Bright spark's medical award

A LOCAL medical inventor has won a coveted national award – with a little help from a car battery bought from B&Q.

Dr Frank Prior, from Longniddry, East Lothian, was honoured at the 2008 Medical Futures Innovation Awards for his revolutionary invention which cleans surgical instruments.

Dr Prior, who came up with the idea after talking about the problem of infection with two doctors from the Neuropathogenesis Unit at Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary, is now in talks with a major medical manufacturer who want to distribute his process worldwide.