Mihir Sheth has experience in developing innovative medical devices across 3 continents. He strongly believes that healthcare innovation must follow the need-led philosophy rather than the tech-push philosophy. To that extent, he immerses himself in a clinical setting and identifies needs, along with the context that the problems lie in, alongside patients and clinicians. He was one of the first employees of Sisu Global Health, and worked on developing and bringing the Hemafuse, an autologous transfusion device, to hospitals in Kenya. As an Oxford Global Insight Fellow and co-founder of Inspiritus Health, he worked in hospitals in Senegal and UK to co-develop solutions with clinicians to problems faced by them, including on solutions to wean patients off the ventilator quicker.

He is a research assistant at Oxford University, an Oxford University Hospital Improvement and Innovation Fellow, and was named by Innovate UK as Young Innovator of the Year in 2022. I aim to bring equity in how healthcare innovation is carried out, so that problems are solved in a way that is accessible to everyone – regardless of which country they live in, what language they speak, and how technologically astute they are. My goal is to change the statistic that 80% of medical devices are designed for 10% of the world’s population. I currently am doing this via 3 prongs – being co-founder of Inspiritus Health, an Improvement and Innovation Fellow at Oxford University Hospital, and a Research Assistant at Oxford University.

Personal Statement
At Inspiritus Health, I worked on product and business development, while my co-founder, a consultant anaesthetist, worked full time in the NHS. My inner drive led me to develop and test the StimSpirit on myself, find clinical experts to verify my findings, and work with hospitals to identify and quantify the value-addition of the product. During product development, I collaborated with over 50 clinicians to design the StimSpirit to non-invasively stimulate the diaphragm! My resilience has allowed him to pursue this project even after multiple grant and investment rejections, multiple prototype failures, a silent co-founder, and the responsibility of the entire company on my shoulders. This resulted in me being honoured by Innovate UK as the Young Innovator of the Year 2022, and receiving national recognition from the press.

In healthcare today, many “innovations” are developed without any input from clinicians or patients, and these tend to make the medical team’s work harder, not easier. I am not afraid to immerse myself within hospitals in India, Senegal, Kenya and UK to understand first-hand the challenges faced by doctors. This allowed me to co-develop solutions that suit the clinical context, resulted in higher clinician engagement, and led to quicker implementation. As Oxford University Hospital’s first Innovation and Improvement Fellow I have developed multiple novel solutions, including using a sponge to reduce cannulation attempts in the neonatal ICU, an app to reduce the duration of catheterisation in elderly patients, and a new process to save over 1000+ nursing hours per year looking for drug cupboard keys. My passion to truly understand the problem and my diverse experience allows me to create solutions that are simple and can be easily replicated everywhere in the world.

Finally, healthcare innovation cannot progress without developing novel and cutting-edge technology. I work with Prof. Eleanor Stride and Prof. Ashok Handa at Oxford University to improve oxygen delivery to patients with chronic respiratory diseases using oxygen nanobubbles. Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the UK have longstanding respiratory illnesses, most of whom tend to be from underserved communities. My research is focused on developing a drink loaded with oxygen nanobubbles and I am currently managing 2 clinical studies to test its efficacy in patients, and to better understand the mechanism of action.

I am also passionate about improving the engineering education system to empower students with skills that will benefit them in the work environment. I work with 3 undergraduate students at Oxford University and with 4 undergraduate interns in his start-up, Inspiritus Health. My approach to all of these students is to support their own routes of inquiry and actively mentor them to build their own skills as independent researchers. While I can usually answer their questions or solve their problems myself, I often direct them to other resources and encourages them to use the trial-and-error method to try different approaches to their problem and learn, even if it takes a longer time to get the answer. I am also a guest lecturer on the Oxford University Global Surgery course, and at Oxford University Hospital, where I teach students, engineers and healthcare professionals about the principles of need-led innovation. I also inspire engineering entrepreneurship within school-going students throughout the UK by simplifying these concepts in a manner that’s engaging and relatable for them.