News Article

Pioneering health technology developed in the North East could help under-pressure medical professionals and improve patient welfare.

Newcastle-based i4u Ltd is developing a unique package of web-based products to help medical professionals such as doctors, nurses and pharmacists more accurately administer the correct drugs to patients and better manage their time and knowledge resources at work.

Its products will alert hard-pressed health professionals to the medicines currently being taken by patients and help to avoid inadvertently causing future health problems when prescribing new drugs.

i4u’s products will also help increase medical professionals’ knowledge of the ever-growing list of medicines available for prescription.

Former Blaydon GP Professor Ian Purves has spent the past ten years developing a unique clinical decision support system to tackle key areas of concern for the medical profession.

i4u say there is a recognised need within the profession to have an up to date database of medicines available for use when most needed.

One North East has awarded i4u a £500,000 Exceptional Development Grant under the DTI’s Grants for Research and Development scheme, to help the company successfully develop its products for market.

Prof Purves, i4u Chairman, said:

“We are developing revolutionary software packages which we believe could substantially help medical professionals in drug prescribing and in better managing their time and knowledge resources.

“The difficulty is that there are a lot of drugs out there – about 3,000 at the last count – and medical professionals can’t possibly be expected to remember them all.

“A major objective therefore, is to broaden medical professionals’ awareness of drugs.

“i4u’s products will also provide a number of other benefits including instant access to knowledge relevant to a particular medical situation, improved alerts for drug contraindications and alerts to potential problems with current and past treatments.”

i4u’s products are:

• iDrug – a drug information store that will also flag up potential problems in prescribing drugs to patients taking other medicines or potentially dangerous current clinical conditions
• iReview – built on the knowledge within iDrug, this will provide medical professionals with a history of drug prescriptions for individual patients, a list of the potential problems and safe solutions;
• iContent – an IT package to help distil the wealth of medical information into a standard format
• iGuide – analysing a patient’s medical history before recommending examination, investigation and treatment options
• iLearning – identifying medical professionals’ learning and personal development needs
• iAppraise – to further develop for other markets, a system presently available for the appraisal of medical professionals,  providing best practice guidance and  advice.

i4u is looking to market and sell its products to the UK NHS in support of its multi-billion pound IT modernisation agenda, as well as breaking into the lucrative US, Chinese and Australian markets.

It is presently looking to cement business partnerships to enable it to quickly get its products to market.

The NHS is just one potential client. i4u Managing Director Antony Watson said:

“With the right commercial partnerships, there is a very significant potential for our products in global healthcare markets.

“We are currently working hard to secure commercial partnerships to help channel our products to the most valuable markets. One North East’s Exceptional Development Grant represents one third of development costs and is critical to the success of our business strategy.”

The company hopes to roll out its first product line by mid-2006.

Alan Clarke, One North East Chief Executive, said:

“The cutting edge research and development i4u is carrying out in North East England is exactly the sort of venture that the region is trying to encourage and nurture.

“One North East is delighted to have been able to assist the company with its business plans through an Exceptional Development Grant, a project which could have major benefits for the medical profession and patients.”  

Two of the region’s centres of excellence are also actively involved in supporting i4u.

Codeworks played a central role on behalf of One North East in helping i4u secure the Exceptional Development Grant – performing an independent assessment that looked at whether i4u’s technology was unique and could work in practice.

Dave Stevens, Head of Commercial Development at Codeworks, said:

“We’re delighted that i4u has secured this massive award from One North East under the DTI’s Grants Scheme. Over the past few months we’ve worked closely with the company and we’re confident that, thanks to this R&D support, i4u will now be able to substantially move its product development forward.”  

Dr Ian Robson, CELS Business Development Director, said: “We’d like to congratulate i4u on this great news.  We have an excellent relationship with i4u and are looking forward to continuing our work with the management team to benefit both i4u and the region’s health technology sector.”    

Ends.

For further information please contact:
Gordon Arnott, Senior Press Officer, One North East.
Tel:(0191) 229 6309   Fax:(0191) 229 6234   Mobile: 07713 317883
e-mail: gordon.arnott@onenortheast.co.uk

or Professor Ian Purves, Chairman, i4u Ltd.
Tel: (0191) 243 6173   Fax: (0191) 243 6101   Mobile: 07850 935 155
e-mail: ian.purves@i4u.co.uk

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