Sensor measures kidney-stone treatment

Precision Acoustics, Southampton University and Guy's and St Thomas' Trust won the Medical and Healthcare Category at The Engineer's Technology and Innovation Awards 2008.

The winning collaborative team designed a new sensor that uses acoustics to measure the impact of kidney stone treatment, which has the potential to improve the care of thousands of patients.

This category was sponsored by National Instruments.

Extracorporeal shock wave lothotripsy (ESWL) is used in the treatment of kidney stones to deliver shock waves from outside the patient's body to break up the stone.

To be effective, the shock waves must hit the stone repeatedly, although currently there is no way for doctors to monitor this during the treatment process.

Professor Timothy Leighton of Southampton University, an acoustics and ultrasound expert, worked with Dr Andrew Hurrell from Precision Acoustics to design a passive acoustic sensor to solve this problem.

The Technology and Innovation Awards recognise the excellent work that is undertaken by engineers and scientists in the UK, by innovative companies who collaborate with universities on ground breaking projects.

The Awards, held at The Royal Society, London, were preceded by a round-table discussion, hosted by The Sainsbury Management Fellows.

National Instruments, together with other leading companies and universities, participated in a lively discussion on the subject of manufacturing in the UK.

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