In the enthusiasm of a ‘great idea’ it is easy to ignore some checks as to whether someone has already thought of it.

One well-known teaching hospital had funded the development of a device and there appeared to be a market for it and there was nothing comparable on the market in the US or the UK.  Unfortunately, a German company had not only developed a similar product, but it had been on the market for some time as a simple web-search using Google revealed.

And if you don’t speak the language, try Google translate.