A West Norfolk doctor who has helped to invent life-saving devices has been awarded a British Empire Medal.
Dr Maryanne Mariyaselvam (34) has been awarded the medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to healthcare.
Dr Mariyaselvam is part of a team of doctors in The Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s Critical Care Unit, who have invented a number of medical devices to improve patient safety.
She said: “It is wonderful to be honoured in this way and I am delighted to be awarded the medal but it is a reflection on the whole team. It is an honour for everyone and not just me.
“I am really proud of the work we have done to bring about changes that have benefitted both patient and staff safety.”
Dr Mariyaselvam, who trained at The Norwich Medical School and is undertaking a doctorate in patient safety at the University of Cambridge, was inspired into research and inventing new devices while working as a junior doctor in the hospital’s Critical Care Unit.
Since then they have created a number of devices. These include WireSafe, which prevents guidewires from being left in a patient after a central line or central venous catheter has been inserted, a ‘never event’. This device, which is a box containing all of the equipment to complete the procedure, can only be opened using the guide wire as a key.
Another device is the Arterial GlucoSave, which been engineered to prevent rare arterial line errors when glucose can be confused for saline by alerting the clinician and saving patients from receiving high-levels of insulin.
She said: “It has been with the support of The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, The Academic Health Science Networks and collaboration from the University of Cambirdge that I have been able to undertake this work regionally and nationally through the National Innovation Accelerators Programme. I am very grateful to them for all their support.”
Medical Director Dr Frankie Swords said: “We are incredibly proud of Maryanne and this is a well-deserved honour for someone who has helped to improve patient safety across the country.”
—ENDS—
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