Sci-fi sick bay opens at Leicester Royal Infirmary
Technology in the facility was originally used in planetary research
A new hi-tech disease detection facility, developed by the University of Leicester, has been unveiled for use in Leicester Royal Infirmary’s A&E department.
The Diagnostic Development Unit uses technology that could eventually be used to develop devices akin to the ‘tricorders’ from the TV series Star Trek, which were used to diagnose illness simply by waving them near a patient, said Professor Mark Sims, project leader and a space scientist at the University of Leicester.
The facility is designed to be able to detect the ‘sight, smell and feel’ of disease without the use of invasive probes, blood tests, or other time-consuming and uncomfortable procedures.
Scientists at the new £1m facility are using three types of technology in combination, which could speed up diagnosis.
One group of instruments, which was developed in the University’s Chemistry Department, analyses gases present in a patient’s breath.
A second uses imaging systems and technologies – developed to explore the universe – to hunt for signs of disease via the surface of the human body.
The third uses a suite of monitors to look inside the body and measure blood flow and oxygenation in real-time.
The technologies in the Leicester Diagnostics Development Unit have never previously all been used together, the researchers said, and some were originally used in planetary research.
Professor Sims, who led the project alongside Professor Tim Coats, Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University and head of accident and emergency at the Royal Infirmary, said the technology might also be a first step towards ultimately creating devices like those used in Star Trek.
He said: ‘We are replacing doctors’ eyes with state-of-the-art imaging systems, replacing the nose with breath analysis, and the ‘feel of the pulse’ with monitoring of blood flow using ultra sound technology and measurement of blood oxygen levels.
‘In the old days, it used to be said that a consultant could walk down a hospital ward and smell various diseases as well as telling a patient’s health by looking at them and feeling their pulse. What we are doing is a high tech version of that in order to help doctors to diagnose disease.’
It is hoped that the equipment can be used in the diagnosis of a range of diseases from sepsis to bacterial infections such as C. Difficile and some cancers.
The Diagnostics Development Unit has so far identified more than 40 possible applications.
The researchers are using a £500,000 infrastructure grant from the Higher Education Funding Council along with a contribution from the University to equip the Unit.
Professor Coats said: ‘I am a specialist in emergency medicine and we are starting the project in this area. But it could also be valuable elsewhere in hospitals and in GP surgeries and perhaps even in a future generation of ambulances. We are talking to industrial partners who might get involved in commercialising this work as the project matures.’