Congratulations to all our winners, whose brilliant projects are summarised below (click here for a full summary including all shortlisted projects). The AHP & HS award winners were presented with their trophies by sponsors and special guest Professor Raymond Tallis at a cerbratory lunch at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, London on Friday 27 February 2009.

Read more on our fabulous winners or browse photos from the day......

Overall winner sponsored by NHS Employers, and category AHP winner in Innovation in patient or client services, sponsored by the Department of Health, England and the Northern Ireland office
Hilary Harris (clinical lead radiography) and Geoffrey Naisby (consultant radiologist) of the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough are overall winners of the 2009 award for their invention of device, the HILINA, to speed up breast biopsies.

The judges selected this overall winner because it is already making a real difference to patient comfort by speeding up biopsy time. It’s an invention by radiographers which is likely to vastly improve the patient experience of breast biopsies in the next few years. They already have additional units in production by the hospital medical engineering department and hope very soon to be able to offer the device to other radiology departments in the UK.

Innovation in recruitment and careers development sponsored by NHS Employers
Tracey Howe and Susan Kerr (directors), HealthQWest graduate school, Glasgow Caledonian University, for HealthQWest, a research consortium for the West of Scotland to build research capacity among AHPs, nurses and midwives.

The team achieved an extraordinary turnaround in just three years: the research standing for AHPs and nurses went from bottom of the UK league to the top. Along the way students were encouraged to develop their research skills and research-mindedness for the benefit of patient care. The judges said it was an incredible feat to get several major academic institutions to work together in this way.

Achieving excellence in learning, teaching, development or mentorship sponsored by GateHouse
Hannah Grainger (cell salvage co-ordinator) Danny McGee (specialist practitioner in operating theatre blood conservation) and Catherine Howell of the UK Cell Salvage Action group for their achievement in designing a pathway to help train practitioners in intraoperative cell salvage, a technique which enables a patient’s own blood, lost during surgery, to be collected and returned to them.

The judges felt that this education project was well managed and had huge potential for use throughout the NHS. Salvaging blood during operations is a valuable but relatively rare procedure. This educational project shows practitioners how to do it safely and effectively so that can be used more widely as an alternative to blood transfusion.

Innovation in patient or client services in the Healthcare Sciences, sponsored by the Department of Health, England and the Northern Ireland office
Lorna Tasker (clinical scientist) Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University NHS Trust and Peter Watson, (principal bioengineer) Musgrave Park Hospital in Belfast who have revolutionised the way specialised wheelchairs are built.

This is a joint project between Swansea and Belfast. This project has substantially reduced the cost of producing specialist wheelchair seating for people with complex postural needs (£2,000 per seat) and speeded up delivery times. The Digital Seating Services in Swansea have revolutionised the method of capturing shapes by adapting a method developed in Belfast and using a desk laser scanner to pick up the shape of a bead bag where the shape has been captured from the client.

Promoting health and well being in hard-to-reach communities, sponsored by the Welsh Government
Geraldine Teague (service lead) Lisa Montgomery (team leader) and Maurice Crozier, Northern Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland for their work in MASTS: multi-agency support team for schools, helping children with difficulties to flourish into the mainstream education.

The judges thought this was an excellent example of interagency working and responding to a clearly identified need. Parents and teaching staff report huge benefits to children whose confidence and educational performance has improved as a result of this innovative child-centred service.

Rethinking the patient care pathway, sponsored by the Scottish Government
Darren Brand (senior orthoptist) , Connie Murray (occupational therapist) and Hazel McWhinnie (area head orthoptist) NHS Ayrshire & Arran for their initiative in spotting and treating visual problems in patients who have had a stroke.

Orthoptists are not usually brought in to the treatment of stroke patients who suffer visual defects: patients are often inappropriately referred to ophthalmologists. This scheme ensured that all staff working with stoke patients were aware of the orthoptic service so that referrals were increased, diagnosis and treatment improved in a highly cost effective way.

Promoting healthcare science sponsored by the Department of Health, England
Julie Martin (head of healthcare science and AHP education) and Alison Day, (work-based learning co-ordinator) of Southampton University Hospitals NHS trust for their DVD entitled Appliance of Healthcare Science.

Healthcare scientists throughout the trust were involved in making an in-house DVD in conjunction with AimHigher. The aim was to reach out to the local community to promote the range of opportunities for training and careers in the various branches of healthcare science.

Joint working between allied health professionals and healthcare scientists sponsored by Unite the Union
Isobel Skypala (director of rehabilitation and therapies) and Stephen Till (clinical scientist fellow) Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust, for their innovative work in setting up a food allergy clinics for adults.

The judges felt that the creation of this unified service for adults from the previous ad hoc arrangements brought great benefit to patients, giving them everything they need in one clinic. They see the dietitian and the doctor at the same time and, working with the biochemistry team, have the skin prick tests carried out there and then. The judges particularly liked the example of the young man coming up to legal drinking age and suspected he was allergic to beer: he was.

Best of Wales award, sponsored by the Welsh Government
Andrea Basu (community development dietitian team lead) and Lisa Williams (project co-ordinator) Wrexham Maelor Hospital, for their course on community food and nutrition skills.

The judges admired this initiative to set up an accredited community food and nutrition skills course for a wide range of community-based workers to enable them to cascade basic food and nutrition messages to the groups they work with.

The Judges special award, sponsored by Employing Allied Health Professionals and Healthcare Scientists

Jackie Stubbs (principal speech and language therapist), Diana Anderson (senior specialist dietician) and Sue Tye (occupational therapist), North East Essex PCT, for their clever device the TIM tube to help carers to thicken fluids accurately for patients with dysphagia.

The judges thought this entry was a brilliant example of creative problem-solving but it did not fit the category in which it was being judged. The judges were deeply impressed by this invention which has the potential to save the lives of many people with learning difficulties and others with dysphagia. It is series of tubes like egg-timers which show carers the exact thickness of liquids needed for individual patients who are dysphagic. Previously there were only written descriptions of the different thicknesses available. Now carers can see at a glance whether the consistency is right.