Smiths Medical Announces New Partnership With Great Ormond Street Hospital And University College London

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Pain / Anesthetics;  Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 14 Nov 2008 - 2:00 PST

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Smiths Medical announces a new five-year research partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), the Institute of Child Health (ICH) and University College London (UCL). The partnership will provide sponsorship for the Smiths Medical Professor of Anaesthesia and Critical Care at UCL. In addition, funding will be made available to the Anaesthesia, Intensive Care and Respiratory Unit at ICH to support research into paediatric respiratory physiology and paediatric anaesthesia and intensive care.

Professor Monty Mythen, the Smiths Medical Chair of Anaesthesia and Critical Care, said: "Over the last decade there has been a steady increase of respiratory disease in children but the level of funding for research in this area has not increased in parallel. The funding provided by Smiths Medical will enable further research into childhood respiratory disease such as asthma and cystic fibrosis which we hope will result in new treatment options for generations to come."

Srini Seshadri, Group Managing Director of Smiths Medical, said: "It is a privilege to work so closely with the doctors and scientists at UCL, ICH and GOSH. The research will be vital to the development of new treatments for respiratory disease in children. As well as providing financial support, our R&D scientists are working in collaboration with clinicians to develop new technology which we hope will ease the lives of children and adults with respiratory disease in the future."

Smiths Medical has contributed over £4 million towards medical research at UCL and GOSH in the last decade and this unique collaboration has resulted in a series of innovative and adventurous research projects:

Scientists resurrect forgotten Everest research to develop breakthrough medical device

This year the partnership between Smiths Medical and UCL resulted in the development of a breakthrough clinical device that could transform the lives of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) across the world. COPD will be the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2030, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The new technology is based on an oxygen device invented over 50 years ago by the British rocket scientist Tom Bourdillon for the 1953 Hillary and Tenzing Everest expedition.
http://www.smiths.com/press_release_details.aspx?releaseID=346

Groundbreaking Everest study breathes hopes into the lives of sick children

Children with breathing disorders such as cystic fibrosis could soon be monitored at home instead of in hospital thanks to a group of adventurous young children who took part in the Smiths Medical Young Everest Study (SMYES).
http://www.smiths.com/press_release_details.aspx?releaseID=319

Smiths Medical High Altitude Laboratory on Mount Everest

The Smiths Medical High Altitude Laboratory at Namche Bazaar, Nepal at 3,400 metres (11,154 ft) was one of four main laboratories for Caudwell Xtreme Everest, the largest human biology study ever performed at high altitude: over 200 volunteers were studied by around 60 doctors and scientists as they climbed progressively higher to Everest base camp.
http://www.smiths.com/press_release_details.aspx?releaseID=214

Smiths Medical Young Everest Study

Nine healthy British children, aged 6 to 13, travelled to Mount Everest to take part in a ground-breaking medical study that aimed to develop new treatments for critically ill children and those with both breathing and sleep problems. The Smiths Medical Young Everest Study (SMYES) investigated how the children coped with low oxygen levels on the world's highest mountain.
http://www.smiths.com/press_release_details.aspx?releaseID=209

Smiths Medical

Smiths Medical is a leading supplier of high-quality medical devices and products for global markets. It designs and manufactures specialist medical devices in three key areas: Safety Devices, Vital Care and Medication Delivery. Smiths Medical's customers include hospitals, alternate care such as home care, and other healthcare providers worldwide. Smiths Medical is part of the global technology business Smiths Group, a world leader in the practical application of advanced technologies. Smiths is a global technology company listed on the London Stock Exchange. For further information, visit http://www.smiths-medical.com

Smiths Medical Young Everest Study (SMYES)

SMYES is a research project coordinated by Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) and University College London's Institute of Child Health (ICH). It is supported by Smiths Medical, part of the global technology business Smiths Group and a specialist in respiratory care. Doctors do not yet fully understand children's responses to low oxygen levels, which are common in very sick children and can be fatal. SMYES aims to develop new treatments for critically ill children and those with breathing and sleep problems by investigating how healthy children, aged 6 to 13, cope with low oxygen levels on the world's tallest mountain.

Smiths Group

Smiths is a global technology company listed on the London Stock Exchange. A world leader in the practical application of advanced technologies, Smiths Group delivers products and services for the threat & contraband detection, medical devices, energy and communications markets worldwide. Our products and services make the world safer, healthier and more productive. Smiths Group employs more than 20,000 people in over 50 countries. For more information visit http://www.smiths.com

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust (GOSH) is a national centre of excellence in the provision of specialist children's health care, currently delivering the widest range of specialist care of any children's hospital in the UK. It works in partnership with the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH), part of University College London, and together they form the largest paediatric research and teaching centre outside the Americas. It was recently designated the only Biomedical Specialist Academic Centre for paediatrics.

Institute of Child Health, University College London

In partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital and as part of University College London, the ICH is the leading British academic research institution for child health. It was established in 1945 and currently has 472 staff. It supports 46 professorships and currently 110 Mphil/PhD students and 22 Doctors of Medicine/Master of Surgery students are studying at the ICH. Caudwell Xtreme Everest (CXE)

Caudwell Xtreme Everest is a research project coordinated by the UCL Centre for Altitude, Space and Extreme (CASE) environment medicine - doctors and scientists studying human systems stretched to breaking point in extreme environments to increase our understanding of critically ill patients. The goal was to place a research team on the summit of Mount Everest in 2007 and make the first ever measurement of the level of oxygen in human blood at this altitude. This was the centrepiece of an extensive programme of research into hypoxia (low oxygen levels) and human performance at extreme altitude aimed at improving the care of the critically ill and other patients where hypoxia is a fundamental problem. The Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition was sponsored by John Caudwell, a businessman and founder of The Caudwell Charity. Scientific studies in the run-up to the expedition have been supported by a research grant from medical gases specialist BOC Medical.

Caudwell Xtreme Everest