Grants Awarded
Grants from the Jude Morris Innovation and Development Fund
Magpas Air Ambulance
Amount £10,000
Project: Swift Blood Trial
Magpas Air Ambulance is taking part in a nationwide research trial to study the effect of the use of whole blood in trauma patients. Currently, when blood is donated it is separated into four separate components, which are stored and transfused separately. This means that delivering transfusions outside of the hospital to trauma patients can be a costly and complicated process. Transfusing all of the components together, called “whole blood” could simplify the process and help to save more lives. Whole blood has never before been used in any area of the UK health service and so this trial will produce pioneering learning that can be used across the NHS, and the ultimate aim is to improve outcomes for patients of serious traumatic injury.
Magpas Air Ambulance prides itself on using innovation and research to improve patient outcomes and ultimately achieve the service’s mission of saving lives.
East Anglian Air Ambulance
Amount £9,000
Project: The purchase of 150 single patient use disposable skin sensors, for two donated NELCOR Co–pilot Near Infra Red Spectroscopy
The sensors are required as consumables for two donated NELCOR Co–pilot Near Infra Red Spectroscopy.
EAAA are examining the use of a well-established portable medical device, normally used in hospital during cardiac surgery, on out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients. The Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy (NIRS) device is a small handheld machine that records the oxygen levels in a patient’s brain. The device uses a simple forehead sensor to measure the brain’s oxygen levels beneath the skull during the treatment of medical OHCA patients cared for by EAAA. The study hopes to identify which interventions during standard advanced life support are most beneficial to the patient’s brain oxygen levels and may identify better ways of resuscitating people from OHCA. It will add significantly to the understanding of what happens to the brain during OHCA and will be the biggest study of its kind undertaken. The study will take about a year and involve up to 300 patients.
Outcome and Impact
Further the scientific understanding of the role of brain oxygenation during resuscitation from out of hospital cardiac arrest.
• Provide measurable indicators which may predict which patients achieve return of spontaneous circulation during cardiac arrest.
• Demonstrate the use of a new but simple observation methodology, useable by all pre–hospital clinicians, to assess the quality and predict the likelihood of success of resuscitation of out of hospital cardiac arrest
Great Western Air Ambulance Charity
Amount £10,000
Project: GWAAC’s participation in SWIFT: The Study of Whole Blood in Frontline Trauma
Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC) is taking part in a national trial which could revolutionise care for patients suffering life-threatening bleeding as the result of a major trauma. The study will assess whether giving whole blood at the scene improves the patient’s chance of survival. Current practice is for pre-hospital blood transfusions to be delivered through different blood components.
GWAAC’s usual practice has been to give red blood cells (important for carrying oxygen around the body) and fresh frozen plasma (helps blood to clot). Platelets also play a crucial role in blood clotting, but are difficult to carry so are given after arrival at hospital. The two-year trial involving ten air ambulance charities will assess whether patients who are actively bleeding stand a better chance of survival if their lost ‘whole blood’ is replaced quickly and early through a whole blood transfusion. GWAAC has long worked at the forefront of pre-hospital medicine, and is delighted to be involved in this trial which could lead to changes to clinical practice nationally and internationally, impacting the outcomes for patients suffering major blood loss on a global scale.
Impact and Outcomes
The results of the study will identify the best blood transfusion strategy for pre- hospital use, assessing patient survival and quality of life, safety and cost- effectiveness
• Higher survival rates and improved outcomes for patients suffering life- threatening bleeding in a pre-hospital emergency
• Potentially, changes to clinical practice across in and outside of hospitals, on a national and international scale
• Giving whole blood, rather than the component parts as is current GWAAC practice, will be a faster process thus allowing crews to deliver other time- critical treatments and transport patients to hospital more quickly.
Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex
Amount £10,000
Project: Deliver a pioneering medical project which will use drones to quickly deliver life–saving defibrillators straight to people in cardiac arrest, giving them the best possible chance of survival
KSS is undertaking a pioneering medical project which will use drones to quickly deliver life-saving defibrillators straight to people in cardiac arrest.
When a person suffers a cardiac arrest there is no substitute for rapid use of a defibrillator. The chance of survival decreases at a rate of 10% for every minute that passes without defibrillation, from 90% after one minute to just 10% after 10 minutes. By sending defibrillators straight to people delivering CPR we can give people in cardiac arrest the best possible chance of survival.
This is a first in the UK and is only possible thanks to supporters like the Jude Morris Innovation Fund“ – Leigh Curtis, Executive Director of Service Delivery, Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex
Outcome and Impacts
• This project will improve outcomes for patients suffering cardiac arrest outside of hospital.
• This project will evidence that other interventions could be delivered more quickly with the help of drones.
• This project will provide a model for other Air Ambulances to follow.
Midlands Air Ambulance Charity
Amount £4,080
Area: Training to develop, support and enable new PHEM interventions for air ambulance crews
Project : Support towards the total cost of our clinicians attending a 2–day Residential Prometheus Pre–Hospital Emergency Ultrasound Course at Prometheus Medical Ltd
It is essential that all MAAC clinicians have an advanced level of expertise in the use of ultrasound machines to support them in the diagnosis and treatment of critically ill and injured patients. The Prometheus Pre- Hospital Emergency Ultrasound Course has been designed, and is taught, by medical professionals who have significant experience in emergency ultrasound use in pre-hospital environments. This two-day residential course is aimed specifically at pre-hospital emergency medical professionals and provides both theoretical and practical training. .Thanks to the Jude Morris Racing Foundation Midlands Air Ambulance clinicians will receive an advanced level of education with hands on practical experience throughout the course, enabling them to develop their skill set further which will assist in pre-hospital patient management and support interventions for potentially life-threatening conditions.
Outcomes and Impact
• To provide all our clinicians with advanced pre-hospital ultrasound knowledge and hands on practical experience through attending the course, which will immediately be utilised within their roles for the benefit of our patients.
• To provide direct patient benefit by enabling our clinicians to deliver an in-depth non-invasive internal analysis of a patient so they can tailor the treatment and manage the cause directly, increasing the patient’s survival rate.
• To provide all our clinicians with the expertise to fully utilise our new state-of-the-art ultrasound technology in an advanced capacity, maximising its capabilities.
• To provide an additional internal prospective to support the accuracy of surgical incisions and intervention procedures in a pre-hospital and sometimes hazardous environment.
• To deliver the highest quality of patient care through continuous training and development opportunities.
• To give our clinicians the tools and expertise to identify and manage more complex patient needs.
• To save more precious lives.
Thames Valley Air Ambulance
Amount £5,500
Project : Develop and deliver a new training and development course focusing on the complexities of preterm and neonatal emergencies for clinicians working in a prehospital environment.
Preterm is when a baby is born too early, before the 37 weeks of pregnancy has been completed.
The funding from the Jude Morris innovation and Development Fund will enable TVAA and partners (Royal Berks NHS and Oxford Academic Health Science Network) to develop and deliver a new training and development program focusing on the complexities of preterm and neonatal emergencies for clinicians working in a prehospital environment.
Outcomes and Impact
Create a training package for shared learning and producible for other Air Ambulances, community education midwifes and ambulance service education and training teams.
• By completing this training course, we expect clinicians to have improved knowledge and confidence of attending prehospital preterm neonatal emergencies.
• Improved communication with parents, better parent experience which in turn leads to less mental trauma.
London’s Air Ambulance Charity
Amount £10,000
Project:
Every year, in London, the ambulance service treats over 4,000 patients who have had a cardiac arrest. Less than 10% of patients survive to get home and those that do often suffer permanent damage to vital organs, such as their brain. Efforts to improve survival have not had a significant impact (e.g. bystander CPR) and the socioeconomic burden is considerable as more than half of patients are of working age.
For some patients who have a cardiac arrest in hospital, there is a technology called Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO-CPR). This effectively replaces the function of the heart and lungs, by taking blood out of the body, adding oxygen, and returning it under pressure. This has resulted in increased survival rates without brain damage. Studies show the faster ECMO-CPR can be deployed after a patient collapses, the better their chances of survival. Patients suffering refractory cardiac arrest in the community often don’t survive to reach hospital, so we plan to bring this technology to them within 60 minutes of a 999 call being made.
London’s Air Ambulance Charity is working together with London Ambulance Service and Barts Health NHS Trust to launch a 12-month service evaluation of pre-hospital ECMO-CPR. Using our rapid response cars and helicopters, the ECMO-CPR team will operate one day a week, serving the 10 million people who visit, live and work in London.
This project builds upon a successful ECMO-CPR feasibility study and is the first time this model of care has been delivered anywhere in the UK. We will share our findings, contributing to an improved understanding of this patient group and helping to pave the way for the establishment of a pan-London ECMO-CPR service.
We simply cannot deliver this procedure in a pre-hospital setting without an ECMO machine and are delighted that the Jude Morris Innovation and Development Fund is supporting us with a grant of £10,000 towards the cost of an ECMO machine.
Wales Air Ambulance
Amount £9,974
Project: Improving Prehospital Stroke Diagnosis and Care
Wales Air Ambulance belief is prehospital CT scanning and treatment would massively shorten the time to revascularisation for stroke patients, both by thrombolysis and mechanical thrombectomy. This would result in a larger proportion of patients having good functional neurological outcomes, and reduce inequalities in care for patients in rural or hard to reach areas of the country.
With this grant from the Jude Morris Innovation and Development Fund, Wales Air Ambulance will model how advanced prehospital teams can bring early diagnostics and treatment to stroke patients prehospitally, including CT scanning and thrombolysis, as well as more expedient transfer to thrombectomy centres. The modelling will utilise NHS Wales data on stroke patients over the previous years, and data from our medical partners (EMRTS) and Ambulance service regarding response times, transit times and asset availability.
The modelling will consider air and road platforms for initial response and for ongoing transfer, along with staff mix onboard the Mobile Stroke Unit (MSU)2 and will consider dispatch including critical care/HEMS dispatch resources. We will also conduct a health economic analysis on the model and aim to develop a strategic case to trial a mobile stroke unit within Wales.
Impact and Outcomes
• Production of a modelling report and summary. We will include relevant data such as the number of stroke-related missions Wales Air Ambulance attends, to demonstrate the impact and number of patients who will benefit from this project.
• Publishing of the results of modelling in relevant journals, followed by producing a proposal for a physical trial of mobile stroke unit teams.
• Learning will be shared within the wider air ambulance community, to enable informed dispatch policy decisions, and help improve prehospital care across the UK.
