The story began when the Plymouth Perinatal Research Group came into being in July 1989 with a vision to look at how new technology could be applied to improve patient monitoring during childbirth. The group had no support funding initially but certainly had the joint good will of Plymouth Hospital’s NHS Trust and the University of Plymouth. The PRG grew to become inter-disciplinary with a mix of doctors, midwives and engineers.
The group developed computer based training software to help improve skills and we developed a decision support system to interpret fetal monitoring in real time and support subsequent clinical management. We also undertook research into umbilical cord blood gas analysis, fetal pulse oximetry and fetal ECG waveform analysis (using STAN).K2 Medical Systems came into being in August 1999 when the University of Plymouth and Plymouth Hospital’s NHS Trust transferred ownership of all IPR generated by the Perinatal Research Group into the company in return for a small shareholding.
The work then commenced to convert the research into real products that could be transferred into clinical practice. We had to learn how to market and sell them, and to run a business that generated enough funds to sustain the required personnel and infrastructure.
Over the years K2 has grown quickly. We now have subsidiary companies in Australia and the USA and have representation on the ground in the Middle East. We have customers all around the world using our products from London, New York and Sydney to Shetland Isles, St Helena and Gibraltar.
Our work is far from complete. We have a number of development programs underway that we believe will make significant breakthroughs and represent our greatest achievements in both medical software and patient monitoring devices yet. We are committed to continued innovation and look ahead with much excitement at the new developments we have underway.