Technology from Team Consulting helps client to win award

The award, which was presented by the Oxford Business Network, recognises OrganOx’s achievement in getting so far along the development process, from laboratory to production in such a short time.

OrganOx Limited is working with Team to develop a medical device that will increase the availability of livers suitable for transplantation from non-heart-beating donors and so reduce the number of discarded livers.

The device operates by maintaining the organ in a fully functioning state during transport and storage, by providing blood flow, oxygen, nutrients and temperature within the parameters experienced normally within the body. This not only enables the liver to be stored safely for a longer period (up to 24 hours) but also provides the surgeon with real-time and cumulative data with which to assess the viability of the liver and so make a decision as to its suitability for transplant. This is a major advance over the current method of assessment, which is largely subjective. Team is guiding the device along a development process that includes all stages from initial specification to final manufacture.

The award has been made on the basis of the work done with a prototype device that Team designed, built and delivered to OrganOx within 10 months of starting the project. “We’re delighted for OrganOx. It’s always a proud moment for us when a client is acknowledged as a World-beater and recognized with an award for work in which we have been intimately involved” said Stuart Kay, leader of Team’s Electro-Mechanical Development Group. OrganOx was selected for the award from a shortlist of three finalists. In Europe and the US, around 12,000 liver transplants are undertaken each year. However, there is a combined waiting list of around 30,000 patients and up to 20 per cent of these patients die while awaiting transplantation. Over 2,000 livers are discarded annually because they are either damaged by oxygen deprivation or by intracellular fat.