team intends to design, build and test devices for unblocking coronary arteries which will then undergo clinical trials.

Len Shapiro, Consultant Cardiologist says: "Developing a new approach where blocked arteries can be unblocked would allow patients to be treated by angioplasty rather than coronary artery bypass".

"This would dramatically reduce the 'return to work' time from the current 12 weeks to one week with a consequent significant improvement in quality of life".

CDP has been responsible for the industrial design, mechanical engineering, electronics engineering and prototype manufacture of a range of successful medical devices ranging from skin cancer diagnosis through to innovative medical packaging.