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

 

SmartKem Further Expands Team in Europe with Addition of Three New Recruits

SmartKem Further Expands Team in Europe with Addition of Three New Recruits

COO and two scientists to join the Manchester team to support SmartKem’s growth plans.

(17 September 2012) - SmartKem Limited, the developer of high performance, organic semiconductor materials for flexible electronics, today announced the appointment of three new team members in Europe. Dr. Hugh Williamson will be welcomed as Chief Operating Officer, whilst Dr. Muhammad Raza and Dr. Keith Lumbard will join as scientists at SmartKem’s dedicated chemistry synthesis labs in Manchester. The last 12 months has seen SmartKem appoint staff in strategic locations across Asia and Europe to further strengthen its technical and commercial activities.

As SmartKem’s third senior appointment in the past six months, following the appointment of Bill Freer as Chairman in March and Gary Tam as Business Development Director in June, Dr. Williamson possesses over 30 years’ experience in the chemicals industry which will be shared in his position as Chief Operating Officer.  Previous roles have seen Dr. Williamson excel in the delivery and introduction of new chemical products at international level. Having spent a number of years as a senior scientist at Kodak, Dr. Williamson’s global experience and proven ability to lead R&D and operations teams will be essential in supporting SmartKem’s commercialisation strategy and the development of future technology. Possessing over 40 years’ combined experience as synthetic chemists, Dr. Lumbard and Dr. Raza will be responsible for the development of next generation organic semiconductor molecules with enhanced performance to complement SmartKem’s already market-leading materials.

“Our latest recruits are another step forward in our vision to become the leading provider of high-mobility organic semiconductor materials and solutions for flexible display backplanes and organic circuits,’’ comments Steve Kelly, CEO at SmartKem. “Hugh was a natural appointment for us as Chief Operating Officer with his strong record of scaling novel organic synthesis methods into commercial processes. This further supports our strategy to maintain strong vertical integration in organic electronics - from molecule design to market application. The appointments of Keith and Muhammad as additional synthetic chemists demonstrate our commitment to develop ultra-high mobility organic semiconductors to meet future-market needs and to extend our leadership in the field. We are delighted to welcome them to the team.”

These new appointments promise to add strength, experience and expertise to the company in order to further develop its presence in the rapidly growing flexible electronics industry. Together, the new members of the team will further support SmartKem’s mission of becoming the leading provider of, ‘p’ type organic semiconductor materials and solutions for ultra-thin and flexible electronics.

For more information on SmartKem and its innovative materials, please call 01745 535190, email enquiries@smartkem.com or visit www.smartkem.com

-ENDS-

About SmartKem

SmartKem is a high tech enterprise developing an exciting new technology platform focusing on high performance organic semiconductor materials that can be ‘printed’ onto lightweight low cost polymer films to deliver flexible circuits. SmartKem’s main objective is to respond to the demand for low cost, low energy, lightweight, rugged electronics. The SmartKem team has proven expertise and experience in the fields of organic semiconductors, specialist ink-technology and printable transistors and was a recent winner of the inaugural Oxford Venturefest gold award for ‘British Technology Innovation of the Year’.

 

 

Optibrium Goes from Strength to Strength as Global Customer Base Continues to Grow

Optibrium celebrates growth in all areas of the company as it enters its fourth year of business

Optibrium, developer of software solutions for drug discovery, today reveals an exciting period of growth across all areas of its business.  Optibrium is celebrating significant expansion in its team of experts, requiring relocation to new, larger premises.  This success is built on the rapidly expanding, global customer base for Optibrium’s primary product, StarDrop. This pioneering drug discovery software platform offers a range of intuitive tools and technologies that guide the selection and design of high quality compounds in drug discovery.

Optibrium, which was founded in 2009, now boasts a customer base of over 50 pharma, biotech and academic groups spread across the globe, including seven of the top ten pharmaceutical companies.  All have been attracted by StarDrop; a highly visual and easy-to-use software package, which provides a unique environment for multi-parameter optimisation of candidate drugs. It includes an interactive designer that helps to explore optimisation strategies, guided by StarDrop’s unique Glowing Molecule visualisation. The suite is complemented by a range of plug-in modules that further expand its capabilities to quickly identify better molecules, thereby reducing costs and timelines and strengthening pipelines.  Reflecting the growth of the business, Optibrium has expanded its software development and support teams to maintain the high level of support provided to its users and this has required the company to move to office space which is 50% larger than its original premises.

The most recent appointment has seen Nick Foster join as Director of Business Development. Nick’s role will see him lead the development of new business opportunities for Optibrium’s products.  Nick has 20 years of experience within the life science industry and academia and joins Optibrium from BioFocus.  Nick’s successful track record in business development is complemented by his early scientific career, spent as an ADME/PK scientist working on drug discovery projects. 

Nick comments, “I am delighted to be joining the Optibrium team.  The company has a fantastic reputation in the industry for its innovative products and offers a dynamic place to work.  I look forward to developing our customer base and being part of Optibrium’s continuing expansion and success.”

CEO Matt Segall comments, “Over the past three years our team has developed our product portfolio and introduced innovative approaches to drug discovery as we expanded our customer base. We have now reached a really exciting phase of rapid growth as the result of this hard work and this provides further inspiration to the whole team who are dedicated to finding ways to help scientists to optimise drug discovery.”

Optibrium is offering StarDrop users the opportunity to win a trip to the American Chemical Society (ACS) Spring National Meeting and Exhibition 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana. For more information please visit http://www.optibrium.com/news/competition.php.

For more information about StarDrop and Optibrium’s software solutions please visit www.optibrium.com, alternatively please call +44 (0) 1223 815 900 or email info@optibrium.com.

END  

About Optibrium Ltd

Optibrium (www.optibrium.com) is dedicated to providing software to guide decisions involving complex, uncertain data in an intuitive way.  Based in Cambridge, UK, Optibrium has a global customer base ranging from top-ten pharmaceutical companies to biotechs and academic groups.  Our mission is to continue to develop new technologies that will optimise project strategy, reduce wasted molecules and experiments, shorten timelines and improve the quality of candidate compounds for our clients.  Optibrium’s primary product, StarDrop, is focused on the drug discovery industry, helping guide scientists to make decisions in the design and selection of high quality drug candidates.  Visit the online community at http://www.optibrium.com/community/ for further discussions on improving the productivity of drug discovery.

For further press information please contact: Sarah Morley, The Scott Partnership, 1 Whiteside, Station Road, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire CW4 8AA, UK Tel: + 44 1477 539539 Fax: +44 1477 539 540 E-mail: optibrium@scottpr.com

Microsaic’s International Partner to present its new Mass Directed Flash System at JASIS 2012

Microsaic Systems plc (AIM: MSYS),  today announces that Biotage AB (Uppsala, Sweden), a leading global supplier of laboratory equipment, will be presenting its fully integrated solution for ‘Mass Directed Flash’ purification at JASIS 2012 (Japan Analytical Scientific Instruments Show) in Makuhari Messe, Japan (5-7 September). This is the first time Biotage has presented the new system, which incorporates Microsaic’s novel miniature mass spectrometer – the Microsaic MiD.

Microsaic entered an agreement in May 2012 with Biotage, previously identified in announcements as ‘an international supplier of laboratory equipment’, to provide its MiD chip-based scientific instrument as an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). Since then, Microsaic has further developed the MiD and the companies are at an advanced stage of integrating it with Biotage’s flagship Flash purification system Isolera™. The new integrated system is expected to be commercially available in early 2013.

Mass directed flash purification is a powerful technique for collecting compounds based on mass allowing the chemist to purify and analyse compounds at the same time.

Eric Yeatman, Chief Executive of Microsaic Systems, commented:

“One of Microsaic’s key strategic aims is to grow sales of our innovative products as an OEM partner with leading international suppliers of  scientific instruments in specified application areas of chemical separation and purification. Our objective is to benefit from access to an existing customer base and also to make mass spectrometry available to a wide range of new customers and to open new opportunities. We are very pleased at the progress being made with Biotage, which matches unique benefits of our miniaturised instruments with their product development and international commercial capabilities.”

Toshiyuki Yachi, Vice President Marketing of Biotage, added:

“This is a game changer in flash purification that will allow chemists to significantly improve their work flow. We have high expectations on the forthcoming launch of this product that will further strengthen our purification business.”


Contacts

The Scott Partnership (Trade PR) Sarah Morley

+44 (0)1477 539539

About Microsaic Systems
Microsaic Systems develops chip-based scientific instruments for the identification of substances in solids, liquids and gases. The Company's products are based on the 'gold-standard' scientific technique of mass spectrometry (MS).

Microsaic Systems has developed a miniaturised mass spectrometer product, based on its patented, chip-based technologies (ionchip^®, spraychip^® and vac-chip™), that is smaller, lighter, quieter, more energy efficient and cheaper to run than conventional MS systems.

Mass spectrometry (MS) is used across multiple sectors, including government, energy, utilities, pharmaceutical, diagnostics and healthcare, environmental, food and drink, security and defence, and industrial chemicals - a combined market of $3.3 billion in 2010.

Microsaic Systems was established in 2001 by a team including founders from Imperial College London, and was admitted to AIM in April 2011 under the symbol MSYS.

www.microsaic.com

About Biotage

Biotage offers solutions, knowledge and experience in the areas of analytical and medicinal chemistry. Customers include the world’s top pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as leading academic institutes. The company is headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden, with offices in China, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and a worldwide network of distributors. Biotage has 272 employees with sales of 428.4 MSEK in 2011. Biotage is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Nordic Stock Exchange. Website: www.biotage.com

http://www.microsaic.com/

Analytical Technology Demonstrates Commitment to Protecting the Environment with Achievement of ISO 14001 Certification

http://www.atiuk.com/

Manchester, UK (September 3, 2012) - Specialist electrochemical sensor manufacturer Analytical Technology Inc. today announced that it has been awarded the ISO 14001 environment management standard, recognising the company’s commitment to minimising its impact on the environment. As the supplier of water and gas monitoring instrumentation to the majority of the UK’s largest utility companies and leading food and beverage, metal finishing and pharmaceutical manufacturing companies across Europe, Analytical Technology is leading by example in matters relating to environmental protection. 

 The ISO 14001 standard assists companies who want to minimise how their processes and operations negatively affect the environment and also provides guidance on how to comply with applicable laws and regulations. In order to obtain this certification, Analytical Technology is monitoring its consumption of fuel, gas, electricity and water in an attempt to reduce waste and energy usage and improve its overall environmental performance.

Analytical Technology manufactures both water and gas monitoring instrumentation to help companies demonstrate compliance with the strict regulations outlined by the Environment Agency (EA) and EU Directives. Industrial companies in the food and beverage, pharmaceutical and metal finishing sectors employ Analytical Technology’s instrumentation to monitor trade effluents to ensure that only safe levels of chemicals are released into the environment. The company’s wide range of water monitors includes dissolved hydrogen sulphide, pH, ammonia, dissolved oxygen, hydrogen peroxide, residual sulphite and several chlorine monitors.

Mike Strahand, General Manager Europe at Analytical Technology, commented: “We are committed to protecting the environment in whatever way possible and everyone in our team has an enhanced awareness of our company environmental policy. As we help companies on a daily basis to minimise their impact on the environment through the use of our water and gas monitors, we are delighted to have received recognition for our continual commitment to operating in an environmentally conscious manner.”

For more information on Analytical Technology’s range of water and gas monitoring instrumentation or further details on the roundtable discussion, please call 0800 8046 062, e-mail sales@atiuk.com or visit www.atiuk.com.

-ENDS- 

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