Mobile medicine
Increase compliance and improve quality of life through portable medical devices and dispensers
Design a medical device or product for carrying medicine whose portability promotes compliance and enhances the life of the patient.
Download brief - Mobile medicine
View further reading and resources
Award information
GlaxoSmithKline Internship
Value: £7,500
Duration: 16 weeks
Location: Ware, Hertfordshire
GlaxoSmithKline is a research-based pharmaceutical organisation committed to fighting disease by bringing innovative medicines and services to patients throughout the world, and to the healthcare providers who service them. GlaxoSmithKline invests heavily in research and development, spending £1.5 billion in 2002 to meet its commitment to discover and develop new and innovative medicines that prolong and improve the quality of life for mankind.
Currently, GlaxoSmithKline's exploratory development portfolio comprises more than 30 compounds. The company is already recognised as the international leader for developing novel treatments for gastrointestinal disease, viral diseases like HIV/AIDS, and respiratory diseases, particularly asthma. Around the world, GlaxoSmithKline scientists are also researching better treatments in the areas of anti-infectives, cardiovascular/critical care, CNS disorders, cancer and metabolic diseases. GSK also manufactures and markets consumer and oral healthcare products.
One thing that all these products have in common is that they need to be packaged. Meeting this need is the Device Technology Group based at Ware, Hertfordshire. The Device Technology Group create, develop and industrialise novel Devices and Manufacturing systems for the key therapeutic areas supported by GSK. The group is well established and has been successful in creating many innovative, award winning products which are sold worldwide. As an in-house group, much of the creative work is carried out in a matrix environment with the emphasis being on quality, best value, robust design and economic manufacture.
The GlaxoSmithKline internship will enable the winning student to spend a period of time working in the design studios of GlaxoSmithKline's Device Technology Group. The student will be attached to a device design project and will be encouraged to work as part of a multidisciplinary team comprising industrial designers and mechanical and electronic engineers. There will be scope provided for the student to use the department's comprehensive workshop facilities and ProE CAD system. The scope of the brief allows the student to be innovative and creative within a rapidly evolving industry. It gives the winning candidate the opportunity to see their designs developed during their attachment, with the potential of being manufactured for a multi-million device industry.
Judging panel
Ross Kinneir FRSA (Chair)
Frances Akinwunmi, Consultant Pharmacist, Anticoagulation, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Will Bentall FRSA, Partner, London Associates
Revital Cohen, Designer
Andrew Grant, Director, Worldwide Device Technology, GlaxoSmithKline Research & development
Sally Halls, PearsonLloyd
Jamie Young, Senior Researcher, RSA
Further reading and resources
Organisations and websites
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
Articles
Swansea University develops diabetes text alerts, article in The Guardian, 30 August 2011.
A Faint Sound at a Concert, but Impossible to Ignore, a controversial piece in the New York Times, 1 August 2011, which focuses on the sound of a portable medical device at a classical music concert.
How Safe Are Medical Devices?, an Editorial in the New York Times, 4 August 2011, following a study released by The Institute of Medicine.
Share