New Spinal Improvement Partnership

The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust will become the first centre of excellence for spinal services to give surgeons and medical device manufacturers detailed insight on the long term effectiveness of spinal surgeries and implants through a new partnership with NEC Software Solutions.

The move will enable bespoke reports to be made available to the very people who develop and manufacture medical devices, allowing them to assess exactly how effective the devices have been at improving the health and quality of life for the patients receiving them.

The Spinal Improvement Partnership (SIP), brings together the clinical excellence of The Walton Centre with the data collection and reporting expertise of NEC.  The SIP team are working collaboratively with device manufacturers to agree the outcomes most appropriate to collect and report on, in order to satisfy regulatory authorities that implants are safe, effective and deliver the expected benefits to patients.

Richard Armstrong, head of health registries at NEC Software Solutions, said: “This partnership represents a maturity in the relationship between hospitals and medical device suppliers, both of whom have a fundamental interest in ensuring products are safe and effective. Having access to accurate information on the success of treatments involving medical devices in different patient groups is essential for improving patients’ long-term prospects for recovery. Our partnership with The Walton Centre will put better information into the hands of those who need it to improve treatments and keep patients safe.”

The Walton Centre is an active contributor to Spine Tango, an international spinal registry from EUROSPINE that tracks and monitors outcomes for patients of spinal and neck injuries. The latest development builds upon the data routinely collected in the registry, enabling clinicians and manufacturers to collate and review additional information to ensure a device is safe, achieves the intended clinical benefits and to also inform decisions about patient treatment options.

The service will speed up and improve the cycle for collection and analysis of clinically relevant data about implant safety and effectiveness.

Tim Pigott, consultant neurosurgeon at The Walton Centre, said: “Through our partnership with NEC, we have created a fantastic model for combining clinical expertise with a rich data set recorded in the Spine Tango registry. We are now putting this data to use on an ongoing basis to continually improve patient safety and the effectiveness of medical implants and devices used in spinal procedures.”

NEC’s technologies support a number of medical registries such as the National Joint Registry (NJR), the largest orthopaedics registry in the world, and the Indian Joint Registry (IJP) all of which collect data to help clinicians, regulators and industry deliver evidence-based treatments for patients.