Professor Tom Clutton-Brock, Director of the Medical Devices Testing and Evaluation Centre, Professor of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine at the University of Birmingham and Associate Medical Director at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, has been awarded an MBE for services to the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professor Clutton-Brock and the MD-TEC team played a vital role in developing and testing ventilators in the Government’s Ventilator Challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to rapidly assess ventilator prototypes and advise on the approval process. Devices approved by the team are now in use at hospitals across several countries.

Professor Clutton-Brock said: “I am honoured to receive this award.  I have been interested in medical technologies and how to make them as safe and as usable as possible throughout my career. I have been continually supported by senior colleagues at UHB and UoB, for which I am also very grateful.  None of this work would have been possible without the hard work of the MD-TEC team, and of course the facility itself, located in the Institute of Translational Medicine.”

Professor Clutton-Brock, who is also the Chair of the NICE Interventional Procedures Advisory Committee and Clinical Director of the NIHR Trauma Management MedTech Cooperative, has previously been named one of the “100 most influential drivers of the health technology revolution”.

Tim Jones, Chief Innovation Officer at UHB, added: “On behalf of everyone at the Trust, I’d like to extend my congratulations to Tom, for this well-deserved recognition of his exceptional work that has and continues to have a huge impact on healthcare not only in the UK but also globally.”