Licence for hospital trolley partner

The Resus:station project to redesign the hospital resuscitation trolley is led by Jonathan West, Sally Halls and Ed Matthews in the RCA Helen Hamlyn Centre, which has a dedicated research group looking at design for patient safety.

This team is working with clinicians and clinical psychologists from Imperial College and St Mary’s Hospital to reduce the medical errors associated with use of the ‘crash trolley’.

The project received a major boost with an award from the Wellcome Trust to undertake clinical trials at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. During the trials, more than 100 cardiac arrests will be observed to demonstrate the safety improvements that the redesigned trolley delivers.

The new trolley has been designed with more open access, an ability to divide into three separate units to aid individual medical team members engaged in the resuscitation process, and a technology tracking system to ensure that all essential kit is accounted for on the Resus:station.

Commercial terms have been agreed with the trolley’s industrial partner Bristol Maid (Hospital Metalcraft Ltd), which is manufacturing five prototype trolleys for the trial and has been granted a licence for European production by the College.