The University of Liverpool has secured significant funding to evaluate an innovation designed to control postpartum bleeding, alongside the launch of a new Women's Health Innovation (WIN) Studio.
The WIN Studio aims to address longstanding inequities in women's healthcare, accelerating technologies such as the PPH Butterfly- a novel device designed to manage postpartum haemorrhage (PPH). The £1.8m initiative is predominantly funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) (£1.5m), with additional support from the University. This funding will support the PPH Butterfly project to assess how the device - designed to tackle one of the leading causes of maternal death worldwide - can be used in clinical practice, generating evidence to inform its wider adoption.
The WIN Studio is led by Andrew Weeks (Professor of International Maternal Health Care at the University of Liverpool and an NIHR Senior Investigator) and Dr Teesta Dey (a Tenure Track Fellow within the Department of Women's and Children's Health). Dr Dey will also lead the PPH Butterfly project involving a multi-centre clinical trial across the UK and global feasibility study.
The Studio's remit spans a broad definition of women's health. This includes conditions specific to female biology, such as endometriosis, menopause and pregnancy-related complications, as well as diseases that disproportionately or differently affect women but are not traditionally classified as gender-specific.
Dr Dey said: "Women's health has often been marginalised within healthcare systems and innovation markets, resulting in treatments, devices and care models that fail to adequately account for women's specific needs. WIN Studio seeks to change this status quo and reconfigure how health technologies are conceived and delivered.
"The funding from NIHR for this £1.8m project is precisely the kind of innovation the WIN Studio exists to foster: clinically urgent, women-centred, and with the potential to save lives at scale."
Innovation Investment Fortnight
Earlier this week, the WIN Studio hosted an event as part of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority's, Innovation Investment Fortnight. Taking place at Liverpool Women's University Hospital, guests were introduced to the initiative's early activity. Seven innovations are currently undergoing clinical testing through the Studio, with three developed internally. One product - the LifeStart Trolley, designed to support newborn care at birth - has already reached commercialisation.
More about WIN Studio
Based at the University of Liverpool, the WIN Studio draws on close collaboration with NHS University Hospitals Liverpool Group, which includes Liverpool Women's University Hospital, one of the largest specialist centres of its kind in the world.
The WIN Studio has three core key areas of focus:
- Ensuring women are at the centre of innovation: The Studio incorporates a dedicated patient and public network to ensure women's lived experiences directly shape research priorities and product development from the outset.
- Pre-accelerator platform: Offering support to innovators developing new technologies in women's health. Participants receive access to clinical expertise, regulatory guidance and commercial support, alongside pathways that enable innovations to progress toward market readiness and real-world implementation.
- Capacity building: Through cross-disciplinary collaborations, including think tanks involving engineers, economists, clinicians, academics and policymakers, the Studio aims to foster a pipeline of future innovators working in women's health - an area historically underrepresented in both research and entrepreneurship.
Women's health in Liverpool
Liverpool has been identified as a strategic location for the initiative. Women in the city and surrounding region experience some of the poorest health outcomes in the UK, reflecting wider regional inequalities.
Professor Weeks said: "In an area where women face deep health inequalities, WIN Studio has a vital role to play. By working in partnership with the NHS, local government and communities, we can ensure that research leads to real-world impact.
"Liverpool has a highly integrated ecosystem of academic, clinical and commercial expertise. By bringing these together under a single platform, the WIN Studio aims to act as a national exemplar for equitable health innovation. Transforming the way medical technologies are developed is essential to addressing gender disparities in healthcare outcomes."
More about the PPH Butterfly
Every seven minutes, a woman dies from postpartum haemorrhage, the leading cause of maternal death worldwide, claiming around 70,000 lives each year. The PPH Butterfly, developed at the University of Liverpool by Professor Andrew, is a simple, low-cost device that controls postpartum bleeding rapidly and with minimal training making it deployable even in the lowest-resource settings where the burden is greatest.
Having previously received £1.1M already in NIHR funding, it is now the subject of a major £1.5M grant focussing on a randomised trial across the UK and global feasibility assessment led.
More about The Life Start Trolley
The Life Start Trolley is a small mobile resuscitation trolley to allow bedside newborn care to be carried out following birth with the baby's umbilical cord still intact to facilitate delayed cord clamping. Clinical trials at Liverpool Women's University Hospital and elsewhere around 10 years ago showed that life-saving care could be provided successfully at the bedside and it was then developed commercially by Inspiration Healthcare. In 2011 it won a Medical Futures Innovation Award for best innovation in service redesign. Over 70 UK maternity units are now using the trolley, helping them deliver more family-centred care after birth. The trolleys have also been adopted internationally and are used in 36 countries worldwide including Norway, Italy and the USA.
All photos © Denis Oates Photography
