West Midlands Academic Health Science Network (WMAHSN) Celebration of Innovation - 2016 Awards Brochure | Page 10

Alan was responsible for creating VasTec, the R&D
arm of the vascular side of the business, which
has won awards and grant funding for its
innovation and been shortlisted for many more.
From this, Alan commissioned an innovation cell
in the manufacturing facility, opened by Sajid Javid
MP, Business and Innovation Secretary. The cell
is now equipped with technology that will aid in
the future evolvement of Kimal’s innovation
programme.

Alan Press, Kimal plc

Alan has developed the company’s innovation
portfolio with gusto. The project team are working
with Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Heidelberg
University Hospital, Germany, on a cell which
measures delta lactate through skin. This all
came from an initiative Alan started, involving
sensor technology in catheters.
His appetite for innovation is infectious and sends
a wave of excitement and pride throughout the
company.
At the heart of the company is their passion for
delivering innovative solutions and exceeding
customers’ expectations. Alan is that heart and
keeps it beating with enthusiasm and a pride to do
everything in his power to help anyone who finds
themselves in a hospital situation and in contact
with a Kimal product. Alan Press could be said to
be a visionary of the healthcare industry.

For over 30 years, there had been no progression
in the design of central venous catheters in the
market. Alan saw this as a challenge and sought
to change this. Kimal tackled this with a unique,
patented manufacturing process called multi-tube
technology, culminating in the Altius catheter
range. This allows smaller size catheters with
higher flows and colour coding valves, meaning no
risk of air embolism, lowering risks of
misconnection infection.

Dr Stephen Wanless, Birmingham
City University, Faculty of Health

“A

Dr Wanless is an Associate Professor in
Biomechanics and Musculoskeletal Injury Prevention
within the Centre of Excellence in Posture, Movement
and Handling and co-ordinates the provision of advice,
training and guidance for all undergraduate
healthcare students in the Faculty, as well as acting as
a consultant for industry and health organisations.
His innovation is based around a unique approach to
posture and movement and the way moving and
handling is taught, so that patients can be moved
safely and efficiently without risk. The new approach
involved the use of the BCU-created ‘Vertebrate’
system, an easy to attach harness which vibrates like
a mobile phone when the wearer moves into an
incorrect posture.

colleagues across Europe, who were so impressed
they requested a learning package to help them roll
out his unique training system to their staff and
students. This led to an EU funded Erasmus+ bid,
worth over €500k,
which created a
‘Train the Trainers’
programme, to be
delivered in June 2016
to healthcare
colleagues from
Poland, Czech Republic,
Lithuania and Estonia,
who will use it to train
all of their medical and
nursing students.
Dr Stephen Wanless,

Birmingham City University and
Dr Christopher Parker, WMAHSN

The new training process was exhibited to healthcare

“T

he personal touch inherent in the ‘Tell Hamid’
campaign brings innovation culture closer to
colleagues and makes it easier for those who have
not yet done so to make the first tentative steps into
a world where everyone has the potential to make a
significant difference through promoting
and sharing ideas.

“

“

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Alan’s involvement with the company has been
since day one, even as a child (his father started
the company!). Alan has built an impressive
network of influential companies, clinicians and
researchers over the years from Sales Manager to
MD and all of the way through to CEO. Alan uses
these connections to find out what the patient and
clinicians requirements actually are and not just
to follow trends in the market.

INNOVATOR OF THE
YEAR AWARD

chieving both a direct and indirect impact
on wealth creation, Stephen’s work
is highly relevant to healthcare but also of
importance in other sectors, given the
prevalence of back problems and their
impact on the economy in all countries.

“

2016 Awards Brochure

“A

lan presents a fine example of leadership in
action, a driver of the culture within an
organisation that encourages innovation to thrive.
These examples have the potential to make
significant differences to the quality of care,
which again can be traced back to that effective,
dynamic and inspirational leadership.

HIGHLY COMMENDED
INNOVATOR

HIGHLY COMMENDED
INNOVATO R
Hamid Zolfagharinia,
Birmingham Community
Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Hamid was the delivery member of staff on the Creative
Digital Health Solution, which led to the trust being invited as a
major delivery partner for a much larger European Structural
and Investment Fund (ESIF) innovation project, Innovation
Engine 2, which is currently being assessed for approval by the
Department of Communities and Local Government. In little
over twelve months, Hamid’s leadership has led to 24 active
innovation projects and a relationship with more than 50 SMEs.

Ashish Patel, Mercia Technologies plc, Alan Press,
Kimal plc and Dr Christopher Parker, WMAHSN

Hamid initiated the “Tell HAMID” campaign in the trust to
encourage the members of staff to come forward with their
innovative ideas, enabling them to receive support from the
innovation team to help turn their ideas into reality.
Hamid Zolfagharinia, Birmingham Community
Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
and Dr Christopher Parker, WMAHSN

He is also pioneering the use of WMAHSN’s Meridian online
health innovation exchange as the central innovation
communication tool within the trust.

2016 Awards Brochure

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