Imperial Innovations seeks to license hospital hygiene device

Licensing Opportunity

Two entrepreneurial medical graduates from Imperial College London have designed a disposable tourniquet to reduce the spread of hospital infections such as MRSA. 

Recently qualified doctors, Ryan Kerstein and Christian Fellowes, have designed a disposable tourniquet, the Tournistrip, which could reduce infections and provide a cheap and more practical alternative to the currently available tourniquets. Tourniquets are used by medical staff to assist in taking blood samples or inserting a drip and are tightened around limbs to make veins more visible.

The Tournistrip is made of a band of plasticized paper the size of a watch strap and seals with a quick release sticking pad like the security wristbands worn by concert-goers and would cost as much as a rubber glove to manufacture.

The inventors are “primarily looking for a licensing partner for product manufacture, marketing, distribution and sales. Although we would consider establishing a new company if other, synergistic products were to be included.” said Roy Koruth, technology transfer executive from Imperial Innovations, which is assisting the pair in commercializing their product, “We would ideally seek an established player in the hospital supplies market who was able to offer global coverage with significant manufacturing, distribution, sales and marketing capabilities.”

“The product is covered by a family of patent applications, design rights applications and a CE mark.  We would seek to licence this package,” said Koruth, “Primarily the interest is in licensing the product, associated data and IP protection assets.”

After carrying out a study on the infective organisms present in reusable tourniquets, the designers found that in 52 reusable tourniquets, 30 grew methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) and three grew methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). This convinced the pair that reusable tourniquets pose an infection risk.  Current disposable tourniquets, on the other hand, are expensive and difficult to use which means that medical professionals often use a rubber glove.  According to the designers, this can lead to patient discomfort as well as latex allergies or trauma for the estimated 40 million NHS tourniquet procedures carried out each year.

The students were finalists in the Imperial Business Plan Competition in 2005 and won the Imperial College Innovation Competition in 2004.  The team has a patent pending on the design, and prototypes of the tourniquet have been successfully tested in various London teaching hospitals.