Bevan Commission Welsh Health Gadget Hack Winners

Over 50 health and care professionals from organisations including Betsi Cadwaldr University Health Board, Powys Teaching Health Board, and the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust attended the Welsh Health Gadget Hack in October 2018. They came armed with problems that they face in their day-to-day work. The goal was to form collaborations with academics and industry partners who could provide the technological expertise they needed to make their solutions a reality, and to develop a pitch for further funding during the two day event.

The Medical Graphcs team formed a collaboration with the Welsh Ambulance Service and worked on developing ParaVR, an affordable solution for training with an anytime-anywhere immersive experience for paramedics. The focus is on rarely performed procedures (such as a needle cricothyroidotomy) but are life-saving when needed. The ParaVR idea was pitched to the judges in a Dragon’s Den style event, where we were also able to show a VR demo of the concept. At the end of the pitches, ParaVR was named as their top challenger, with judges noting the clear need from the paramedics, and the value of NHS-University collaboration.

The Health Gadget Hack was organised by the Bevan Commission, who will now invest £7,500 in the further development of ParaVR. The Bevan Commission provides independent, authoritative advice on health and care to the Welsh Government and leaders in NHS Wales, the UK and beyond.

More details of the Hack event can be found here.