Parliamentary Drop-in Event to Support High Quality Ovarian Cancer Services

By Luke Newman, Senior Account Executive (Kapler Communications - Our Sister Company)

 

On May 9 2005, my Mum, Jen Newman took her last breath after a brave 19 month battle against ovarian cancer. She was diagnosed with the ‘Silent Killer’ in October 2003 and went through three different courses of chemotherapy before the disease spread, in the form of cancerous cells, to her stomach. 

 

As the fifth most common cancer among women in the UK, and one of the hardest cancers to detect, ovarian cancer has raised particular challenges for the policy makers, commissioners and healthcare professionals. Ovacome, a support network for women with ovarian cancer, their families, friends and healthcare professionals is working to raise awareness of ovarian cancer among MPs. Ovacome develops local quality profiles to give parliamentarians key information on the quality of ovarian cancer services in their local area, including the latest data on outcomes of the therapies and on the effectiveness of the services offered to the patients. MPs then use the information to design and execute campaigns for better ovarian cancer services and also ensure that the experiences of women with ovarian cancer are well recorded and highlighted in their campaign to benefit the society.

Ovacome recently organised a ‘drop-in’ briefing event and invited MPs to meet with its members to find out more about ovarian cancer and to receive the regional quality profile. The aim of the program was to raise awareness of the problems that patients encountered during the course of the treatment and to highlight the part of the processes that worked well. It was also aimed at encouraging MPs to take action to tackle ovarian cancer and improve outcomes. As a member of Ovacome, I was also invited to attend the event and to talk to MPs about my experiences with my Mother’s diagnosis and treatment of the cancer.

Louise Bayne the Chief Executive of Ovacome briefed us on the importance of the day and encouraged the members who pointed out the following points to be included in the MP regional profiles:

·         Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer among women in the UK, and one of the harder cancers to detect.  This means that it has been difficult for policy makers, commissioners and healthcare professionals to tackle.

·         The outcomes of ovarian cancer patients living in the UK are still poorer than in comparable countries

·         Improving early diagnosis will be key to improving outcomes.  There is good evidence to show that the UK is a relatively low user of newer cancer drugs, including those for ovarian cancer. 

·         There is variation across the country on the percentage of patients who understood their condition.  Ovarian cancer patients were 10% less likely to be offered information about their condition than all cancers combined, in data from the National Cancer Patient Experience Survey.

Out of the attendees there were few women who volunteered and discussed about their experiences while they fought the disease. One of them had her last chemotherapy 5 days ago, and then there was another woman who has been in remission for 5 years but left with severe walking difficulties. She is unable to work and due to the economic climate she has seen her benefits cut. She is struggling to survive. There was also a woman who survived Ovarian Cancer 25 years ago, who now dedicated her life to fundraising for many cancer charities.

After the group discussion members were given a chance to have a brief discussion with MPs.  I was also able to discuss my Mother’s Ovarian Cancer to a selective few. I talked to Lorely Burt who is Liberal Democrat MP for Solihull recognised the problem of the late diagnosis.  However, from her own research, she claims that every GP will only encounter Ovarian Cancer once in their career. I also had a brief converstaion with Norman Lamb  who is Liberal Democrat MP for North Norfolk. He lost his Mother to Ovarian Cancer but, was delighted with her treatment by her hospital. He felt that they treated her well. During my discussion with Barry Sheerman, a labour MP for Huddersfield, he highlighted how the cancer is very close to his  heart.  His daughter survived the disease in her early 20’s.  She has now been able to conceive four children.  Each through IVF Treatment, due her inability to conceive naturally from her chemotherapy.

The day was really successful due to the sharing of the experiences, knowledge and assurance of help from MPs to execute awareness campaigns in the society. MPs collected a press release to use with their local media.  The photos of the event were used by MPs local media to publicise their support for the report. Each MP who attended the Parliamentary ‘drop-in event’ will be contacted in early 2013 by MHP Health Mandate to discuss the day and the methods to improve the treatment of Ovarian Cancer.

After attending the successful event I am now keen on taking the initiative forward by supporting Ovacome in every awareness program. I am running the London Marathon 2013 for Ovacome and I am sure that many more will join this program and help in making the event successful.

 

Optibrium and Digital Chemistry Announce Technology Collaboration to Guide Successful Drug Discovery

Integration of bioisostere database with automatic application and prioritisation will guide the identification of novel, high quality compounds in drug discovery

 

CAMBRIDGE and SHEFFIELD, UK, December 4^th, 2012 – Optibrium and Digital Chemistry, providers of software and database solutions for drug discovery, today announce an agreement to collaborate on the integration of Digital Chemistry’s unique BIOSTER™ database of precedented bioisostere replacements with Optibrium’s StarDrop™ software suite. This combination will allow drug discovery teams to quickly identify novel, high quality compounds based on the BIOSTER molecular transformations and prioritise these within StarDrop’s intuitive environment that guides the design and selection of compounds with an optimal balance of properties.  

The BIOSTER database contains over 25,000 bioisostere replacements, hand-curated from the literature by Dr István Ujváry and is distributed exclusively by Digital Chemistry. As part of the collaboration with Optibrium, the BIOSTER database will be converted into transformations that can be applied in StarDrop’s Nova™ module, which automatically generates new, chemically relevant compound structures to stimulate the search for high quality chemistry related to initial hit or lead compounds. The combined functionality of Nova and BIOSTER will allow for the application of this comprehensive database of precedented bioisostere replacements to generate novel structures with a high likelihood of biological activity and synthetic accessibility. StarDrop’s unique capabilities for multi-parameter optimisation and predictive modelling will allow efficient prioritisation of the resulting compound ideas to identify those with the best chance of achieving the property profile required for a successful drug.

The applications of these technologies extend throughout the drug discovery process, including the rigorous exploration of chemistries around early hits, scaffold hopping to overcome issues with a lead series or to identify diverse back-up series and protection of patent space around a candidate drug.

Matthew Segall, CEO of Optibrium commented, “We are very pleased to announce our collaboration with Digital Chemistry. This furthers our on-going strategy to work with other leading developers of informatics solutions in drug discovery to provide project teams with seamless access to the best technologies to guide the efficient discovery of novel, high quality drugs.”

Julian Hayward, Managing Director of Digital Chemistry added, “The deployment of BIOSTER data within a predictive software environment fulfils a long-held ambition to enhance the usefulness of this uniquely valuable database for the discovery of novel active compounds. The ability to generate highly focused libraries of both ‘obvious’ and ‘non-obvious’ drug candidates in this manner, will, no doubt, be a welcome addition to the armoury of drug discovery tools.”

István Ujváry, Managing Director of iKem and developer of BIOSTER, concluded: “Since its conception two decades ago, BIOSTER has strived to analyse and catalogue historically documented fragment replacement strategies to assist medicinal and pesticide chemists in their quest for new bioactive molecules. The sophisticated Nova module of Optibrium’s StarDrop software suite offers an exciting new tool for navigation through the chemical space of sets of bioisosteric and other transformations of this unique database. I am certain that the collaboration between Optibrium and Digital Chemistry will result in a versatile and popular new product.”

The results of this collaboration will be available in a future version of StarDrop, expected to be released during 2013.

For further information on Optibrium and StarDrop, please visit www.optibrium.com, contact info@optibrium.com or call +44 1223 815900.

 

For further information on BIOSTER or Digital Chemistry’s other products and services, please visit www.digitalchemistry.co.uk, contact info@digitalchemistry.co.uk or call +44 113 2678667.

Opinion piece by Rob Parker - Print Vs Online

Over the last 18 months I am hearing more and more from clients the word “online”. Some clients are increasing their already present online activity, some are totally new to this way of promotion and some are even thinking of totally dismissing print promotion in favour of “Online”.

I recently received a flyer in the post, all about taking control of my advertising spend, get more people to see my company, pay as I Go advertising etc, all very interesting. The surprise behind this posted and printed flyer? Well it was from Google, yes, the largest search engine in the world use a printed A5 flyers to promote their Adwords products. So needless to say that when I hear that companies and marketing companies are considering dropping printed media, I feel a little shiver, the hairs on my neck go up, and I think to myself, what a mistake.

The  phrase “online Vs print” should be “online and print”, this powerful marketing mix should be used together, like salt and pepper on a freshly cut loin of meat, they work together increasing the performance, enhancing the flavour. A well designed mixed marketing activity can be extremely effective.

The reality is that those companies looking to only do online marketing tend to then expect that the performance will just by magic increase, when realistically online campaigns need as much, if not more preparation than a printed campaign, obviously campaign size depending.

There are many ways of using print to drive online registrations or downloads if some key areas are well thought out and planned well in advance, web address urls should be easy to remember, the WIIFM (What’s in it for me) factor needs to be there, why should a reader action an advert, insert etc, are there discounts? Is there a Free Trial Offer? The incentive to action needs to be present. That said, a brand awareness campaign, with a lovely colour glossy Ad taking up a billboard, or magazine front cover is hard to replicate online, the tangible feeling is only really present in printed material, and a really nice photograph of a product, in a seductive light, with little or no wording and maybe just a corporate logo, just doesn’t’ look right in a banner advert on a website.

In my opinion, and this little blog is simply that, my opinion, print is still a vital component to the marketing mix. If Google are still sending flyers, then I leave you with this question – Are they wrong?

Rob Parker 

Head of eCommerce at International Labmate (http://www.labmate-online.com/)

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust working in partnership with HCL Clarity

London, 29 November 2012 – Innovative workforce management platform, HCL Clarity, is set to be implemented at Worcestershire Royal Hospitals Trust this month.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust, which has an annual health budget of about £320m, is facing a series of significant financial challenges to provide sustainable services to its 570,000 residents.

HR Director Bev Edgar says the Trust needs to find £50m savings over three years as part of the £200m efficiency target for Worcestershire as a whole.

“Our Trust’s three sites, Worcester Royal Hospital, Kidderminster Hospital and Treatment Centre and the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, will be working in partnership with HCL to meet these resourcing challenges in respect of middle grade and specialist doctors. This collaborative pilot will reduce our cost of agency staffing and deliver efficiencies and allow us to reinvest those savings into patient care.” Ms Edgar said.

Worcester Acute Hospitals Trust carries out more than 95,000 planned and emergency operations each year, with 140,000 A&E attendances and 500,000 outpatient appointments.

HCL Workforce solutions Chief Executive Stephen Burke confirmed the partnership, adding HCL was delighted with the opportunity to add value.

 “The Trust is currently working towards become a Foundation Trust and a key element of this goal is to identify innovative ways to deliver efficiency savings without compromising patient care. HCL Clarity delivers this and more,” Mr Burke said.

HCL Clarity is a managed service which controls and streamlines the entire temporary worker process from start to finish, taking the agency staff headache away from Trusts.

“We developed HCL Clarity specifically for the NHS – we know Trusts want to regain control and reduce costs in the face of their £20bn savings target, and with staffing costs accounting for nearly two thirds of the NHS annual budget it’s clear to see HCL Clarity’s potential to deliver huge savings without affecting front line services,” He said.

 

Temps permanently here

London, 22 November 2012: Latest figures from the Recruitment and Employee Confederation (REC) show the UK has the highest number of temporary workers in Europe, with over 1.3 million temps working in the UK – that’s 5% of the UK workforce and growing.

HCL Nursing Managing Director Helen Rudanec says the trend is seeing more and more workers trading in their permanent contracts to become freelancers, consultants and temporary staff, looking for genuine working flexibility and a better work-life balance to suit their personal needs.

“It’s easy to see why - temporary staff enjoy most of the rights of their permanent colleagues, typically earn more and have the ability to develop and improve their own skill base through exposure to numerous employment situations. Many are attracted by the independence and flexibility temporary work offers,” Ms Rudanec says.

Temporary employment is now a permanent feature of the UK’s business landscape and for many organisations, integral to business strategy.

“Temporary workers can be quickly deployed to cope with unforeseen job demands, cover sickness, holiday absence and maternity leave and provide extra support during seasonal periods like the Christmas rush or financial year end.

This is especially important for a sector such as healthcare; an inadequate level of skilled staff carries potentially life threatening consequences.”

Matching employers with short-term needs to employees with short-term availability or flexible preferences is a win-win for business and workers juggling various responsibilities such as childcare, education and higher learning.

“Temporary workers are now a permanent fixture in the modern workforce. At HCL Nursing we support the career choices of our nurses - they choose the shifts they want, at the location they decide for the length of time they require. We invest in the development of our temporary nurses and this has long term benefits for us, them, our clients and most importantly, the patients they care for.
 
Image: HCL Nursing Managing Director Helen Rudanec. For link to image please click here: http://bit.ly/QccsKe

HCL plc congratulates winners of the 2012 HSJ Awards

London, 21 November 2012: As a proud sponsor of the Health Service Journal Awards 2012, HCL would like to extend sincere congratulations to this year’s winners and finalists.

Over 1,400 healthcare professionals gathered at Grosvenor House Hotel in London last night to recognise and reward leading healthcare services across the country in the UK’s most prestigious awards evening.

HCL sponsored the ‘Workforce’ category, and HCL CEO Stephen Burke was thrilled to announce York Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust as the winner on the night for their healthcare assistant recruitment initiative.

“York Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust is a worthy recipient of the Workforce award. Their identification of a system to lower the turnover of healthcare assistants through initial training and induction and has already seen a significant increase in retention.” Mr Burke said.

Previously, the Trust’s turnover of healthcare assistants was significantly higher that the trust average and more than half of those leaving the role had less than a year’s service. Following the Trust’s recruitment overhaul, just six per cent of healthcare assistants recruited under the scheme have left, and only 34 per cent of these had less than a year’s service.

“York Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust’s submission is an example of the importance of innovative workforce practice in the current healthcare industry, and HCL is pleased to pay due credit to the people sharing best practice in this ever-evolving profession. As an organisation, we are committed to deliver the best standard of care in the most efficient way.” He said.

With no additional resources required to deliver the initiative, substantial savings have been recognised by the Trust, and judges praised a “progressive approach” to recruitment and selection on the night.

Congratulations once again to this year’s winners, finalists and all who submitted entries.

Optibrium's StarDrop 5.3 Offers Intuitive Virtual Library Design

Optibrium extends StarDrop’s capabilities to guide the design of high quality compound libraries for drug discovery

CAMBRIDGE, UK, 20^th November 2012 – Optibrium™, developer of software solutions for drug discovery, today announces a new version of its StarDrop™ platform. Version 5.3 introduces new features focused on the design of virtual libraries, guided by StarDrop’s unique multi-parameter optimisation capabilities to prioritise compounds with the best balance of properties for synthesis and testing.

Version 5.3 introduces its virtual library design capability as part of StarDrop’s Nova™ module, providing flexible and easy scaffold-based enumeration of a virtual library to allow drug discovery teams to rapidly explore new chemistry ideas. After drawing the scaffold on which the library will be based, users can select multiple functional groups, atoms or fragments to vary at each point of modification. These lists may be selected from a user-defined or centrally managed library, or sketched on an individual basis. A fully combinatorial library may be generated for detailed investigation or, alternatively, a subset of compounds can be automatically selected based on a predicted property or StarDrop’s unique Probabilistic Scoring algorithm for multi-parameter optimisation.

These new capabilities are supported by further enhancements to StarDrop’s core features, including easy-to-use tools for clustering, filtering based on substructure or properties and extensions to its interactive data visualisation. StarDrop offers a comprehensive desktop environment that saves time and reduces costs in drug discovery by guiding compound design and selection to quickly target high quality chemistry. These include plug-in modules providing: rigorously validated ADME QSAR models; quantum mechanical prediction of P450 metabolism; automatic generation of robust QSAR models; compound idea generation; application of 3D SAR based on Cresset’s™ Field technology; and the ability to integrate seamlessly with other informatics and modelling platforms.

Matt Segall, CEO of Optibrium, commented, “StarDrop offers a seamless workflow allowing our users to go from design and enumeration of a virtual library, through property prediction to prioritising the resulting compounds against the profile of properties they require for their project objective. Supported by interactive visualisations in StarDrop’s intuitive user interface, chemistry teams can quickly identify novel compounds with a high chance of success.”  Matt goes onto explain, “Many of the enhancements to StarDrop come as a direct result of working collaboratively with our users, which now include over 50 companies world-wide and seven of the top-ten pharma.”

For more information and to arrange a free trial of StarDrop, visit www.optibrium.com, contact info@optibrium.com or call +44 01223 815900.

HCL plc rank 10th in Recruiter’s Hot 10 public sector recruiters

London, 19 November 2012: The reengineering of HCL’s UK business is showing stability as it confirms its place in the Hot 10 public sector recruiters in the Recruiter Hot 100.

HCL CEO Stephen Burke says the placing is reflective of an experienced new Board and organisational restructure to meet the significantly changing needs of the healthcare staffing market.

“We are pleased with the placing and feel this reinforces our position as a leading business capable of generating good levels of revenue and delivering a high level of service on competitive terms to the NHS and private sector,” Mr Burke said.
The Hot 100 compiles the best performing Recruitment Businesses across the UK. Compiled independently by Agile Intelligence it analyses how businesses utilise their workforce, obtaining the best value-add service for their clients.

“We remain a top three healthcare staffing provider and these results demonstrate HCL’s resilience by performing in challenging market conditions.”

 HCL’s experienced Board and executive management team was formed in the first half of 2011.

To see the Recruiter Hot 100 list in full please click here.

For any further information, contact HCL Communications and PR Manager Laura Ackland on +44 (0) 207 451 1448.

 

About HCL plc
HCL plc, headquartered in London, was formed in 2003 and is a leading provider of staffing solutions in the health and social care sectors. HCL supplies over 2,000 temporary and permanent doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, qualified social workers and administration & clerical staff to public and private sectors every week. We are an international company with offices in the UK and Australia and recruitment drives in Europe. For more information please visit our website at www.hclplc.com, view our facebook page or follow us on twitter @HCLplc.

 

Group Restructure within AndersonBrecon Strengthens Business Following Recent Realignment of Companies

New job roles support global strategy and the Integration of US and European teams

Powys, UK (19 November 2012) – AndersonBrecon, a global supplier of pharmaceutical commercial packaging solutions and clinical trials services, today announced two senior promotions in-line with the recent realignment of the Brecon Pharmaceuticals and Anderson Packaging businesses. Peter Belden, Managing Director, AndersonBrecon Europe will step into the role of Senior Vice President of Global Commercial Services, while Dr. Sue Miles will assume responsibility for all four of the UK facilities in the role of UK Site Director.  These promotions support the further integration of the US and European businesses.  

Peter Belden will oversee all activities conducted by the global sales and marketing team, have responsibility for the US project management team, as well as retain his overall responsibility for AndersonBrecon Europe. Recently named Outsourcing Executive of the Year at the European Outsourcing Awards for his work in aligning the US and European businesses, Peter will return to the US after three years operating at the UK site in Hay-on-Wye, Wales.  Sue Miles will be responsible for overseeing operations in all of the four UK sites. In this role Sue will lead and provide advice and support to the UK team.

 Responding to the evolving pharmaceutical marketplace and provision of efficient and more competitive solutions to meet customers’ global needs, the restructure underpins the company’s commitment to providing customers with a holistic, truly global healthcare packaging solution, from clinical trials support, right through to commercialisation.   

Commenting upon the move, Peter Belden states, “As a fully integrated global business with 12 facilities across two continents, serving over 100 countries around the world, the position changes are a natural progression for AndersonBrecon.  It is essential that the teams are able to embrace and share each others’ skills and expertise in a broad range of markets. We are confident that this will provide us with the combined knowledge and capabilities which will allow us to provide our customers with an all-encompassing skill-set following the pivotal re-brand.”

 For more information on AndersonBrecon and its services, please visit www.andersonbrecon.com or follow them on Twitter at www.twitter.com/andersonbrecon.

 

About AndersonBrecon

AndersonBrecon is a global healthcare packaging company that partners with pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturers to increase their products' speed to market and opportunities for commercial success. With 12 state-of-the-art facilities across North America and Europe, AndersonBrecon offers a broad range of services to support packaging needs throughout the product life cycle—from Phase I clinical trials through commercialization and ongoing supply. Manufacturers trust AndersonBrecon for the proven experience, exceptional quality systems and continued technology investment they bring to their packaging solutions, along with the strength and stability that comes from being part of the AmerisourceBergen family of companies. To learn more visit www.andersonbrecon.com.

 

Exco InTouch and AstraZeneca to Host Webinar Demonstrating mHealth’s Potential to Revolutionise the Future of the Pharmaceutical Industry

mHealth Solutions Can Significantly Improve Medication Adherence, Health Outcomes and Patient Quality of Life

 

(19 November 2012) – Exco InTouch, the leading provider of patient engagement, data collection and communication solutions for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, today announced that it will be hosting an informative webinar with leading global pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca. The exclusive webinar will explain how mobile health (mHealth) provides the industry with the opportunity to engage in multi-layered, personalised solutions that can support patients in the real world, improve health outcomes and overall quality of life. Entitled “Going beyond the pill: how mHealth enables Intelligent Pharmaceuticals”, the webinar will take place on Wednesday 28^th November at 11am EST. Audiences are invited to register in advance at http://bit.ly/XEXKhZ

Presented by Mark Brincat, Director of Product Strategy and Management at Exco InTouch and Matthew Bonam, Pharmaceutical Project Director at AstraZeneca, the webinar will introduce the importance of mHealth in the pharmaceutical industry, explaining its ability to offer pharmaceutical companies adaptive, multi-modal solutions which can provide a better understanding of the patient experience, and as a result, provide altered patient behavior and improved medication adherence. It will draw upon the positive experiences had by AstraZeneca in improving health outcomes through mHealth programs, as well as discussing AstraZeneca’s vision for ‘Intelligent Pharmaceuticals’, with particular emphasis on the necessity of growing health solutions ‘beyond the pill’.

Mark Brincat explains, “The webinar will educate and inform audiences on the importance and benefits of mHealth in the future of the pharmaceutical industry, with exclusive insight from AstraZeneca on its vision for a future of ‘Intelligent Pharmaceuticals’. We want audiences to understand how adaptive solutions can be designed exclusively for condition specific areas, with a focus on delivering the correct patient behaviour changes. As the pharmaceutical industry faces challenging times, with stiff competition, mounting price pressure and continually increasing costs, it has never been more critical to engage with patients. We believe that mHealth has an important part to play in providing sponsors and healthcare providers with a mechanism to effectively engage with patients through a multi-layered, personalised approach.”

For more information please join the webinar on Wednesday 28^th November at 11am EST.

-ENDS-

For further press information please contact: Michelle Valentine, The Scott Partnership, 1 Whiteside, Station Road, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire CW4 8AA Tel: +44 1477 539539 Fax: +44 1477 539540 e-mail: exco@scottpr.com  

 About Exco InTouch

Exco InTouch is the trusted global innovator of regulatory compliant, mobile patient engagement solutions for life sciences and healthcare companies involved in clinical, late phase and mHealth research. Using a combination of patented software and services delivered in a cloud environment, Exco’s solutions can be utilised on any electronic device. This safe, secure platform facilitates compliant patient communication across the clinical development process from early phase development right through to long term studies and mHealth. As a result, Exco can help its customers to improve clinical outcomes by putting the patient at the heart of a study and enhancing the overall patient experience.

Exco’s solutions are currently being used by hundreds of thousands of patients in over seventy countries, delivered in the local language and are fully compliant with HIPAA regulations, FDA CFR 21 Part 11 and all electronic communication privacy directives.

Microsaic Systems Appoints New CEO to Drive the Commercialisation of its Revolutionary Chip-based Technology

(Woking, November 5^th 2012) Microsaic Systems plc, the high technology company developing next generation mass spectrometry instruments, announces the appointment of Colin Jump as Chief Executive Officer. With over 30 years of experience working in the analytical instrumentation sector, Colin has a proven track record helping companies to achieve significant growth and will bring a vast amount of commercial and operational acumen to the role.

Prior to joining Microsaic, Colin was responsible for developing and growing Shimadzu UK Ltd, a global manufacturer of scientific research instruments. As UK Managing Director of Shimadzu UK Ltd for the past 11 years, Colin led the company using his extensive business experience and industry knowledge to implement comprehensive growth and marketing communication strategies, both of which will be invaluable in the development and growth of Microsaic Systems going forward.

Before managing Shimadzu UK Ltd, Colin was European Commercial Director at SGE Europe Ltd, which followed seven years in senior management and marketing positions at Mallinckrodt Baker in the UK and the Netherlands. In addition, his prior roles in sales and marketing positions at Bayer Diagnostics, Boehringer Mannheim UK and Wellcome Diagnostics will undoubtedly be beneficial to Microsaic Systems as it looks to establish its innovative chip-based scientific instruments within the analytical instrumentation market.

“Microsaic Systems is the first and only company to have commercialised MS (mass spectrometry) technology on a chip,” said Colin Jump. “This places the company in an optimal position to deliver this gold standard technique for chemical analysis to a much wider range of users and applications.” He continues, “I am excited to be joining Microsaic Systems at this crucial stage as it accelerates the commercialisation of its revolutionary chip-based technology. With the ability to address major opportunities across multiple market areas I see huge potential for the technology and for the Company in the years ahead.”

 “Our breakthrough product, the 3500 MiD, represents a step change in the ease of use and footprint of mass spectrometry. The instrument is smaller, lighter, consumes less energy, is easier to maintain and cheaper to run than conventional MS systems,” comments Eric Yeatman, Acting CEO of Microsaic Systems. “The Board is very pleased to welcome Colin Jump to the company as our new CEO and I have no doubt his commercial and operational experience in the analytical instrumentation sector will help drive the business forward towards the further realisation of our corporate goals.”

The 3500 MiD is the culmination of over a decade of research, bringing together two high tech fields – chemical analysis and silicon micro-engineering – to make possible a transformative capability in detection. Its low operating cost and small footprint make the 3500 MiD deployable in a wide range of applications where mass spectrometry has not been able to reach - until now.

Colin Jump will take up his role on 5^th November 2012, at which point Eric Yeatman and Colin Nicholl will resume their former roles as Chairman and Deputy Chairman, respectively.

For more information about the Microsaic 3500 MiD system, please call +44 1483 751 577, email media@microsaic.com or visit www.microsaic.com

Crown Bioscience, Inc. and Horizon Discovery, Ltd. to Showcase X-MAN Cell Lines for In Vivo and In Vitro Drug Discovery Model Validation at EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium

Santa Clara, CA and Cambridge, UK (November 06 2012) – Crown Bioscience, Inc., a leading global drug discovery and development service company, and Horizon Discovery Ltd., a leading provider of research tools to support the development of personalized medicines, will highlight the availability of X-MAN™ cell lines for in vitro and in vivo drug discovery model validation at the 24th EORTC - NCI - AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, Dublin, Nov 6-9, 2012.

High-quality human disease models are crucial for generating 'first-in-class' patient-relevant targets and facilitating the development of novel oncology targets and early-stage drug discovery programs within the pharmaceutical industry. The new in vivo X-MAN (X-Gene Mutant And Normal) models will be made available to customers by Crown Bioscience via a new service offering whilst Horizon will provide access to a broad range of in vitro services based around its inventory of; >450 X-MAN cell lines, >50 phenotypic cell-based assays and its SyntheTx™ drug/RNAi screening platform.

Leveraging their unique drug discovery and translational research platforms, Crown Bioscience and Horizon Discovery help develop the best drug candidates with high confidence for clinical development, reducing drug attrition and development cost. Crown Bioscience and Horizon Discovery are ideally placed to help bring to the clinic lead molecules based upon highly validated and novel drug models. The in vitro and in vivo cell lines are available to clients who want to help validate new models and become early adopters with full access to new models at the earliest possible phase.

“Crown Bioscience aspires to become the innovation engine for the global biotech and pharmaceutical industry. We are guided by our responsibility to clients and a desire to make a major positive impact on human life worldwide. We are constantly pioneering new paths and finding new answers to meet the urgent needs of our customers’ waging war against cancer,” said Jean-Pierre Wery, President of Crown Bioscience. “The novel in vivo models we are developing based on the X-MAN^TM cell lines offer new opportunities for clients to collaborate with us at an early stage and validate the models based on their needs, This will allow greater insights and better means to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of compounds and their impact on key physiological functions.”

“Horizon Discovery uses its highly efficient and proprietary gene-engineering platform technology, GENESIS™ to precisely engineer X-MAN human disease models that harbor the key genetic features that drive a patient’s disease” commented Darrin Disley, CEO of Horizon Discovery. “We are delighted to provide Crown Bioscience with our unique range of X-MAN cell lines, so that Crown can develop and provide our clients with a suite of in vivo models that complements our extensive range of in vitro services.”

The new in vivo models demonstrate Crown Bioscience’s commitment to continuing to invest in and expand its portfolio of models and to work collaboratively with partners and clients to accurately and robustly evaluate the efficacy of new therapeutic agents. The in vivo models are designed to help clients address their key needs and challenges by providing cutting-edge clinically relevant models that are ready to run. Crown Bioscience’s comprehensive services for drug development, from target to pre-IND, have accelerated confident Go/No Go decisions during early stage drug discovery and ensured robust pre-clinical candidate selection.

To learn more please visit Crown Bioscience at booth #C3 and Horizon Discovery at booth #A4 at the 24th EORTC - NCI - AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, Dublin, Nov 6-9, 2012.

Alternatively please email pr@mail.crownbio.com, call 001 408 986 0103 or visit www.crownbio.com (for Crown Bioscience Inc) or xman@horizondiscovery.com, call 0044 1223 655 580 or visit www.horizondiscovery.com (for Horizon Discovery Ltd)

HCL Nursing congratulates the winners of the 2012 Nursing Times Awards

As proud sponsors of the Nursing Times Awards 2012, HCL Nursing would like to extend its sincere congratulations to this year’s winners and finalists.

Over 1,000 healthcare professionals attended the 2012 Nursing Times Awards at the London Hilton last night, celebrating nursing’s most prestigious awards evening. Altogether, nearly 100 organisations and their partners were represented and shortlisted.

HCL Nursing sponsored the ‘Nurse of the Year’ category, and HCL Director of Sales and Marketing, Claire Billenness was thrilled to announce Jacky Edwards of University Hospital of South Manchester (UHSM) as the winner.

Ms Billenness said: “Jacky is a worthy recipient of the Nurse of the Year title, and HCL Nursing is delighted to recognise her contributions to burns patients and services.” 

Jacky Edwards became the UK’s first burns nurse consultant in 2010.  Her work has produced significant output, including papers on wound care and the implementation of protocols such as uniform referral forms, referral criterias and competencies for burn nurses.

“It is an honour for HCL Nursing to recognise and pay due credit to people who are a part of this exceptional profession. As an organisation, we are committed to supporting and investing in all our nurses, from their compliance to their continued professional development, to provide the NHS and the healthcare industry with innovative, quality nurses such as Jacky.” Ms Billenness said.

Congratulations once again to this year’s winners, finalists and all who submitted entries.

End.

Efficiency Gains Proven at Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust

Efficiency Gains Proven at Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust

          Productivity up, defects down in first audited year of public-private partnership

 

Swindon UK (25 September 2012) – Synergy Health, the leading provider of specialist outsourced services to healthcare providers has completed its successful first year in partnership with Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust. Synergy Health was appointed to work in partnership with the Trust for five years in order to improve turnaround times and to achieve regulatory compliance by taking over the running of an in-house decontamination service.

The new partnership has produced a significant increase in productivity and enabled faster instrument turnaround times; defect rates have reduced from the previous 2-3% rate to the current level of 0.34%, enabling the hospitals to enhance patient safety and cost efficiencies.

In 2011, the Trust put out to tender its in-house central sterilisation service. Synergy Health won the contract due to its ability to offer competitive prices and its proven track record in the field of Hospital Sterile Services. The Trust TUPE’d 40 of the previous facility employees over to the new unit which has enabled the employees to gain benefits from working in a newly designed working environment and receive training to ensure they are working to the best possible standards.

The introduction of key performance indicators has allowed the Trust to more accurately measure the success of its decontamination service. It is now also able to identify any problematic issues easily and holds operation meetings at regular intervals, allowing for improved communication. It is now also able to measure the adherence of its staff to processes and governance.

 Adrian Coward, CEO Synergy Health, UK and Ireland, said: “The Trust is seeing an improvement in the service and different departments within the organisation, as greater engagement is bringing in quicker results.”

“We are delighted to complete the first year of partnership with the Trust. The outsourcing of the sterile services has allowed the Trust to enhance patient safety while making important savings. We will strive to ensure we focus on the needs of the hospital to continue to deliver excellent and safe patient care in the coming years.”

To learn more about Synergy Health’s services, please visit www.synergyhealthplc.com, contact mailto:decontamination@synergyhealthplc.com or alternatively call 01582 501234

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Notes to editors:

About Synergy Health  

Synergy Health is the largest provider of outsourced hospital sterilisation services in Europe with 19 facilities across the UK and further facilities in Belgium, Netherlands and China.  It safely sterilises around 60 million surgical instruments each year from NHS acute and primary Trusts and the independent sector throughout the country.

Synergy’s services offer significant economies of scale and efficiency savings to the NHS,  is fully engaged with the reforms in healthcare and is committed to supporting the NHS in reducing its cost burden while striving for the highest quality of care and best outcomes for patients.  

For further press information please contact: Thomas Carlin The Scott Partnership, 1 Whiteside, Station Road, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire. CW4 8AA United Kingdom Tel: + 44 1477 539539  Fax: +44  1477 539540   mail to: synergy@scottpr.com