Yesterday I attended the 11th Medical Innovations Summit held at the Royal Society of Medicine.

Like everyone else, I usually attend these events because there is a chance you may get to actually listen to an interesting presenter, or learn about a true innovation. But I usually leave disappointed due to a number of reasons like too much hype and lack of substance, bad organisation, “innovations” that are not really innovations, or bad presenters.

This was not one of those disappointing events. It was a truly inspirational day. We got to listen to 13 presentations, and meet and be inspired by modern day heroes. They were all excellent but my absolute favorites were:

  • Dr Jesse Selber: kidney and a pancreas transplant while simultaneously undergoing a scalp and skull transplant
  • Dr Marie Johnson: founder and president of AUM Cardiovascular
  • Dr Steve Lonsdale and Naomi Walker: rapid Ebola diagnostic kit
  • Dr Jeffrey Smith: the world`s first medical device to detect shock and high blood pressure in pregnant women
  • Professor Scott Hollister and Associate Professor Glenn Green: 3D printing to design a device that successfully restored the patients breathing through a procedure that had never been done before
  • Dr Ripley Ballou: malaria vaccine
  • Dr Joanne Mountford and Professor Marc Turner: limitless supply of clean, laboratory-grown blood
  • Mr Simon Berry: Kit Yamoyo anti-diarrhoea kit

To the RSM and these exceptional individuals: thank you very much!