Inspiring Innovation is our round-up of news from a thriving innovation landscape collated by our Sector Intelligence team. It fuels our ambitions to elevate Wales as a place of choice for health and social care innovation and investment.
In this edition, we highlight Cardiff University’s partnership in the ColoCap study, a potential capsule endoscopy to diagnose bowel cancer, and success for health and social care companies at the 2024 Wales Technology Awards.
Cardiff joins UK-wide bowel imaging clinical trial to assess capsule endoscopy
Cardiff University’s Centre for Trials Research (CTR) is a key partner in the ColoCap study, a trial to assess the potential of a capsule endoscopy to diagnose bowel cancer.
Patients with suspected bowel cancer are currently diagnosed via a colonoscopy. Although a colonoscopy is the gold-standard of bowel cancer diagnosis, it’s an invasive and resource-intensive procedure, with high demand and long waiting times. A colon capsule endoscopy procedure involves a patient swallowing a pill-sized device that contains a light, a camera and an antennae, which takes photographs of the inner lining of the bowel. These images are transmitted to a recorder, whilst the capsule passes naturally out of the body within the stool.
If the study is successful, the colon capsule endoscopy could rapidly increase the capacity for diagnosing bowel cancer and other bowel diseases and reduce waiting times. It could also have less of an environmental impact than colonoscopies, and increase patient satisfaction, as the procedure rarely causes pain and may reduce hospital visits as the capsule could be provided in a GP surgery.
Recruitment for the trial is planned for April 2024 across approximately 30 UK sites, with results expected in 2026-2027.
Georgina Gardner, Trial Manager at the Centre for Trials Research, said:
“ColoCap aims to evaluate the efficacy of new bowel imaging technology. Should CCE prove to be an accurate, satisfactory and cost-effective test, it has the potential to innovatively address the current challenges facing the NHS in capacity, uptake and accessibility in colorectal diagnostics.”
Health and social care companies’ success at 2024 Wales Technology Awards
The Wales Technology Awards showcases the leading technology companies in Wales. This year’s ceremony was held on 22 March.
Congratulations to clear_pixel VR for winning the Best Healthtech Application Award and Matthew Davies from The Social Work Way for winning the Rising Star of the Year Award!
Congratulations also to GoggleMinds, Virtus Tech, Llusern, CanSense and Cardiff Metropolitan University with Age Connects Torfaen and AITutoring on becoming finalists at this year’s awards.
Avril Lewis, Managing Director of Technology Connected, said:
“The Wales Technology Awards symbolise the pinnacle of innovation and excellence in the Welsh tech industry. Congratulations to all of those announced as finalists – your achievements not only inspire but also reaffirm Wales' position as an emerging technology and innovation hub."
