Vincent Crabtree

Medical Device Entrepreneur
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About Me 
 
Since 2004, I am the Technical Director of Dialog Devices Ltd, a university spinout company from Loughborough University, developing portable, non-invasive optical medical devices for convenient diagnostics.

As a founder member, I have been through the whole innovation development and commercialisation process.  I am involved in making investor pitches to secure funding, which requires discussing technical issues and presenting clinical study results in an investor friendly way.
Behind the scenes, I help organise clinical studies, including drafting protocol, ethical and MHRA regulatory process procedures, liase with clinicans for ethics approval, and process/massage collected clinical data, both assisting clinicians write clinical papers and writing engineering and technical papers, usually using Matlab/Octave.

I am also responsible for 510(k) FDA regulatory and CE marking (EN60601 safety, ISO13485 quality, ISO14971 risk) medical devices regulations for Dialog Devices, understanding the requirements for product development and deployment, liasing with design houses and engineering consultants to productise prototype devices.

Finally, I manage the development of house prototypes, both designing, building and programming on both embedded (ARM7, MSP430, MCS51) using Embedded C and PC targets in VisualBasic and Labview. I help manage IP, searching for existing prior art, drafting new patent invention disclosures and liasing with patent attorneys to assess infringement and file patents.

 

 
Qualifications and Relevent Work History
Doctorate of Philosphy (PhD) in Biomedical Engineering
I received in the Photonics Engineering Group titled 'Non-invasive vascular assessment using Photoplethysmography' (2003) where I investigated Functional Diagnostic techniques, in particular relating to lower limb peripheral arterial occlusive disease.  This included waveform and shape assessment of pulsatile signals, using lumped constant modelling.

From 1997 to 2004, I was a researcher/Post Doc fellow in the Photonics Engineering Group at Department of Electrical Engineering, Loughborough University.  Here, I was part of a team developing Optics Based instrumentation and diagnostic equipment in both industrial and biomedical situations.

I worked extensively on a non-invasive venous oximetry project, theorising models, and developing data logging equipment in Labview and clinical study analysis software in Matlab. Significant learning was taken while conducting clinical studies during cardiac bypass surgery in the NHS, and the processes required to perform pilot clinical studies with new devices.
 
I also helped develop equipment for new methods of assessing water, wine and olive oil purity under an EU framework 5 proposal, and help develop prototype equipment for aerosol cloud formation development analysis.

In addition to protocol drafting, data analysis (both clinical/medical results and engineering analysis), this included electronic hardware development, such as multi-platform Programming and hardware design using microcontrollers.
 
Finally, I have a 2:1 BEng(Hons) in Electronics and Computing Engineering from The University of Bradford (1997), and a HND from Sheffield Hallam University (1993). 

Selected Publications

 

Engineering Journal Publications

Cai Y, Qiu Y, Wei L, Zhang W, Hu S, Smith PR, Crabtree VP, Tong S, Thakor NV, Zhu Y, 'Complex character analysis of heart rate variability following brain asphyxia', Med Eng Phys. 2005 Aug 26. DOI: 10.1016/j.medengphy.2005.05.002

 

Xin S, Hu S, Crabtree VP, Zheng J, Azorin-Peris V, Echiadis A, Smith PR: 'Investigation of blood pulse PPG signal regulation on toe effect of body posture and lower limb height', Journal of Zhejiang University - Science A, Volume 8, Number 6 / May, 2007, pp 916-920. DOI: 10.1631/jzus.2007.A0916

 

Zheng, J, Hu S, Xin S, Crabtree VP: “The effect of postural changes on lower limb blood volume with non-invasive photoplethysmography”, J Med Eng Technol. 2008 Sep-Oct;32(5):358-64. DOI: 10.1080/03091900701453990

 

Angelos Echiadis, V P Crabtree, Johan Bence, Leonidas Hadjinikolaou, Christos Alexiou, Tomasz Spyt and Sijung Hu, 'Non-invasive measurement of peripheral venous oxygen saturation using a new venous oximetry method: evaluation during bypass in heart surgery', Physiol. Meas., 28, pp897-911 Aug. 2007. DOI: 10.1088/0967-3334/28/8/012

 

Clinical Journal Publications

ME Alnaeb, A Boutin, VP Crabtree, DP Mikhailidis, AM Seifalian, G Hamilton: "Assessment Of Lower Extremity Peripheral Arterial Disease Using A Novel Automated Optical Device", Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, 2008 Jan-Feb;41(6):522-7. DOI: 10.1177/ 1538574407305092

 

Alnaeb ME, Crabtree VP, Boutin A, Mikhailidis DP, Seifalian AM,Hamilton G, 'Prospective Assessment Of Lower Extremity Peripheral Arterial Disease In Diabetic Patients Using A Novel Automated Optical Device', Angiology, 2007 Oct-Nov;58(5):579-85. DOI: 10.1177/0003319707305685

 

Oral Conference Presentations

BiOS'98, Stockholm, Sweden - 'Dimensional analysis of Blood Vessels in the Pressure Myograph' 10th September 1998. Proceedings at :-
Crabtree V.P. and Smith P.R., 'Dimensional analysis of blood vessels in the pressure Myograph', Proc. SPIE, 3568, pp. 46-52, Jan. 1999. DOI: 10.1117/12.336816

 

Presented at Photon02 in Cardiff, Wales, Sep 02
Crabtree, V.P., Smith P.R., 'Remote monitoring of human physiology using PPG', Photon02, Institute of Physics, Cardiff, 2-5 September 2002, ISBN 0 7503 0916 4

 

Association of Surgeons Great Britain & Ireland Annual Scientific Meeting 2006 "The Compleat Surgeon" in Edinburgh, Scotland
Alnaeb M.E., Boutin A., Crabtree V.P., Alobaid N., Mikhailidis D.P., Seifalian A.M., Hamilton G., 'Assessment of Lower Extremity Peripheral Arterial Disease using a Novel Automated Optical Device', ASGBI Annual Meeting, Edinburgh International Conference Centre, 3-5 May 2006
Abstract in Br J Surg, May 2006, 93, S1: p89. DOI: 10.1002/bjs.5436

 

Vascular Society of Great Britain & Ireland Annual Meeting November 2006, Edinburgh, Scotland
Crabtree VP, Alnaeb ME, Boutin A, Seifalian AM, Hamilton G,'Validation of a new, non-invasive automated peripheral arterial disease assessment device based on discrete near infrared spectroscopy', Vasc Soc AGM, Nov 2006, Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
Abstract in Br J Surgery, Feb 2007, 94, S1: p5, DOI: 10.1002/bjs.5765

Other Presentations

Qiu, Y., Hu, S.J., Cheang, P.Y.S.,Crabtree, V.P., Smith, P.R., Cai, Y. and Zhu, Y.,'Poincare Plot Analysis for Pulse Interval Extracted from Non-Contact Photoplethysmography', 27th Annual International Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2005. IEEE-EMBS 2005, Shanghai, China, September 2005.
Published in Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2005;2:1964-7, ISBN 0-7803-8741-4, DOI: 10.1109/IEMBS.2005.1616838

 

Crabtree, V.P., Echiadis, A., Boehm, M., Oc, M., Bence, J., Machin, D., Swanavelder, J., Alexiou, C., Doukas, G., Pidgeon, W., Hadjinikolaou, L., Spyt, T.J. and Smith, P.R, 'Prospective Venox Feasibility Study', 27th Annual International Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2005. IEEE-EMBS 2005, Shanghai, China, September 2005.
Published in Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2005;2:1964-7, ISBN 0-7803-8741-4, DOI: 10.1109/IEMBS.2005.1616839

 

Patents

Crabtree Vincent Peter, Smith Peter Richard, 'A System Or Method For Assessing A Subject's Peripheral Blood Circulation', WO2005065533, Published 2005-07-21 & Family

 

Crabtree Vincent Peter, Smith Peter Richard, 'Assessing Blood Supply To A Peripheral Portion Of An Animal', WO2007093804, Published 2007-08-23 & Family

 

Others not yet published ...