“Getting young people living with arthritis who need wrist and hand splints to wear them, has always been difficult,” explains Christine Mercer, occupational therapist at the Royal Cornwall Hospital. “Children and young adults simply don’t want to be seen wearing ‘hearing aid beige’ supports that advertise to the world they are ‘different’ to everyone else. And they say so by just not wearing them. I’ve come across this throughout my career and know that colleagues all over the country have the same problem.”

Last year, around the same time as she was experiencing supply problems with conventional supports, one of Christine’s young patients set her to thinking about how splints and supports could be made more desirable, even ‘cool’, in the way that dental braces have now become.

So Christine began to look around for neoprene suppliers and turned to Lostwithiel-based Techneopro for help. “We needed a fabric that could meet all the demands of being adaptable for individualised supports, breathable – something existing supports really aren’t, hook and eye (Velcro) receptive to allow for a flexible fit, durable and, above all, attractive!” said Christine.

Brian Warwick and his team at Techneopro were happy to take on the challenge and came up with not only a solution to the image problem but have also taken a step further and developed a design that offers bespoke splints for young patients and adults more cost effectively than off-the-shelf versions from traditional medical suppliers. Techneopro focus on converting neoprene into all sorts of products and has a number of divisions specialising in items such as facemasks, back supports, covers for portable veterinary scanners, and medical splint covers as alternatives to plaster casts for children; having diversified from its original business in wetsuit repair and manufacture.

“Using our experience with neoprene materials, we have been able to work with fabric manufacturers to develop a hook receptive lined neoprene that is breathable and has special anti bacterial treatments for greater comfort. Due to the new fabrics and production methods supports can be easily made to measure for each patient’s specific needs, as well as being able to make supports to a patient’s chosen colour or design,” explains Brian.

“Beyond that, taking our thinking ‘out-of-the-box’, we are developing a standard wrist support base which can then have a variety of splints attached, using hook receptive fabric, to adapt to the different shapes and levels of support patients’ need.”

“For us that means we will be able to offer a one-stop-shop at our adult clinics rather than having to call patients back when a purpose made splint has been made,” says Christine. “The ‘Out-of-the-Box’ kit will mean a much better service for them, cutting down on travelling and freeing up follow-up appointments; giving us time to see more patients!”

Brian added: “There’s huge potential for expanding the concept into many areas where medical supports are needed.”

Another big advantage of the new supports is that Techneopro have been able to produce a better quality product yet at a lower cost. Whilst the ‘designer’ fabrics are aimed at younger wearers of supports, adults who want something a bit different to the standard splint will be able to take a prescription along to the manufacturer and pay for it themselves.

Hana is the first young patient to have designed her own wrist support. Hana was able to do this with thanks to Christine’s idea. She said: “I needed to wear one before but didn’t because they are so boring it put me off but now I wear it all the time.”

Being able to wear her own design has made a difference to Hana. She said: “I can match the support to my outfit and I when I went into school with the new one everyone was saying ‘I want one’.”

Christine is hugely excited about the new supports. She said: “It just so fantastic to take something patients have given me and many of my colleagues a hard time over for years and actually find a solution!”

Christine’s idea fits in perfectly with the ethos of the Department of Health’s Innovation for a Healthier Future and Innovation Week which runs until Friday, May 1.

A spokesperson for the South West Strategic Health Authority said: "There is an enormous amount of innovation that takes place in the NHS all the time - whether it's using new technology or new procedures to help save lives or whether it's working in new ways to provide more care closer to people's homes than ever before. This new Innovation Fund will provide a timely boost to ensuring that where innovative ideas and solutions exist in the NHS we can provide the right kind of support to them to ensure they are put into practice as soon as possible so that our patients can continue to benefit from the best possible care."