Exeter’s pioneering work on creating a circular economy for medical devices has been instrumental to a new government strategy on NHS waste.
The Exeter led Circular Economy Hub, part of the UKRI and Defra funded Nicer programme, was the lead academic partner for the government’s new ‘Design for Life Roadmap’, an initiative billed as a ‘major crackdown on NHS waste’ that aims to cut the number of single use medical devices in circulation and incentivise the production of environmentally sustainable products.
The new roadmap echoes the findings of Exeter’s circular economy experts in their recently published MedTech Spotlight report, which highlights how disposable medical devices substantially contribute to the 156,000 tonnes of clinical waste that the NHS produces every year – with millions of devices such as walking aids and surgical instruments thrown away after just one use.
The Exeter report first outlined how this waste can be slashed through maximising reuse, remanufacture and recycling, shining a spotlight on successful innovations such as the safe and low cost remanufacturing of harmonic shears – surgical devices which seal patients’ wounds using ultrasound waves – at Leeds University Teaching Hospitals Trust.
At a launch event for the roadmap at University College Hospital in London, Professor Fiona Charnley, co-director of the Exeter Centre for Circular Economy at the University of Exeter Business School, spoke alongside Baroness Gillian Merron, a minister in the Department of Health and Social care, about the importance of making the transition to circular approaches for healthcare.
Professor Charnley also announced a new £1.8 million EPRSC funded project to ‘revolutionise the healthcare sector’ through digitally enabled circular innovation.
The Digitally Enabled Circular Healthcare Innovation (DECHI) Research Programme, which unites leading interdisciplinary research expertise from the Universities of Exeter, Sheffield, and Cambridge, proposes that new digital approaches present a pioneering pathway to expedite the adoption of circular innovation within the MedTech sector.
Researchers on the three year project will work with industry partners to investigate how digital technologies can accelerate the transition to a more sustainable and resilient healthcare system through data analytics, simulation and modelling techniques, and other technological advancements such as sensorisation, enhanced sterilisation and asset tracking.
Professor Charnley said, ‘We are delighted that our work on developing a circular economy for the medical technology sector, which provides evidence for the effectiveness of circular approaches in slashing waste and maximising reuse and remanufacture in the NHS while stimulating economic growth, has helped to shape this government roadmap.
‘We are now looking to the future with the DECHI programme, which aims to revolutionize the healthcare sector by exploring how advancements in digital technology can address barriers to innovation and pave the way to a quicker transition to a circular economy.’
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