Recipient organisationUniversity of ExeterSource-published name: University of Exeter
Funding£1.5M
PeriodJan 2025 — Dec 2027
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
The NHS throws away millions of single-use medical devices each year, and this research programme will use digital tracking, sensors, and data analytics to help hospitals reuse, repair, and remanufacture them instead. This matters because the healthcare sector currently lacks the data and tools needed to prove that circular approaches—reusing devices rather than discarding them—actually save money and cut emissions. Studies suggest environmental reductions of up to 60% and financial savings of up to 50% are possible, but without reliable quantification and accessible digital systems, hospitals and manufacturers have little incentive to change. The programme also addresses gaps in understanding the behaviour changes, business models, and policy adjustments required to make circular healthcare work at scale. If successful, DECHI could reshape how the UK’s MedTech supply chain operates—reducing waste, lowering carbon emissions, and making the system more resilient to supply disruptions. Patients might not notice the change directly, but the infrastructure that keeps operating theatres stocked and equipment sterile would become far less wasteful. The project will also produce open-access tools and use cases that other health systems can adopt, potentially accelerating circular innovation across the entire sector.
View original technical description
The Digitally Enabled Circular Healthcare Innovation (DECHI) Research Programme is a ground-breaking initiative uniting leading interdisciplinary research expertise from the Universities of Exeter, Sheffield, and Cambridge. Collaborating with a vast network of stakeholders including manufacturers, practitioners, innovators and policymakers from across the Healthcare Sector, DECHI will investigate how advances in digital technologies and approaches can accelerate the transition to a more sustainable and resilient healthcare system of the future through the adoption of circular innovation The Circular Economy (CE) is a systems framework that decouples resources from economic growth. Reports highlight the potential of circular innovation, reducing, recovering, reusing, repairing, and remanufacturing assets to achieve a 45% reduction in emissions. In healthcare, studies demonstrate environmental impact reductions of up to 60% and financial savings of up to 50% through the reuse, repair, and remanufacture of medical devices. Yet, such studies are scarce, and a notable absence of data and accessible tools hinders the quantification, validation and adoption of circular innovation benefits. Additionally, understanding the system-level requisites, such as behaviour change, business models, and policy adjustments, remains limited, resulting in slow and disjointed implementation of circular innovation within healthcare. DECHI proposes that the development and application of digital approaches, encompassing data analytics, simulation and modelling techniques, and advancements in digital technologies including sensorization, enhanced sterilisation and asset tracking, presents a pioneering pathway to expedite circular innovation adoption within the MedTech sector. The objectives of DECHI are therefore to: Develop a taxonomy-led data search, pooling and analysis methodology, across a diverse range of product use cases to quantify and visualise the environmental, economic and social benefits of circular innovation in the transition towards a net zero healthcare system, Use advances in sensorisation, simulation and optimisation, from across sectors, to identify and demonstrate the optimal circular intervention to prolong the life of MedTech devices and retain and reuse critical materials within healthcare, Identify and analyse how advances in digital technology can accelerate the adoption of circular innovation processes and influence the development of more environmentally sustainable and circular healthcare technologies of the future, Define and model the system-level enablers, including policy, regulation, behaviour change and business models, required to scale and amplify the adoption of a digitally enabled circular healthcare system. Through collaborative knowledge creation, tool development, and use case generation with a diverse range of industrial, policy and academic project partners, DECHI aims to revolutionize the healthcare sector. Anticipated impacts include heightened knowledge and adoption of digitally enabled circular innovation, informed policy and regulations supporting circularity, reduced environmental impact of MedTech device use, an increase in the number of MedTech devices that are designed for circularity, and an overall boost in the resilience of UK MedTech supply. DECHI is poised to reshape the future of healthcare through digitally enabled circular innovation.
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