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We not only sell medical device products, but provide the necessary training and ongoing customer support that these products require. A new orthopaedic reconstruction, trauma or endoscopy product often involves a new surgical technique and new instrumentation. A new wound management product normally impacts on the wound healing regime which comprises the use of a number of products that may apply sequentially and/or consecutively. As a result these products make a valuable contribution in developed healthcare systems but would prove a complication to developing countries where the medical training and facilities, supply systems and country infrastructure presently are not at the level needed.

Project Apollo is the charitable and humanitarian service programme of our orthopaedics business -is designed to support the charitable work of surgeons, hospitals and charitable organisations by providing: healthcare information; medical and technical consulting; person-to-person support though employee volunteers; grant programmes covering transportation costs of medical personnel involved in relief efforts; award programmes recognising charitable and humanitarian activities; and medical textbooks for students in developing areas.

In August 2007, Smith & Nephew sent several large boxes of plates, screws and surgical instruments to Iraq to help over 5,000 patients in the Kurd region of Northern Iraq. Dr. Goran J. Bekhtyar, president of a new Franklin, Tennessee-based nonprofit organization, Improved Health System for Iraq arranged the donation and is ensuring that the supplies reach orthopaedic surgeons in five Iraqi hospitals
The hospitals receiving the supplies had been using products from 40 years ago. Iraqi surgeons often treat fractures with traction, an obsolete method that requires the patient to lie still for weeks. With the Smith & Nephew donation, Iraqi surgeons are able to treat the fractures with internal fixation, leading to a faster and more complete recovery for the patients.

The Iraq shipment contained new devices such as the EXOGEN™ unit, an ultrasound device meant to speed the healing of fractures, as well as older but still serviceable products.

Smith & Nephew realises that technologies and products designed to support the process of healing for physicians and their patients around the world appear at a fast pace and that these advancements do not reach everyone. Project Apollo seeks to link up with physicians and non-profit groups engaged in medical philanthropy to receive donations of Smith & Nephew products, as well as sponsorship and personal assistance from the group's employees. Teamed with these individuals and organisations, we believe we have found a way of increasing the impact of the charitable work and giving we undertake.