Public Funding for Buckingham Healthcare Limited

Established in 2001, UK-based SME Buckingham Healthcare (Buckingham) has a team with significant clinical expertise and a strong track record in researching, developing and commercialising patented innovative living assistance aids. Buckingham will accelerate product development of a game-changing transfer assistance aid to improve user's access to toileting facilities: **The Glider**, improving independence, mobility and dignity for elderly, disabled and bariatric users. This project will be supported by Bournemouth University's Orthopaedic Research Institute (ORI). ORI works with academia, industry and healthcare, producing high quality orthopaedic research and educational outputs across devices, technologies, treatments, surgery and related diseases. Their research and dissemination provides a proven positive impact across patients, clinicians and society.

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"Established in 2001, Buckingham Healthcare is a market-leading British designer and manufacturer of healthcare and assisted daily living products. The company has a strong existing network of distributors (both direct-to-consumer and healthcare providers) and a well-established brand in the UK and overseas markets. **Market Opportunity** Buckingham is seeking Innovate UK funding to support the development of an innovative transfer board for individuals with limited mobility, addressing a rapidly growing global market currently worth £480m (5-year CAGR 9.2%). Buckingham's transfer board would represent a radical improvement upon the current state-of-the-art; existing products exhibit multiple drawbacks that negatively impact upon user independence and expose carers to significant risk of injury. These include: 1. Prone to contamination and skin-entrapment/shearing, contributing to rising skin-tear/pressure ulcer incidence and associated complications, including secondary morbidity and mortality that can lead to prolonged hospital stays (McInulty, 2017; ISTAP, 2016). 2. Inability to cater for the diversity of surface-surface transfers (sinking into soft surfaces or tilting on hard surfaces) limiting usability and increasing the likelihood of user/carer injury (manual lifting associated with transferring users is the leading cause (19%) of lower-back pain/muscoskeletal disorders amongst healthcare workers (Hassan, 2017)). **Approach/Innovation** In contrast, Buckingham is seeking to harness recent advances in lightweight materials, ergonomic design and technologies to develop an innovative, transfer board. This would: * Be accessible to a broad range of users (including bariatric, geriatric and disabled) within multiple environments (hospitals, assisted-living centres and private homes) independent of their sitting balance/upper-body strength * Significantly reduce the risk of user injury (friction burns and/or skin tears) and secondary complications * Significantly reduce the risk of injuries to carers (or, through automation, remove the need for carer-assistance) * Be durable, lightweight and easy-to-clean **Outcome** Based on a target RRP of ~£300/unit, Buckingham expects the project to generate ~£23.95m cumulative revenues (~16.5% exports) within 5-years of its completion. ROI is projected to be ~789% (forecast R&D investment ~£2.7m; recruitment of 10 FTEs). The transfer board will benefit from Buckingham's existing distribution network and will be made available to the end consumer through a variety of channels (private purchase online and within traditional stores plus national healthcare providers). The transfer board will also complement Buckingham's existing portfolio of assisted living products, driving cross-selling opportunities, particularly in key overseas markets (US, APAC)."