It’s a busy time for Medilink Midlands as the specialist membership association continues to deliver business growth support to the life sciences and medtech companies across the Midlands, and has officially begun the countdown to the highlight of its annual events calendar - the Medilink Midlands Business Awards. 

With less than a month to go until the 2023 event, excitement is building amongst shortlisted businesses from across the East and West Midlands seeking to be crowned as winners. The annual awards recognise and celebrate the excellence that Midlands companies are achieving at the leading edge of the healthcare sector. 

Ahead of this year’s event, Medilink Midlands shines a light on winner of last year’s Delivering Innovation into Health and Care award – Tutum Medical. 

Medilink Midlands is the Midlands life sciences industry association with a vision to stimulate the growth of the Midlands life science sector by helping companies establish, develop, and grow.

Its annual awards celebrate the achievements, innovations, and breakthroughs of life sciences companies across the East and West Midlands.

Applications for the 2023 awards have been reviewed by an independent and expert panel of judges, and the shortlist revealed. Winners and highly commended companies from both the East and West Midlands will be announced at a prestigious awards ceremony and black-tie dinner to be held at the Great Hall, University of Birmingham, on 16 March 2023.

The award for Delivering Innovation into Health and Care is one of eight award categories and recognises innovations that are being adopted by the NHS and have demonstrated an impact on efficacy, patient outcomes, and NHS system costs.

Winner of the 2022 Delivering Innovation into Health and Care award was Chesterfield-based Tutum Medical Ltd - a spin-out from specialist engineering company TBG Solutions, which provides test capability on manufactured products to large corporate companies. Its R&D department works in collaboration with prime customers for trials and analysis of results before going live to the market. Tutum Medical was created as a result of one of its collaborative projects with Sheffield Children’s Hospital. The company focuses on partnering with NHS organisations to solve problems and improve patient care.

One such project, BEAMS (Beside Equipment Alarm Monitoring System), is the world’s first acoustic bedside monitoring system for single-bed patient rooms and four to six bay wards, that integrates with all bedside alarms and provides an innovative digital solution to the critical issues of both alarm fatigue and the shortage of nurses within the NHS. Engineered by managing director Paul Rawlinson and his team, the device was initially commissioned to provide a safety solution for Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

Tutum Medical has been supported by Medilink Midlands’ senior innovation advisor, Jo Maltby.

Of working with Tutum, she said: “From the first meeting with Paul, I was blown away by both Paul’s passion and the potential for the BEAMS device. I was delighted to support Tutum with introductions to a number of strategic partners within the Midlands and with grant funding for an innovation project to access health economics and NHS market access data in order to allow them to strategise their market entry within the NHS."

Winning the Medilink Midlands award has helped Tutum to raise its profile and increase awareness of the BEAMS technology within the NHS.

“Navigating NHS Trusts and creating a valid business case including health economics can be a difficult process for any innovator,” Jo explains. “I believe that winning the Medilink Midlands award has helped Tutum to further build on its work to showcase the BEAMS innovation on a national scale within the NHS, as a leading innovator for solutions that not only improve patient safety, but also help Trusts to navigate the pressing issue of staff shortages through technology that increases nursing efficiency.”

Of winning the Medilink Midlands Delivering Innovation into Health and Care award in 2022, managing director of Tutum Medical Limited, Paul Rawlinson, said: “Winning this award was a fantastic and a worthy accolade for everyone involved in developing the unique BEAMS technology.”

Tutum Medical was subsequently crowned the winner of the same category at the national Medilink UK Healthcare Business Awards, as well winning the Building Better Healthcare Award for Best Communications System in 2022.

Sponsored by the University of Birmingham and the Precision Health Technologies Accelerator (PHTA), the Medilink Midlands 2023 Business Awards will once again provide a stage to showcase the very best collaborations between industry, academia, and the NHS across the Midlands.

Winners of the awards are automatically entered into the Medilink UK National Awards, part of the Med-Tech Innovation Conference & Expo (MTI) taking place on 7 June 2023. 

Tickets for the event are on public sale and available here, on a first-come, first-served basis. Discounts are available to Medilink Midlands members and tickets can be purchased on an individual basis or per table.