USA to fund British “invaluable” and “important” medical innovation ignored by NHS

A US government body has announced it is to fund the use of innovative British equipment which improves outcomes for patients undergoing surgery - and dramatically cuts the cost of care.

However patients in this country are routinely being denied this technology, which has the potential to save lives and save the NHS money.

The US Centre for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this week announced the decision to endorse the equipment, called CardioQ.  It will now be possible for doctors across the USA to receive reimbursement for using the CardioQ. 

One doctor who assessed the CardioQ for the CMS described it as “an excellent guide for patient management…invaluable because it provides real time, rapidly obtained, accurate and reliable information”.  The CMS said it came to its decision after scrutinising the best available medical evidence, and reflected its commitment to using innovative technologies.

The clinically proven CardioQ blood monitor helps anaesthetists better maintain fluid balance and blood circulation in patients during and after surgery. Imperfect fluid balance can cause significant clinical complications, including organ failure, and slows patient recovery. CardioQ has been shown to improve patient outcomes and significantly reduce length of hospital stay in numerous surgical specialities including orthopaedic, colorectal, cardiac and general surgery.

This decision by the CMS to introduce the CardioQ is in contrast to uptake in the NHS where it is currently used in less than 5% of possible procedures.  In 2006 NICE described the technology (oesophageal Doppler monitoring) as “standard clinical practice”, but despite this take-up across the NHS has been slow.  Deltex Medical, the British company which makes the device, is currently awaiting a decision from the Centre for Evidence Based Purchasing (CEP) which is reviewing the CardioQ.  It is estimated that CardioQ could benefit one million NHS patients a year.

Research on usage of the CardioQ published in the British Journal of Surgery in September 2006 revealed how an NHS hospital dramatically halved the recovery time of patients undergoing bowel surgery. The study reveals how patients undergoing colorectal surgery at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne were fit for discharge after just seven days compared to the NHS average across England of 14 days (NHS Institute data). 

Andy Hill, Chief Executive of Deltex Medical, said “CardioQ saves lives and saves money. It has great potential for the NHS. We are delighted with the US decision and look forward to CEP publishing a similar recommendation for the NHS”.  

For further information please contact

  Alexa Knight or Emma McKinney at Hanover : 020 7400 4480

aknight@hanovercomms.com; emckinney@hanovercomms.com

For further information on Deltex Medical and the CardioQ please visit www.reducinglengthofstay.org.uk

  Notes

1. Deltex Medical has developed the CardioQ monitor to allow anaesthetists to monitor and optimise circulating blood volume. This is known as Oesophageal Doppler monitoring - a minimally invasive method of accurately measuring beat-by-beat circulating blood volume in patients undergoing surgery.  It allows doctors to use fluids and drugs to optimise the flow of blood around the system, thus maintaining an adequate supply of oxygen to the body’s organs and tissues.

2. Reduced circulating blood volume is known as hypovolemia, similar to dehydration, which leads to insufficient oxygen being delivered to the organs. Insufficient oxygen causes medical complications including major organ failure which leads to longer hospital stays and in some cases death.

3. The Centre for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is the government body responsible for determining cover for the reimbursement of medical technologies in the USA . 

4. The CMS made its decision on ultrasound diagnostic procedures on 22 May 2007. 

5. The clinical trial assessing the effect of Doppler-optimized fluid management on outcome after elective colorectal surgery was authored by S.E Noblett, C.P Snowden, B.K Shenton, and A.F Horgan, Departments of Surgery, Anaesthesia and Colorectal Surgery, Freeman Hospital , Newcastle upon Tyne . It was published in the September 2006 edition of the British Journal of Surgery.

6. The data of costs of a day in an NHS general or surgical ward is published by Department of Health, Healthcare Resource Groups.

 (26/5/07)

www.deltexmedical.com