The York Health Economic Consortium will undertake the first UK health economic analysis of Ondine’s Steriwave light-activated antimicrobial to reduce Surgical Site Infections
Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, and Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber are partnering with the York Health Economics Consortium (YHEC) to evaluate the use of Ondine’s light-activated antimicrobial, Steriwave®, to reduce the incidence of surgical site infections (SSIs).
SSIs are one of the most common healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and affect one in every 20 patients who undergo a surgical procedure in the NHS.[i] SSIs can cost up to £100,000 per patient,[ii] and the overall cost of HAIs to NHS England is over £2 billion a year.[iii] These costs are expected to rise as growing rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) make the current standard of care – the antibiotic mupirocin – less effective.[iv]
Steriwave uses a proprietary photosensitizer, which is activated by a specific wavelength of red light, to eliminate infection-causing pathogens in the nose. The nose is a reservoir for pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA which are known to cause SSIs. Steriwave eliminates these pathogens, including superbugs, in a painless five-minute treatment and prevents them from spreading and causing infections. Importantly, unlike today’s antibiotics, the use of Steriwave does not trigger antimicrobial resistance.
The health economic analysis is being undertaken by YHEC, an internationally renowned provider of health economics evaluations, and will supplement the ongoing Steriwave pilot at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, which involves 500 elective hip and knee surgery patients over a period of six months. The findings will be used to support adoption of Steriwave across the NHS.
Dr Stuart Bond, Consultant Antimicrobial Pharmacist and Director of Innovation at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, commented: “We are very pleased to be partnering with Ondine and the YHEC on this economic analysis to support the promising results of the Steriwave pilot we have seen so far. The data from the health economic analysis will support the results of our pilot, and we hope to be able to share these later this year.”
Helen Hoyland, Head of Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber's Office of Life Sciences portfolio, said: “Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber (formerly the Academic Health Science Network for the region) is pleased to be supporting this evaluation. We are commissioned by the Office of Life Sciences to support real-world evidence generation. We will work with the innovators and the Trust to publish the evaluation data, and then subsequently look to support further opportunities for the spread and adoption of Steriwave, working alongside the West Yorkshire Innovation Hub”.
Steriwave is also being used in major hospitals across Canada, including Vancouver General Hospital (VGH), The Ottawa Hospital (TOH), and the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute. Research recently published by VGH in the Canadian Journal of Surgery showed that the use of Steriwave in patients undergoing spine surgery resulted in a 66.5% reduction in post-surgical infection rates and $2.5 million in annual savings.[v] No serious adverse events have ever been reported from Steriwave treatment.
About York Economics Consortium:
York Health Economics Consortium (YHEC) is a health economics consulting company owned by the University of York. It provides a range of services, including economic modelling, literature searching, systematic reviews, network meta-analyses, patient-reported outcomes, service review and applied research and training to the NHS and the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. YHEC also carries out work for a range of clients outside the health sector, including Local Authorities and the voluntary sector. Current clients include: the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), NHS England, a range of local NHS trusts and several large multinational pharmaceutical, device, digital health and nutrition companies.
About Ondine Biomedical Inc:
Ondine Biomedical Inc. is a Canadian life science company innovating in the field of light-activated antimicrobial therapies (also known as ‘photodisinfection’). Ondine has a pipeline of investigational products, based on its proprietary photodisinfection platform, in various stages of development. Ondine’s nasal photodisinfection system has a CE mark in Europe and the UK and is approved in Canada and several other countries under the name Steriwave®. In the US, it has been granted Qualified Infectious Disease Product designation and Fast Track status by the FDA and is currently undergoing clinical trials for regulatory approval. Products beyond nasal photodisinfection include therapies for a variety of medical indications such as chronic sinusitis, ventilator-associated pneumonia, burns, and other indications.
About Steriwave®:
Ondine’s Steriwave Nasal Photodisinfection System is a patented technology using a proprietary light-activated antimicrobial (photosensitizer) to destroy pathogens. The photodisinfection treatment is carried out by a trained healthcare professional and is an easy-to-use, painless, two-step process. The photosensitizer is applied to each nostril using a nasal swab, followed by illumination of the area with a specific wavelength of red light for less than five minutes. The light activates the photosensitizer, causing an oxidative burst that is lethal to all types of pathogens. A key benefit of this approach, unlike with antibiotics, is that pathogens do not develop resistance to the therapy.
Nasal decolonization with antibiotics is already standard practice in many hospitals prior to surgery, as pathogens in a patient’s nasal cavities are a major cause of healthcare-associated infections, including surgical site infections (SSIs). Nasal decolonization is recommended in the 2016 WHO Global guidelines for the prevention of SSIs,[vi] and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) guidelines, published in May 2023, recommend nasal decolonization for major surgical procedures.[vii] However, there is a growing need to reduce traditional antibiotic use as resistance rates have been reported as high as 81%.[viii]
[i] National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Surgical site infections: prevention and treatment NICE guideline [NG125], 2019, https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng125/chapter/Context)
[ii] Getting it Right First Time, SSI National Survey, April 2019, https://gettingitrightfirsttime.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/SSI-Report-GIRFT-APRIL19e-FINAL.pdf)
[iii] Guest JF, Keating T, Gould D, et al Modelling the annual NHS costs and outcomes attributable to healthcare-associated infections in England BMJ Open 2020; 10:e033367. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033367
[iv] Naylor NR, Evans S, Pouwels KB, Troughton R, Lamagni T, Muller-Pebody B, Knight GM, Atun R, Robotham JV. Quantifying the primary and secondary effects of antimicrobial resistance on surgery patients: Methods and data sources for empirical estimation in England. Front Public Health. 2022 Aug 8;10:803943. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.803943. PMID: 36033764; PMCID: PMC9413182.
[v] Eryck Moskven, Daniel Banaszek, Eric C. Sayre, Aleksandra Gara, Elizabeth Bryce, Titus Wong, Tamir Ailon, Raphaële Charest-Morin, Nicolas Dea, Marcel F. Dvorak, Charles G. Fisher, Brian K. Kwon, Scott Paquette and John T. Street. Can J Surg November 15, 2023 66 (6) E550-E560; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cjs.016922
[vi] https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/integrated-health-services-(ihs)/ssi/fact-sheet-staphylococcus-web.pdf?sfvrsn=7e7266ed_2
[vii] Calderwood MS, Anderson DJ, Bratzler DW, et al. Strategies to prevent surgical site infections in acute-care hospitals: 2022 Update. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2023;44(5):695-720. doi:10.1017/ice.2023.67
[viii] Poovelikunnel T, Gethin G, Humphreys H. Mupirocin resistance: clinical implications and potential alternatives for the eradication of MRSA. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2015;70(10):2681-2692. doi:10.1093/jac/dkv169
