Case Studies    SurePulse

Up to 10% of newborn babies require some form of stabilisation or resuscitation at birth. This adds up to 80,000 babies a year in the UK, 400,000 babies across Europe, and 14 million worldwide.

The heart rate of the baby is critical for guiding the resuscitation process. However ergonomic and physiological factors limit the effectiveness of transmissive pulse oximetery and electrocardiograms. As a result, the stethoscope remains the current standard of care, but its use can be subject to errors¹.

Getting the newborn resuscitation procedure right, at every step, requires accurate feedback of the status of the baby.

SurePulse Medical Ltd was form to commercialise intellectual property, originally developed by the University of Nottingham, which enables continuous, reliable, and hands-free monitoring of a babies heart rate within minutes after birth.

Formed as a Joint Venture between the University of Nottingham and Simpatica Group, SurePulse benefits from both the academic strength of the University and the commercial and manufacturing capabilities of Simpatica.

Working closely with Tioga, another part of Simpatica Group and one of the UK’s premiere Contract Electronics Manufacturer, Simpatica are helping SurePulse to bring forward revenue from the sale of their innovative new heart rate monitor, focus their resources on commercialisation activity, and reduce their projected after sales support costs.

• Access to commercial expertise: Mentoring for the full-time leadership team of SurePulse is on hand from Warwick Adams, a 30-year veteran of the medical electronics industry, and experts from the wider group. This has driven a razor sharp commercial focus throughout the SurePulse team.




• Accelerated time to market: Through access to a world-class manufacturing capability, certified to ISO13485:2016, SurePulse have been able to draw on the expertise of Tioga to ensure their product is designed for manufacture, reduce the number of prototype phases required, and achieve the regulatory approvals required, to successfully bring the product to market.




• Focus resource on commercialisation activity: Through access to shared services, provided by the Group, such as human resources, finance and administrative functions, SurePulse are able to focus their resource on activities directly related to commercialisation of this innovative new product.




• Access to proven quality systems and procedures: Driving product quality, alongside a world-class manufacturing team, means SurePulse can optimise their investment in an appropriate after sales support operation.

SurePulse and Simaptica Group are working collaboratively to ensure the commercial success of this ground breaking intellectual property, which will make a real difference to the care provided to newborn babies around the world, at the time of acquisition and in reducing time spent in intensive care.

Simpatica was created to accelerate the commercialisation of hardware-centric technology. Leveraging the group’s combined assets and expertise we aim to drive synergies between the existing group companies and nurture partnerships with academia and businesses; supporting them to develop their ideas into commercially viable products.

We are always interested in talking to like-minded individuals and companies. If you share our drive for innovation, and would like to explore how we could help your technology business, please fill out the information requested opposite and we’ll send a questionnaire, direct to your inbox.

References:
1 Voogdt, Kevin GJA, et al. “A randomised, simulated study assessing auscultation of heart rate at birth.” Resuscitation 81.8 (2010): 1000-1003.