Innovation Exchange webinar: Modernising Primary Care Telephony

Published on March 8, 2022 and last updated on May 23, 2022 by Beatrice Howard

Event: Empowering Patients to Self-Manage

Our interactive webinar “Modernising Primary Care Telephony” took place on Wednesday 2 March, 12:30-14:00.

The webinar showcased telephony innovations, highlighting the potential for modern telephony to improve communication in primary care across London.

Presented by the Health Innovation Network in collaboration with the NHS England Digital First Programme London, we looked at how updating traditional telephone systems can improve interactions with patients and support PCN development, flexible and remote working and help streamline service delivery.

This event updated primary care staff about emerging national plans around primary care telephony and built on previous work undertaken in this area through the Digital First Programme and learning from ongoing projects. The event also showcased several products on the market, helping primary care staff understand the breath and depth of functionality that can transform primary care processes.

In addition, the HIN has produced a commissioning guide on Modernising Primary Care Telephony which is now available for download from the Health Innovation Network’s website. This report was commissioned by Our Healthier South East London ICS (OHSEL)through the Digital First Programme and delivered by the Health Innovation Network, the Academic Health Science Network for South London.

You can access the event pack and running order here, and the slide deck here.

Video Running Order

Start time	Topic	Presenter
00:00:00	Introduction from Chair/ Health Innovation Network	Denis Duignan Head of Digital Transformation & Technology Health Innovation Network
00:04:50	Presentation: A London region perspective around the opportunities of modern telephony in primary care.	Matt Nye Regional Director for Digital First Programmes NHS England (London)
00:09:57	Five 2-minute pitches*	Babble Ltd Product: Babblevoice Antoine Lever Director EVAD Think Healthcare Product: Think Healthcare Solution Mike Smyth Think Healthcare Team Leader Exponential-e Product: UC-One Tim Gilliatt Public Sector Account Manager Gamma Product: Horizon, the modern Primary Care telephony choice Amy Black Business Development Executive Premier Choice Group Product: Premier Patient Line James Gargaro Sales Manager
00:24:31	Presentation: Taking an ICS wide approach to primary care telephony	Brian Stennett NWL GP Telephony Lead, Digital First North West London CCG
00:34:07	Four 2-minute pitches*	Voice Connect Ltd Product: Cloud Based Patient Partner with Automated Telephony Repeat Prescriptions Review and Ordering Service Paul Trayler Sales Director VTSL Limited Product: GP Cloud Voice Rob Walton CEO X-on Product: Surgery Connect Desktop App Paul Bensley Director Yo Telecom Product: Bespoke Phone System Daniel Mills Senior Consultant
00:41:02	Presentation: Advanced Telephony National Update	Nikki Hinchley Head of GPIT Transformation, Digital Primary Care NHS Transformation Directorate / NHS England & NHS Improvement
00:47:27	Panel discussion and Q&A session	Speakers and Chair to take questions from the audience
01:16:13	Closing remarks	Chair

* The Health Innovation Network and NHS England do not endorse or recommend any of the commercial innovations showcased at this Innovation Exchange event. The innovations referred to at the event are not preferred suppliers and there are other solutions that can support the challenges identified. This event is intended to inspire people as to how innovations can support health system problems, rather than endorse any specific solutions, with the sole intended purpose to be for guidance only.

Community Diagnostic Centres – Cardiology Innovation Exchange

Published on December 8, 2021 and last updated on May 23, 2022 by Beatrice Howard

Event: Empowering Patients to Self-Manage

Our “Community Diagnostic Centres – Cardiology Innovation Exchange” took place on Wednesday 1 December 2021 from 9:00- 12:00.

The NHS London Community Diagnostic Hub (CDC) Programme are working closely with clinical pathway groups in the design and development of the CDCs to ensure they are meeting the needs of patients and the health system. Health Innovation Network and UCLPartners (Academic Health Science Networks – AHSNs) are supporting the programme to advise on innovative solutions to support the CDCs, in order to improve efficiency and care for patients.

To showcase this work, all three London AHSNs (HIN, UCLP, and ICHP) hosted an Innovation Exchange Event that gave clinicians, pathway experts, system leaders and innovators an opportunity to engage and discuss the innovative solutions that can support the set-up of the CDCs.

The innovations that were presented at the event had been selected based on challenge areas identified through our structured engagement with a variety of stakeholders in the field. The current focus is on cardiology and the pathways linked to heart failure, atrial fibrillation, chest pain and valve disease.

Please note, the innovations referred to at the event are not preferred suppliers and there are other solutions that can support the challenges identified. This event was intended to inspire people as to how innovations can support health system problems, rather than endorse any specific solutions.

You can watch the recording below, access the event pack here, and access the slides here.

If you’d like to watch a specific presentation, timings can be found below;

“Transforming Cancer diagnosis through technology and AI” interactive webinar recording

Published on November 1, 2021 and last updated on November 25, 2021 by Beatrice Howard

Event: Empowering Patients to Self-Manage

Our interactive webinar raising awareness of innovative cancer diagnostic tools and practices in cancer in South East London took place on on Wednesday 17 November, 2021.

This webinar, presented by the Health Innovation Network and the South East London Cancer Alliance, looked at how Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are being used in diagnostic technology across multiple clinical areas in cancer.

We heard from Innovators and Tech companies including:

The SELCA Rapid Diagnostics Hub – The team will present their research on future practice and innovations to develop the service.

Kherion Medical – Transforming cancer diagnostics through the power of deep learning, helping radiology departments become more effective and efficient, overcome resource challenges, and improve patient experience.

Odin Vision – An award-winning Artificial Intelligence (AI) company founded by a team of eminent clinicians and artificial intelligence experts with the mission of creating the next generation of AI enabled applications for endoscopy.

Plus short pitches from health tech companies with solutions to improve the accuracy and speed of diagnosis, aid clinical decision-making, and lead to better health outcomes, including:

Behold – Bringing AI technologies to radiology departments in the NHS to support the accelerated diagnosis of acute, chronic and healthy patient examinations.

IBEX – Empowering pathologists to make quicker and more accurate diagnosis with state-of-the-art decision-support tools.

Pinpoint – Using AI analysis of blood tests to produce a calibrated probability that a patient has cancer in one of the nine main cancer groups, covering over 98% of all urgent cancer referrals.

Skin Analytics – Providing AI supported dermatology solutions in partnership with the NHS, supporting clinicians in their assessment of skin lesions.

You can watch the recording here and access the event pack here.

2021-22 Rapid Uptake Products: Improving the diagnosis and treatment of asthma through innovation

Published on February 24, 2021 and last updated on June 30, 2022 by Rahel Gerezgiher

Post Title

The Health Innovation Network’s Head of Innovation Lesley Soden makes the case for two NHS-endorsed innovations improving the diagnosis and treatment of asthma.

Find out more about Asthma Biologic precision medicine and FeNO testing for suspected asthma patients.

As a person with asthma who was diagnosed in childhood, I have realised over the past few years that the management of my asthma hasn’t changed in decades. My condition is controlled through medication, and the only part of my treatment that has changed over the years is the trade name of my ‘blue reliever inhaler’ from Ventolin to Salbutamol. With 5.4 million people in the UK living with asthma and the NHS spending an estimated £1.1 billion on treatment annually, it seems hard to believe that patients do not have more access to innovative technology and products that could help their treatment and improve their quality of life.

Through the NHS Accelerated Access Collaborative’s Rapid Uptake Products (RUP) programme, the NHS has endorsed products that improve the diagnosis of asthma and the treatment of severe asthma. The 2021/22 RUP programme has included two innovative asthma products and fast tracks patient access to these products. They are approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and support the NHS Long Term Plan’s key clinical priorities but have had lower uptake within England than expected.

As an Academic Health Science Network, the Health Innovation Network (HIN) supports the local adoption of these products in south London by raising awareness of their efficacy, facilitating clinical pathway changes and providing education and training for how to embed and use them.

2021/22 RUP innovations that improve the diagnosis and treatment of asthma

FeNO testing is a method of diagnosing asthma by measuring fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) in the breath of patients with suspected asthma, alongside other respiratory tests. It measures the levels of inflammation in a patient’s lungs through the nitric oxide in their breath. There is evidence that asthma is widely misdiagnosed. Overdiagnosis leads to unnecessary treatment and a delay in making an alternative diagnosis. Underdiagnosis risks daily symptoms, and potentially serious exacerbations¹. The FeNO test can provide a more accurate diagnosis of patients suspected of having asthma when a diagnosis is unclear and can be used with other diagnosis tests such as spirometry and peak flow test. Additionally, FeNO can also be used to improve the management of patients with asthma by using FeNO monitoring to adjust the dosage of steroids or guide biological agent treatment.

Asthma Biologics, the second RUP asthma product, are four biologic therapy drugs taken to improve and reduce asthma attacks in people with eosinophilic asthma or severe persistent allergic asthma. Biologic therapies work in a different way to traditional asthma treatments. Xolair (Omalizumab) is for people with severe allergic asthma. It targets a chemical in your blood stream called IgE which is involved in the allergic response to an asthma trigger. Nucala (Mepolizumab), Cinqaero (Reslizumab) and Fasenra (Benralizumab) are for people who have severe eosinophilic asthma. This is asthma driven by high levels of a type of white blood cell called eosinophils causing the lungs to become inflamed, leading to asthma symptoms and asthma attacks.

Only 10.8 per cent of eligible severe asthma patients have access to biologic medicines today in the UK. The low referral rate could be due to many healthcare professionals being unaware that their patients could benefit from biologics. Increasing the use of biologics appropriately would reduce use of oral corticosteroids (OCS) associated with long term side effects, as well as exacerbations and hospital admissions².

These asthma products could significantly improve care patients receive, with the potential to transform the lives of people with difficult/severe asthma, prevent asthma attacks, and save lives.

NHS organisations in south London can access financial help to roll out these products, as both innovations are eligible for the Pathway Transformation Fund. The deadline to apply for this fund is midday 30 April 2021, and we would welcome health professionals, including pharmacists interested in supporting patient identification and accurate prescribing, to apply. Within the Health Innovation Team our RUP lead is really keen to help you to devise your project and help to complete your funding application.

Applications should be developed and submitted with the support of your local AHSN RUP lead, and we can help you get started.

Meet the innovator: Dr Julian Nesbitt

Published on October 15, 2020 and last updated on October 29, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

In this edition, we caught up with Dr Julian Nesbitt, CEO of Dr Julian; an innovative healthcare platform that increases accessibility to mental healthcare.

Pictured above: Dr Julian Nesbitt of Dr Julian

Tell us about your innovation in a sentence.

We improve access to mental health services connecting patients to remote online therapy with qualified therapists via our platform.

What was the ‘lightbulb’ moment?

Working in A&E, I saw the number of patients who had come in after trying to harm themselves on a mental health therapy waiting list some over six months. I thought there must be a better way to get people to help more quickly and efficiently and research had shown online therapy to equally if not more effective.

What three bits of advice would you give budding innovators?

Keep going resilience is key
Make sure you continually test and pivot, don’t build something that isn’t needed and don’t be afraid to change if it’s not working.
Try and get mentorship/peer support it can be a lonely place but programs such as the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator and the clinical entrepreneur program can really help!

What’s been your toughest obstacle?

Innovating and trying to scale something in the NHS is really hard, there are so many barriers, it takes time and patience making sure you keep going speaking to the right people.

What’s been your innovator journey highlight?

Seeing the feedback from patients who have been able to access the help they need when they need it which has really changed their lives. Kent Surrey Sussex AHSN recently published an evaluation of our app and the key findings really validated what we are trying to do. It outlined a range of benefits for patients using Dr Julian, compared to users of the current NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service approach, including the patient drop-out rate was 49.8 per cent lower, reliable recovery rates were 47.9% higher and the DNA (did not attend) rate was 50.9 per cent lower.

Best part of your job now?

I enjoy building teams and now helping to support the team thrive and trying to ensure they keep motivated doing what they enjoy. Most satisfying part is seeing your vision develop and be realised.

If you were in charge of the NHS and care system, what’s the one thing you’d do to speed up health innovation?

The NHS is very fragmented if there are proven innovations that can scale I feel a centralised procurement system would really help adoption and spread rather than individual procurement in each CCG. In the meantime building connections and networks of others who share a passion for digital innovations really helps.

A typical day for you would include..

Multiple meetings depending on what is going on. Involving checking in on the recruitment, technology, business development and key accounts and helping out admin staff to deal with any issues. Also, do a lot of networking speaking with various people that could help scale/drive the business forward with the aim of forming key partnerships.

Where can we find you?

For more information, visit their website at dr-julian.com or follow them on Twitter @drjulianapp

Meet the innovator: Matt Elcock

Published on September 15, 2020 and last updated on September 17, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

In this edition, we caught up with Matt Elcock, Founder of Push Doctor; an innovation that provides clinicians with the technology to enable patients to access primary and secondary care digitally through the NHS across the UK.

Pictured above: Matt Elcock of Push Doctor

Tell us about your innovation in a sentence.

Push Doctor provides clinicians with the technology to enable patients to access primary and secondary care digitally through the NHS across the UK.

What was the ‘lightbulb’ moment?

There were two. The idea was created when Uber was scaling, and Push Doctor was born to provide quick, speedy, private access to digital primary care in 2013. At the time, there was typically a 2 or more week wait for an appointment, so Push Doctor set out to help solve this problem digitally. Then in 2018, the second moment was the widespread willingness to adopt this approach to primary care within the NHS and the launch of the NHS 10 year plan. That is when we focussed to deliver the product free via NHS through partners in General Practice.

What three bits of advice would you give budding innovators?

It’s your passion and vision which will serve you throughout, ensure that this is clear, long-term, and meaningful.
Think iteratively about the journey, markets change in steps. To achieve your vision may take 2 or 10+ changes within the market. Work through them systematically.
Bring the right people on your journey, who share your passion. This will be the difference between success and failure.

What’s been your toughest obstacle?

Acceptance. Push Doctor was the first to launch our service within the UK, we were a CQC test-case for regulation. We have worked hard with the regulator to ensure the service can be offered in a safe and effective manner. When we launched the platform, it was far from certain if this could / would be adopted for the future. I’m glad to say that we have demonstrated how it can work at scale and now is widely adopted across the UK.

What’s been your innovator journey highlight?

For us, saving lives. Push Doctor has been responsible for saving the lives of numerous patients who were struggling to get care in a timely fashion and those patients who were very sick (for example with Sepsis). Having access to a doctor in minutes picked up the red flags quickly and we have coordinated an expedited pathway into A&E because of this. This fact is the most rewarding aspect that any innovator could wish for.

Best part of your job now?

The best part of my role now is working with partners and our internal teams on how we can evolve our support to the NHS. There are so many opportunities where digital health can deliver real benefits to our NHS. In 2013, we had the vision that video consultations would become mainstream for primary care and now we see that digital health will offer benefits to doctors, patients and commissioners and solve so many of the current challenges faced. Our approach to these challenges is once again, unique.

If you were in charge of the NHS and care system, what’s the one thing you’d do to speed up health innovation?

This is simple; I would provide direct funding to innovators who have evidence to back the benefits. Proving out the effectiveness of an innovation is the first challenge, getting funding for it afterwards is often very difficult too. I think digital breaks down borders and delivers maximum benefit at scale, but this can sometimes be at odds with how funding streams work and limits the benefit digital can provide.

A typical day for you would include..

My days are quite varied but usually involves me being out meeting our partners within the NHS and working with the Push Doctor leadership team on our approach, product and funding.

Where can we find you?

For more information, visit their website at pushdoctor.co.uk or follow them on Twitter @PushDoctor

Meet the innovator: Evan Harris

Published on July 15, 2020 and last updated on September 8, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

In this edition, we caught up with Evan Harris, Co-Founder of Peppy Health; an innovation that gives users ultra-convenient access to vetted healthcare practitioners.

Pictured above: Evan Harris of Peppy Health

Tell us about your innovation in a sentence

Peppy gives our users ultra-convenient access to vetted healthcare practitioners in the areas of fertility, parenthood, menopause, mental health and many more to come.

What was the ‘lightbulb’ moment?

There have been a series of lightbulb moments but the clearest one came from my colleague and Peppy co-founder, Max, who had recently become a dad. His wife and baby experienced various challenges in the first few months after birth and the care they received from the NHS and their private health insurer was almost non-existent. We started to speak to people in the perinatal sector and realised that many services had been cut to the bone during austerity. Then we became aware of similar issues in fertility and menopause support. Suddenly the huge gaps in the conventional healthcare system – in women’s health and other areas – became obvious and we realised that we had a model that could revolutionise the way people engage with healthcare providers.

What three bits of advice would you give budding innovators?

Find co-founders you like and respect. If you’re serious about being an innovator then the first step is to put yourself in a position where you could meet them.
Find a route to revenue from day one. Successful metrics are fairly meaningless if no one will pay for the service.
Experiment rapidly and pivot if necessary. We’ve pivoted our products, routes to market and revenue model about 10 times in the last 12 months. Had we not been willing to move so fast we wouldn’t be here right now.

What’s been your toughest obstacle?

Finding product-market fit. We’re not 100 per cent there yet but we are much closer to it than we were even six months ago. There are so many moving parts, so many possibilities, and you only have so much cash runway before it runs out.

What’s been your innovator journey highlight?

Definitely the Techforce-19 Challenge in April and May this year. Being able to support over 1,000 new parents in an NHS-funded trial gave us an incredible opportunity to prove that our model could deliver extraordinary outcomes in a short period of time. In our case we reduced the percentage of trial participants experiencing possible depression or anxiety by almost half based on SWEMWBS surveys.

Best part of your job now?

I get a huge amount of joy from hearing feedback from our users and knowing that we are making a positive difference in their lives and the lives of their families. I also love working with innovate HR professionals.

If you were in charge of the NHS and care system, what’s the one thing you’d do to speed up health innovation?

I’m obviously biased here but I think it’s much easier to innovate in a small startup like Peppy than it is in a conventional area of the NHS like a Trust. I’d therefore make it easier for these startups to experiment with the NHS on new service models. These experiments need to be funded and decisions need to be made much quicker than they are now. Techforce-19 was a great example of what is possible.

A typical day for you would include..

MS Teams calls!! The whole team are working remotely so I’m on one video call after another. My day starts with three stand-ups: full team, tech team, ops team. Then it’s on to a wide mix of developing our product, client implementation meetings, and ad-hoc catch ups with the team. The typical day is also very long – I need a holiday!

Where can we find you?

Listen to the latest Innovation Exchange featuring Peppy Health.

For more information, visit their website at www.pepp.health or follow them on LinkedIn at getpeppy

Londoners set out their expectations for appropriate use of their health and care data

Published on June 30, 2020 and last updated on December 22, 2020 by Simon Ellery

Londoners have set out how they expect their health and care data to be used, as part of a London-wide Citizens’ Summit. There was strong endorsement for joining-up information held by the NHS and care services to improve care for individuals and for the population, as long as certain conditions are in place.

In receiving these detailed recommendations, local health and care leaders confirmed that these public expectations will be used to shape policy for London, ensuring that Londoners can have confidence in how their health and care data is used.

The OneLondon Citizens’ Summit was a large scale and in-depth public deliberation on uses of health and care data. It involved 100 Londoners in a four-day process of detailed discussion and debate. Participants reflected London’s diverse population, came from all 32 boroughs, and had a mix of attitudes towards data sharing. They were provided with technical information by experts and practitioners. The work was overseen by an independent advisory group.

This Citizens’ Summit is a new and innovative way to involve the public in policymaking. As a result, Londoners have had more opportunity than ever before to be informed about the issues and trade-offs, and to set out their expectations about the uses of their health and care information by the health and care system.

The Citizens’ Summit was commissioned by London’s five health and care partnerships via the OneLondon Local Health and Care Record Exemplar (LHCRE) programme, and delivered by Ipsos MORI and The King’s Fund. Through public deliberation, London is leading the way in understanding how citizens weigh-up the benefits and potential concerns of data use, to reach an informed set of public expectations that will now shape the development of policy across the capital.

How do Londoners expect their health and care data to be used?

• Access and control in health and care data
At the end of the process, after four days of deliberation, there was almost unanimous agreement (97 per cent of those who attended on the day)* that all health and care organisations in London should join up identifiable data to support the provision of care to individuals. An expectation was set that health and care professionals would only have access to information relevant to their roles through a means of role-based access control. Strict conditions were set out by Summit participants, taking into account the level of urgency of a patient’s condition, safeguarding of information and accountability.

• Use of de-personalised data for health and care planning and improvement
Participants recommended that de-personalised data must be used by relevant organisations to plan and improve services and demonstrably benefit the health of the population, with conditions set out to ensure security of data, transparency of access, and an individual’s choice to opt out of this use if they wish.

• Use of de-personalised data for research and development
Conditions for using de-personalised data to support research and development included who should have access (including commercial organisations) and how they should be charged for this access, with a tiered pricing model being suggested. Participants also set conditions around how information should be safeguarded and accessed in a safe and secure setting, and how benefits – financial and otherwise – should be realised and distributed across the NHS.

• Governance and oversight
There was a strong expectation set that citizens are involved in ongoing policy and decision-making around the uses of health and care data as part of a continuing diverse citizens’ advisory group, with a request for those in elected positions, for example, the London Assembly, to play an oversight and scrutiny role.

• Consistency across London
After four days of deliberation, nearly all of the participants (98 per cent of those who attended on the day)* stated an expectation that all health and care organisations in London must join up de-personalised information, as part of a population dataset, to support proactive care, planning, improvement, research and development in line with the recommendations and conditions they set out.

What does this mean for London’s health and care system?

Data collected about a person’s health and care offers a range of benefits – from helping NHS and care staff to provide safe, quality care, to planning and improving services, to supporting research and discovery of new treatments. The public health emergency of the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted more than ever the need for a joined-up approach in using data, both now and into the future. This is an expectation shared by Londoners, and the recommendations formed by participants through the Citizens’ Summit provide a clear directive to the health and care system.

One participant involved in the Citizens’ Summit, said:

“I consider my healthcare information to be very personal and it’s important that it is discussed openly as to whether we want that to be shared, or the extent to which it’s shared. It’s very democratic to be part of this process. We can often feel, politically, quite impotent as individuals, so being able to feel like the opinions I’m expressing are going to be helping to shape policy… it’s really good to be a part of it.”

A second participant commented:

“Certain expectations that I had of the NHS and our data were completely blown out of the park. Connections I thought might be there – or hoped were there – weren’t. So it’s been very informative. I came in initially with the view that, ‘the data is mine, no one should have access to it’, so I’ve done a big flip. It’s been a journey because I’ve kept flipping to and fro.”

Dr Vin Diwakar, Regional Medical Director for the NHS in London, commented:

“Having listened to Londoners about how they expect their personal health information to be used, it is clear they want those treating patients to have access to all the health and care information for those individuals, to optimise care. They also strongly support using data for research and the clear benefit of improving the city’s health and social care. Privacy and other safeguards must be in place. We are grateful for the involvement of all those who took part and will continue to work closely with Londoners as we look to develop an agreed set of principles for how we safely and securely use Londoners’ data, based on their recommendations.”

London’s Chief Digital Officer, Theo Blackwell, said:

“There is huge potential to harness health and care data in a safe and secure way, in order to improve Londoners’ wellbeing while protecting their privacy. The Mayor and I are clear that Londoners must be at the heart of shaping how their data is used and by whom. The OneLondon Citizens’ Summit has empowered Londoners to make recommendations on this important issue, to ensure the system can develop policy in a trustworthy way.”

Recommendations and findings from the OneLondon Citizens’ Summit are detailed in a new report. Download Public deliberation in the use of health and care data here.

For more information visit One London website.

“Having listened to Londoners about how they expect their personal health information to be used, it is clear they want those treating patients to have access to all the health and care information for those individuals, to optimise care. “Dr Vin Diwakar, Regional Medical Director for the NHS in London

Meet the innovator: Dr Keith Tsui

Published on June 11, 2020 and last updated on July 3, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

In this edition, we caught up with Dr. Keith Tsui, CEO and Co-founder of Medwise.ai; an innovation that supports clinicians to answer questions faster than ever before.

Pictured above: Dr. Keith Tsui, CEO and Co-founder of Medwise.ai

Tell us about your innovation in a sentence

Medwise.ai is an innovation that supports clinicians to answer questions faster than ever before. We have recently tailored our platform for Covid-19.

What was the ‘lightbulb’ moment?

Medwise.ai was born out of my frustration working on the frontline as a medical doctor and having to rely on paper books and hard to access local guidelines when smartphones and smart search engines like Google are so prevalent. I decided to make a professional “Google for doctors”, providing evidence-based, fast and concise clinical answers at the point of care.

What three bits of advice would you give budding innovators?

Do not give up, things will get tough, but things are usually not as bad as you thought, be creative and find new ways and new angles to tackle the problem
Always talk to the users and understand the problem first. Be obsessed about the problem and the users and that’s the only way you could find and deliver value
It is okay to fail, but it is not ok to fail repeatedly on the same thing. Move quickly but always respect how the health care system work and first “do no harm”.

What’s been your toughest obstacle?

Navigating the NHS procurement landscape for new and innovative digital health and AI solutions, but it’s good to see NHSx leading the way in making this easier for innovators.

What’s been your innovator journey highlight?

Getting on the DigitalHealth.London Launchpad programme and working with my co-founder to pivot our platform to tailor to Covid-19 content – the beta was up and running within two weeks and now available for NHS clinicians.

Best part of your job now?

Meeting a lot of people (virtually during Covid-19) passionate about using digital and AI to make health care better for patients, doctors and the community.

If you were in charge of the NHS and care system, what’s the one thing you’d do to speed up health innovation?

There’s probably a lot of things that could help speed up health innovation, but I think the most important is to help align incentives within the NHS and making a clear path for procurement and adoption of health innovations.

A typical day for you would include..

As a start-up founder there is no such thing as a typical day! Every day is different and that’s the exciting part.

For more information, visit their website at www.medwise.ai/covid or follow them on Twitter @MedwiseAI

Guidance for Care Homes: Suspected Coronavirus Care Pathway

Published on May 6, 2020 and last updated on September 29, 2021 by Rahel Gerezgiher

Guidance for Care Homes: Suspected Coronavirus Care Pathway

The NHS London Out of Hospital Cell, London Clinical Networks, London Directors of Public Health and Adult Social Care, Health Innovation Network and Public Health England have collaborated to provide resources to assist the care and support vulnerable adults receive during Covid-19.

The practical guidance has been designed to complement, not replace, local guidance and professional judgement. We are actively working on other resources which will be updated to align to national and regional guidelines once published.

Resources

Advice to Care Homes on Covid-19, please click here.

Care Home resource pack, please click here.

Guide for care homes on saying “goodbye”, please click here.

If you have further questions relating to the above resources, please contact the London Clinical Networks in the first instance by emailing england.london-scn@nhs.net

Event: Empowering Patients to Self-Manage

Published on April 28, 2020 and last updated on May 31, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

Event: Empowering Patients to Self-Manage

Brought to you by our Innovation theme.

Are you a Health and Social Care professional interested in learning more about digital solutions to support patients to self-manage or a company with a digital self-management solution that would like to pitch your idea? Then look no further and join us on Thursday 21 May.

What you will get

This interactive Webinar will bring together Social Care, Primary Care, Trusts, CCGs and innovators to explore solutions for empowering patients to self-manage their long-term conditions, mental health and wellbeing using digital solutions.

We will begin with a presentation from James Woollard of Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust on the potential for self management platforms to support patients. Chris Gumble from NHS South West London CCG will share their experiences with the Diabetes Decathlon project and the collaboration with Sweatcoin, an exercise incentivisation app. Charlotte Lee, the Director of Big Health UK will present lessons learnt whilst rolling out the digital self-care platform Sleepio across the NHS.

Join key stakeholders from NHS providers and commissioners to learn about digital self-management solutions including:

education for specific health conditions;
peer-led courses;
online self-management tools;
telephone support and telehealth; and
self-monitoring of medication and symptoms using digital technology.

Ten leading companies will each present a short pitch at the event on how their solutions can help patients manage their conditions and play a more active role in their own healthcare decisions.

How to sign up

Health and Social Care professionals, contact Karla Richards, Project Manager for the Innovation Theme to secure your place.

Are you a company that would like to pitch?* Contact Karla Richards, Project Manager for the Innovation Theme for further details on how to be selected.

*please note the deadline for pitch submissions is 6 May.

Meet the innovator: Christian Moroy

Published on January 14, 2020 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

Meet the Innovator

In this series, we’ll get up close and personal with an innovator asking them to share their thoughts and experience from their journey into the world of health and care innovation. In our latest edition, we caught up with Christian Moroy, Co-founder & CTO of Edge Health; supporting NHS organisations use data more effectively to increase theatre utilisation and reduce cancellations.

Pictured above: Christian Moroy, Co-founder & CTO of Edge Health.

Tell us about your innovation in a sentence

SpaceFinder is a booking support software that enables hospitals to accurately predict how long surgical operations will take and then support staff in optimally scheduling them using available theatre space.

What was the ‘lightbulb’ moment?

We were working with an NHS Trust that struggled with underused operating theatres. We noticed that some theatres were empty while staff struggled to schedule life changing operations. This made us realise that scheduling was a truly difficult problem that required a solution.

What three bits of advice would you give budding innovators?

Don’t make presumptions – spend time ‘on the ground’ or at the front line of the services you want to help. You can only really learn about problems that exist from experiencing them or being with the people who experience them every day;
Create space and time to be creative – it is important to learn new things and attempt new approaches to problems you see but you need to prioritise that or you’ll never be able to fit it into your day to day; and
Be strategic – once you have a great idea you might be impatient to get it out there. Implementing innovations, particularly in health care can be a long journey and there is a real skill in being prepared and equipped for that.

What’s been your toughest obstacle?

NHS IT is inconsistent between hospitals and often local teams are really stretched. Trying to get the information needed can be slow at times.

What’s been your innovator journey highlight?

Joining the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator! We were really proud to have been successful in getting on the programme and we are really making the most of the support, guidance and connections.

Best part of your job now?

Working with great people across all parts of the health system and keeping up to date with the latest technology at a time of great flux in the area.

If you were in charge of the NHS and care system, what’s the one thing you’d do to speed up health innovation?

Make processes and standards simpler. I’d support healthcare providers in creating standardised systems for key services into which third party suppliers can easily plug into. This would enable an “App Store” like situation that innovators could offer their services quicker and more effectively across different Trusts.

A typical day for you would include..

We usually start the day with a team meeting in the Edge office discussing ongoing projects. As a team we work across several projects so it is important to regularly catch up with each other. Then I would visit a Hospital Trust to take part in a workshop on how to implement SpaceFinder!

For more information, visit their website at edgehealth.co.uk or follow them on Twitter @edge_health_

Meet the innovator: Shaun Azam

Published on October 10, 2019 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

Meet the Innovator

In this series, we’ll get up close and personal with an innovator asking them to share their thoughts and experience from their journey into the world of health and care innovation. In our latest edition, we caught up with Shaun Azam, CEFO at Sweatcoin; an app that incentivises physical activity by converting steps into points that can be exchanged for actual rewards.

Pictured above: Shaun Azam, CEFO at Sweatcoin.

Tell us about your innovation in a sentence

Through our digital app Sweatcoin, we incentivise people to be more active by converting steps into reward points that have real world value.

What was the ‘lightbulb’ moment?

Realising that modern technology makes us lazy, and as humans we need instant rewards for effort (which is why most of us struggle to go to the gym for sustained periods). Hence, our app that converts steps into points with real value.

What three bits of advice would you give budding innovators?

1. Listen to your users! You are building your product for them, so listen and take on board what they want.
2. Don’t test ideas, test a hypothesis – ideas are real life applications and sit above a core hypothesis. When you test a hypothesis, you also test a whole host of ideas, saving vast amounts of time.
3. I coined an acronym for this – ABA – Always Be Adding. Everything you do should be always be adding value to the business – we’re in a digital age, so use as many tools and apps as you can to create efficiency + cost savings, so you can focus on things that will ADD value to the business. Also, delegate whenever possible.

What’s been your toughest obstacle?

Overcoming the complexity of the healthcare system – we are fortunate in that our product has the ability to improves the lives of everyone in the world. Along with this comes difficulties around ensuring our product accurately caters for these vastly different demographics.

What’s been your innovator journey highlight?

Academics at the University of Warwick investigated the impact of incentives on physical activity – they used Sweatcoin to do this. Their academic study was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine and found that Sweatcoin helped users walk +20% more each day, even after six months.

That was the moment that we realised that we ARE making the world more active, and that all the struggles were worth it.

Best part of your job now?

Genuinely improving the quality of lives of millions of people, every day. We receive countless messages from our users, informing us that Sweatcoin has motivated them to walk more, and how it has contributed to their improved physical + mental health.

Receiving these messages is truly incomparable.

If you were in charge of the NHS and care system, what’s the one thing you’d do to speed up health innovation?

I would include a line item in NHS budgets, that is designated to be spent with SME’s – this would foster the uptake of new digital solutions that have the potential to improve healthcare and patient journeys across the NHS.

A typical day for you would include..

Trying to grow and sell our product – we operate on two week ‘sprints’ – this means we aim to release new features of our product every fortnight. As you can imagine, this means countless user focus groups, product tests, and iterations.

The product is one aspect – selling it is the other! I’m a big believer in ‘people buy from people’ – so most of my remaining day is around meetings, understanding open opportunities, and communicating the value prop of Sweatcoin.

For more information, visit their website at sweat coin.com or follow them on Twitter @Sweatcoin

London’s Health Care Industry Booms as Millions are saved for the NHS

Published on August 29, 2019 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

London’s Health Care Industry Booms as Millions are saved for the NHS

DigitalHealth.London have launched their impact report confirming they are speeding up digital innovations across health and care in London, creating jobs and saving millions of pounds for the NHS. This supports the objects of the Government’s Long Term Plan to make digitally-enabled care the mainstream across the NHS.

DigitalHealth.London is a collaborative programme delivered by MedCity, and London’s three Academic Health Science Networks (AHSN) – UCLPartners, Imperial College Health Partners, and the Health Innovation Network (HIN). It is supported by NHS England (London) and the Mayor’s Office.

The DigitalHealth.London Accelerator is a flagship programme delivered by DigitalHealth.London to fast track innovations into the NHS and support innovators navigating the NHS system. Around 20-30 companies are selected onto the Accelerator programme each year and are given bespoke mentoring, training, networking opportunities to develop their business. This collaboration and support also enables the fast spread of cutting edge innovations into the NHS to benefit patients and support NHS staff. The Accelerator companies range in size when they begin the programme, from a single founder working on one product, to companies with in excess of 30 employees.

467 new jobs were created

Eighty-five percent of companies to have been on the Accelerator programme who participated in this report, reported an increase in their staff numbers. Of the additional jobs created by companies on both the 2016-17 and 2017-18 programmes, 30.3 percent (141) are attributed to their involvement in the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator. A total of 467 new jobs were created between August 2016 and November 2018.

“Anything we achieve as a company is in some way down to, or connected to, working with the Accelerator.” Elliott Engers, CEO, Infinity Health, Accelerator cohort 2017-2018

Over £64 million of investment raised by Accelerator companies

As discovered by the recently published report DigitalHealth.London Accelerator companies raised over £64 million of investment between August 2016 – November 2018. One company alone account for £28 million of this. Sixty-six percent said that the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator had helped them raise investment in their company.

“The DigitalHealth.London Accelerator is saving millions of pounds for the NHS while stimulating economic growth in the health care industry. It supports innovations that will change the lives of patients, support NHS staff and create jobs.” Tara Donnelly, Chief Digital Officer of NHSx

NHS Savings almost £76 million

The work of Accelerator companies has resulted in almost £76 million in savings for the NHS, with just over a third of this (£24.8 million) credited to the Accelerator’s support, based on information self-reported by companies involved. A conservative view that 50 per cent of the NHS savings attributed to the Accelerator are actually being realised, given that the Accelerator programme is 50 per cent supported by AHSNs (the innovation arm of the NHS) and their partners MedCity and CW+, the Accelerator programme has a return on investment of over 14 times: for every £1 spent by the NHS (via AHSNs) on the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator, £14.60 is returned, in some way, through the implementation of a digital solution. Some of these savings are made in efficiency gains, for example finding more efficient ways of supporting patients to manage their own health conditions, whilst others may help reduce inappropriate urgent care attendances by providing easier access to GP services.

Read the full impact report here.

Meet the innovator: James Flint

Published on July 24, 2019 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

Meet the Innovator

In this series we’ll get up close and personal with an innovator asking them to share their thoughts and experience from their journey into the world of health and care innovation. In our latest edition, we caught up with James Flint, CEO and Co-Founder at Hospify; a compliant, trusted healthcare messaging app.

Pictured above R – L: James Flint, Co-founder and CEO with Neville Dastur, Co-founder at Hospify.

Tell us about your innovation in a sentence

Available for free in the Apple and Android app stores, Hospify puts a simple, affordable alternative to non-compliant consumer messaging services like WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram and Messenger directly into the hands of healthcare professionals and patients.

What was the ‘lightbulb’ moment?

Meeting with the Head of Health for the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2015 and discovering that, while a very big chunk of the NHS was using WhatsApp to communicate while at work, once GDPR arrived in 2018 they were going to have to stop doing this.

What three bits of advice would you give budding innovators?

1. Be prepared for the long haul. And I mean long.
2. Keep it simple.
3. Never miss lunch.

What’s been your toughest obstacle?

Getting sufficient funding, without a doubt.

What’s been your innovator journey highlight?

Getting on the NHS digital heath accelerator last year. It felt like we’d finally been given the official stamp of approval.

Best part of your job now?

Meeting nurses and hearing directly from them what a difference Hospify can make to their working lives.

If you were in charge of the NHS and care system, what’s the one thing you’d do to speed up health innovation?

Implement and support proper health data interoperability standards. I know this Is finally happening, but it’s still the most important single thing that needs to be done.

A typical day for you would include..

Answering a lot of email, talking to my development team, meeting or calling potential investors, networking or promoting Hospify at some kind of health event, answering customer support questions about the platform. Usually all on the same day and sometimes all at the same time!

For more information on Hospify visit www.hospify.com, Facebook, LinkedIn or follow them on Twitter @hospifyapp

Meet the innovator: Lydia Yarlott

Published on May 31, 2019 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

Meet the Innovator

In this series we’ll get up close and personal with an innovator asking them to share their thoughts and experience from their journey into the world of health and care innovation. In our latest edition, we caught up with Lydia Yarlott, Co-Founder at Forward Health; a secure messaging and workflow app, connecting care workers around patient pathways.

Pictured above: Lydia Yarlott.

Tell us about your innovation in a sentence

Forward is a mobile communications platform aiming to connect healthcare professionals for the first time.

What was the ‘lightbulb’ moment?

Probably being a first year doctor on my own in an NHS ward at 2am in the morning trying to get help for a deteriorating patient and being unable to contact anyone. Poor communication leads to a real feeling of helplessness, and I want to change that for doctors and nurses everywhere. It’s hard to believe we’re still using pagers and resorting to WhatsApp to get hold of each other in hospitals, so it wasn’t so much a lightbulb moment as an increasing feeling that something had to change!

What three bits of advice would you give budding innovators?

1. Talk to everyone, and anyone, you can about your idea. You never know what will happen next. My great friend Will worked with me as a junior doctor; he’s now with us on Forward full-time. We never would have had him as part of the team if we hadn’t spent hours on night shifts discussing the problem together!
2. Find a Co-Founder (or several!) I couldn’t imagine doing this alone. Philip and Barney are both amazing people and amazing leaders, and it’s their drive and optimism that got us to where we are today – 5% of the doctors in the UK and growing. Whenever one of you is losing faith (inevitable at times!) the others can put you back on your feet and help you with that resilience you need in spades to be a successful Founder.
3. Care about your problem more than your solution. Get as close to it as you can and stay there. Your solution will be wrong first time around, but as long as the problem isn’t solved, you have a chance of something really worthwhile.

What’s been your toughest obstacle?

Personal doubt!

What’s been your innovator journey highlight?

Getting our first real use cases. Watching our product change the way people work, resulting in better, faster care for patients. We have an amazing group of physios and orthopaedic surgeons using Forward to streamline shoulder surgery for patients, and another group who are using it to coordinate the multidisciplinary team in paediatric allergy. I can’t get enough of those stories because I know how tough it can be on the frontline of the NHS.

Best part of your job now?

The great privilege of working as a doctor and as a Co-Founder. I love clinical work, but I get frustrated by outdated systems, and I would hate it if I couldn’t focus on changing that. I care about healthcare at a systemic level and I want the NHS to survive, but I know that for that to be the case things will have to move forward, fast. I want to be a part of that.

If you were in charge of the NHS and care system, what’s the one thing you’d do to speed up health innovation?

Get Trusts talking to one another and sharing what they do. Incentivise knowledge transfer – both successes and failures. Share the ways in which they are working with others, including start-ups and small businesses, to foster innovation at scale.

A typical day for you would include..

A typical day being a paediatrician is just that – looking after sick children! I’m a junior doctor, so I’m still learning a lot, and working closely within a team to achieve the best outcome for the patient. When I’m at Forward, I spend most of my time meeting with the team to discuss progress and strategy, representing the clinical face of the company and the problem we’re trying to solve. The two jobs couldn’t be more different, but ultimately they are focused on the same thing – improving healthcare for everyone. I love what we’re building at Forward and I love the team – even those of us who aren’t from a healthcare background are driven by the mission to improve communication, and you can feel that energy walking into the office.

For more information on Forward Health visit www.forwardhealth.co or follow them on Twitter @ForwardHealth_

Topol Review highlights potential of digital technologies to address the big healthcare challenges

Published on March 8, 2019 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

Topol Review highlights potential of digital technologies to address the big healthcare challenges

Written by Anna King, Commercial Director at Health Innovation Network.

It is not often that an independent review for a UK Secretary of State gets held up for a book launch, but such is the case when you ask a world-eminent, California-based cardiologist to review the changes required in the NHS healthcare workforce to ensure preparation for the technological future.

Dr Eric Topol, probably best known for his book, The Patient will see you now, published his long awaited The Topol Review: Preparing the healthcare workforce to deliver the digital future last month. The report highlights how digital healthcare technologies have the potential to address the big healthcare challenges as well as tackle increasing costs. The report observes that innovation will “increasingly shift the balance of care in the NHS towards more centralised highly specialised care and decentralised less specialist care”. This shift in the pattern of need and services is aligned with much of the HIN’s work and our focus on out-of-hospital care. Flatteringly, Topol also supports the ambition that the UK has the potential to become a world leader in such healthcare innovations. This is particularly exciting to hear given the work the HIN has been doing locally with DigitalHealth.London building upon local strengths in clinical care, research, education and business to boost London as a world leader in digital health.

However, Topol also offers words of caution for those impatient for new digital healthcare technologies to reach their full potential. As he observed, “it can take up to 10 years to realise cost savings, investment in IT systems, hardware, software and connectivity, as well as the training of healthcare staff and the public”. The potential benefits of genomics moving beyond rare diseases and cancers is a good example of this. Allowing better prevention and management of conditions that could reduce costs and disease burden in the 10 to 20 year timeframe will require the NHS to have completed the “digitisation and integration of health and care records if the full benefits of digital medicine (earlier diagnosis, personalised care and treatment) are going to be realised”.

Whilst much of the report focused on the longer-term revolutionary technologies, there was also an acknowledgement that some data-driven technologies can and are being deployed today. Particularly, those with the aim of improving ease of access or remote monitoring, designed to reduce unplanned hospital admissions and decrease non-attendance rates. This is an area that we see many solutions being developed by the innovators of the NHS Innovation and DigitalHealth.London Accelerator programmes. Companies like Transforming Systems and Dr Doctor use data to improve access and system efficiency, and companies like Lumeon and Health Navigator helping improve individual patient pathways. Topol is also refreshingly realistic about the issues we see many innovators face because of “uneven NHS data quality, gaps in information governance and lack of expertise”. Potential enablers to overcome the barriers to adoption, he suggests, include: an information governance framework, and guidance to support the evaluation, and purchasing of AI products.

In the report, genomics, digital medicine and artificial intelligence were all seen to have a major potential impact on patient care, but it also showed how digital will help improve the lives of the NHS workforce. There was a helpful introduction to a number of emerging technologies, including low-cost sequencing technology, telemedicine, smartphone apps, biosensors for remote diagnosis and monitoring, speech recognition and automated image interpretation, that are seen to be particularly important for the healthcare workers.

Topol also finally puts to rest dated concerns that technology exists to replace people working in healthcare. The report clearly responds to this fear confirming that technology is intended to ‘augment’ healthcare professionals, rather than replace; releasing more time to care for direct patient care. Whilst, some professions will be more affected than others,Topol finds that the ‘impact on patient outcomes should in all cases be positive’.

At the HIN we have been supporting the development of the NHS workforce as a necessary part of the journey to digital transformation. I was pleased that Health Education England’s involvement in the Topol Report means that training and education will be modernised, as it is still very dated both in its methods of delivery and syllabus. However, this education should not focus solely on just educating new NHS staff members – but we should also be digitally upskilling the workforce we have now, and at every level. And herein lies the real complexity of the digital revolution. What Topol finds undeniable is that the roles of healthcare staff will change and new skills will be required, and it is good to see Health Education England responding to this challenge – although, it was shocking to learn that radiologist are still be taught how to develop traditional x-ray films, despite them rarely being used in the NHS!

Learning from previous changes, implementation will require investment in people as well as technology. It bodes well for the exciting wide-ranging programmes of the AHSNs, that support a learning environment, understand the enablers of change and create a culture of innovation. Programmes of ours like the Graduates Into Health Fast Track IM&T programme and the DigitalHealth.London NHS Digital Pioneers programme will play an important role in developing an agile and empowered workforce to facilitate the introduction of the new these new technologies. The report is clear that it is an exciting time for the NHS to benefit and capitalise on technological advances, and the AHSNs are well place to support this. The observation that ‘within 20 years, 90% of all jobs in the NHS will require some element of digital skills, illustrates the need for digital education revolution perfectly, even if it did raise the question what would the 10% be doing!

Enjoy this blog? Then we think you’d also like:

New report maps the MedTech landscape for innovators in England

Top Tips for Innovators

Going digital: What it’s like for less tech savvy communities to use healthcare services

About the author
Anna has been Commercial Director at the Health Innovation Network since July 2013. Prior to her current role Anna was the Commercial Programme Director at the London Commercial Support Unit (Commissioning Support for London, NHS London and NHS Trust Development Authority).

Meet the innovator: Vivek Patni

Published on February 26, 2019 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

Meet the Innovator

In this series we’ll get up close and personal with an innovator asking them to share their thoughts and experience from their journey into the world of health and care innovation. In our latest edition, we spoke to Vivek Patni, Director and Co-Founder of WeMa Life; an online marketplace that brings customers and their families together with social care and community care service providers.

Pictured above: Vivek Patni.

Tell us about your innovation in a sentence

WeMa Life is an online marketplace that brings customers and their families together with social care and community care service providers; giving choice, accessibility and efficiency in the service procurement and delivery pathway.

What was the ‘lightbulb’ moment?

As an informal carer for my grandfather, I was immediately shocked by the lack of innovation in supporting families to find, coordinate and manage local care services for their loved one, hence WeMa Life was born. I find online marketplaces very convenient and use them for so many aspects of my life – products, clothes, hotels, restaurants – I knew a similar digital environment was needed for care services. Using WeMa Life as a customer I can search, compare, purchase and rate local care services whilst as a provider I can digitise the outdated, manual, paper-based visit records and manage my daily business activity.

What three bits of advice would you give budding innovators?

1. Stay flexible: it’s tempting to start a business with a clear idea of how things will unfold; but this is rarely the case. Pivot and react to obstacles and have an open approach to finding the best solutions to all your problems.
2. User experience: test your product constantly and get as much feedback as you can from all your user groups. Simple solutions sit very well in such a diverse industry.
3. Be creative in your approach to developing tech and running your business. There are so many applications and tools to create efficiency and cost saving in finding resources, marketing and development, so use them!

What’s been your toughest obstacle?

Where I had faced the difficulty from a customer side of social care, I was less aware of the complexity in delivering publicly funded social and community care to different user groups. This meant learning the nuances of each service type/provider and creating a fluid product that would fit all.

What’s been your innovator journey highlight?

Designing the tech architecture from scratch, building an international technology development team and bringing my ideas to life in just eight months is something I am very proud of.

Best part of your job now?

Taking my product into the market! Now that the product is live, I am driving its use through digital marketing and sales. I meet so many interesting people on a daily basis who bring exciting new ideas to what we do – my mental technology roadmap is never ending.

If you were in charge of the NHS and care system, what’s the one thing you’d do to speed up health innovation?

I would give more opportunity and financial incentives to SME’s. There are a huge number of SME’s with great ideas and technology, they tend to be more fluid, interoperable and customisable to the needs of the NHS; they would be able to make a real change to the daily lives of providers and customers.

A typical day for you would include..

Typically, my days are devoted to technology and selling. My morning tends to be engagement with my India tech team to make sure we are always refining and innovating our solution. Afternoons will be selling, calling and meeting as many people as I can. I get energised by talking to people about what we do so I try to do that as much as possible.

For more information on WeMa Life visit www.wemalife.com or follow them on Twitter @wemalife

Meet the Innovator

Published on November 28, 2018 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

Meet the Innovator

Each issue we’ll get up close and personal with an innovator asking them to share their thoughts and experience from their journey into the world of health and care innovation. In our latest edition, we spoke to Dr Sukhbinder Noorpuri, Founder and CEO of i-GP, an online consultation platform to allow patients faster access to primary care for minor illnesses.

Pictured above L-R: Dr Sukhbinder Noorpuri with Co-Founder, Dr Aleesha Dhillon.

Tell us about your innovation in a sentence

i-GP provides digital consultations for minor illnesses, using interactive pictures and online questions. It is accessible to patients 24/7 from any device, and 90% of users can start their treatment within just one hour.

What was the ‘lightbulb’ moment?

When I was working as a GP, I met Michael, a 70 year old gentleman who waited three hours to see me at a walk in centre back in 2015. I thought that there must be an easier way to access healthcare. So I started looking into alternatives, and when I found none, I decided to go about creating one. I have been fortunate enough to have a great Co-Founder in Aleesha who has been instrumental in developing creative solutions to all the challenges that we have encountered.

What three bits of advice would you give budding innovators?

Have a vision and make it a big one – set your goals globally rather than just locally in the spirit of true disruption.
Be relentless in the pursuit of this vision and always try and learn from every experience or opportunity which comes your way – know your market, keep reading about it and stay focused.
Build a world class team and inspire them to believe in the company mission. Be confident in your leadership and enjoy the process. A successful entrepreneur may build a well respected company, but a successful team will change the world.

What’s been your toughest obstacle?

Healthcare innovation is very challenging because impact takes time to achieve. However, your clinical experience is really the key differentiator in the marketplace. If you genuinely feel you have a clear perspective on the problem and have created the solution then building the evidence for your product, despite being time consuming, is the clearest way to show its potential.

Some regard regulation as being a tough element of service delivery, but embrace the challenge as a well executed process is the reason you will stand out in the industry.

What’s been your innovator journey highlight?

Over the last three years, we have won or been shortlisted for 22 healthcare awards as a result of the innovations we have developed in digital care. This has led us to international recognition and the opportunity to showcase i-GP at Conferences all over the world.

Learning to adapt and raise healthcare standards has been a reflection of the dedicated team approach to the venture. However, this recognition is secondary to the feedback we receive from our patients as this is our main driving force. Impacting the patient journey to care on a daily basis is the motivation and inspiration to transform traditional routes of service. For example last week, we treated a patient who was due to catch a flight abroad for her sister’s wedding but was suffering with a urinary tract infection. It was late at night, she was in a rush and her chosen pharmacy was closed. We managed to arrange her prescription at the chemist within the airport just before she was due to take off. When she returned she was so thankful that her trip hadn’t been ruined by illness and she had been well enough to enjoy the celebrations.

Best part of your job now?

Without a doubt, my greatest fulfilment comes from leading our team. We are all passionate about seizing this opportunity in time to showcase the good that technology can bring to healthcare and the NHS. Digital health is still very much in its early stage of adoption and even though smartphones have been commonplace for several years, we are still on the cusp of widespread digital use. The service that we implement today, we hope, will continue for many years to come.

If you were in charge of the NHS and care system, what’s the one thing you’d do to speed up health innovation?

There has been a real drive recently with Rt Hon. Matthew Hancock advocating technology to modernise the NHS. Accompanying this, are the additional Government funds being made available to trial new products. This combination offers a paradigm shift from previous regimes and as innovators, we are very much looking forward to this filtering down to provide new opportunities. I also feel it is imperative that decision makers utilise patient feedback to help determine the future course and not just rely on industry advisers.

A typical day for you would include..

Most days are very varied due to the wide scope of avenues we are exploring at i-GP. I usually like to hold key meetings in the morning with either members of the team or board to review processes and define our future strategy.

We have a schedule over the week to assign time to all the key aspects of service from marketing to patient outcomes and from technology developments to the financial structure we have adopted. Reflection is part of this process and the opportunity to network with other innovators is often on the timetable to ascertain the potential for collaboration.

Liasing with the Accelerator team and our navigator Sara is also a key part of our time as we look to integrate further into the NHS.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Dr Sukhbinder Noorpuri who recently won the Chairman’s Entrepreneur Award (pictured above) at the TiE Awards Wednesday 5 December. Find out more about the awards here

For more information on i-GP visit i-gp.co.uk or follow them on Twitter @wellness_igp_uk

Digital is helping us tackle healthcare inequalities, but the real issues are deeper and run system-wide

Published on November 16, 2018 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Simon Ellery

Digital is helping us tackle healthcare inequalities, but the real issues are deeper and run system-wide

Alex Lang describes the benefits of mobile ECG devices for people with serious mental health conditions and their potential to help tackle health inequalities.

It is a sobering fact that people with a serious mental illness have a life expectancy 15-20 years less than the general population.

The reasons vary, but the higher rates of cardiovascular disease experienced by this part of our population are a large part of the problem. According to Public Health England data, people with a serious mental illness aged 15-74 are nearly twice as likely to suffer a stroke as the general population. Part of the reason is that hypertension, diabetes, smoking and alcohol use are key risk factors for stroke and are all greater in those with a serious mental illness.

The medications used to treat serious mental illness complicate the picture further. Some can cause weight gain and obesity, which further increases risk of stroke. Others are associated with electrocardiogram (ECG) changes, and it is possible that certain drugs are causally linked to serious ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.

When we started rolling out mobile digital devices to help detect stroke risk, the stark inequality made it was obvious that we needed to prioritise working with our mental health colleagues across south London. In a mental health setting, mobile ECGs can help not only by detecting atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm associated with stroke, and helping to diagnose and treat people at higher stroke risk. They can also make it easier to offer people ECGs before they start medications when needed.

The mobile ECG we are rolling out, called Kardia Mobile, is a credit card sized, single lead rhythm strip linked to an app on tablet or smart phone, that works by the user placing their fingers on it for 30 seconds. Compare this to a 12 lead ECG: it’s invasive for patients and harder for staff. Traditional 12 lead ECGs aren’t always easy to access either, particularly if a patient is acutely unwell or housebound. This is a serious issue – as patients could start medication that increases their cardiac risk without the appropriate monitoring in place.

These digital devices are starting to make a real difference. One of our partners, Oxleas NHS Trust, a mental health trust in southeast London, is already using Kardia Mobile ECG devices in clinical practice. Already, this is allowing staff to increase the numbers of opportunistic pulse rhythm checks they perform to identify service users with undiagnosed atrial fibrillation. These checks enable timely detection, diagnosis for AF, and treatment with anticoagulants which can reduce risk of stroke by two thirds.

Oxleas is also using the Kardia mobile ECG device for service users where a 12 lead ECG is declined or not practically possible. Kardia is designed to indicate whether AF is present, but by using an on-line calculator, clinicians can calculate the QTc reading from the trace, so that medication can be prescribed safely. This can then be followed up with a 12 lead ECG once practically possible.

This is just one example where digital devices and innovations can make a real difference in mental health care. There are countless others, and we’ll be exploring the potential of digital innovation and its potential to help prevention, self-management and efficient and safer care at our upcoming event in January.

We’re focusing on the potential of digital in mental health because too often, mental health provision has lagged behind, while physical health care has received the lion’s share of attention and funding. This is changing, but it’s crucial that mental health settings reap just as many of the benefits of digital innovation as other healthcare settings.

Digital devices alone won’t change the shocking discrepancy in life expectancy. To really close this health inequality gap, the entire health and care system must make a much greater cultural shift. But we believe that innovation has a role to play in that shift and we’re committed to working with our partners to use innovation to improve care for people with serious mental illness, and to reduce wider health inequalities.

To find out more, please contact Alex Lang, Project Manager in Stroke Prevention alexlang@nhs.net or visit our website here

It’s time to put digital diabetes tools in the real world, with south London leading the way

Published on October 24, 2018 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

It’s time to put digital diabetes tools in the real world, with south London leading the way

Laura Semple, Programme Director for Diabetes and Stroke Prevention, on person-centred care planning and digital in the real world.

When it comes to diabetes, we all know that the statistics are both enormous and increasing. In south London alone there are an estimated 230,000 people living with diabetes. Nationally, the NHS spends £14 billion a year treating people with diabetes. That’s an astonishing £1.5 million every hour. And, as many of us working in diabetes treatment and Type 2 diabetes prevention in south London know, the vast majority of this is not on preventative care that will reap future benefits. It is spent treating complications, many of which are preventable if people receive the right support during the early stages of the condition.

It’s against this backdrop that we set about working with our partners, led by the South West London Health and Care Partnership, earlier this year to bid to test a new model of support for people living with Type 2 diabetes. The full team includes South London NHS commissioners and clinicians, Healum, Citizen UK, Year of Care partnerships and Oviva. Just this week, we’ve found out that our innovative bid to co-design a new support system with patients, maximising the opportunities from digital to support behaviour change as we do, has been successful and will receive more than £500,000 of public funding over 18 months.

One option would have been to try and find a digital substitute for the current way of working, insert it into local care plans and call it self-management. But too often, substituting with digital tools ticks boxes without radically improving care, because the digital tool doesn’t work seamlessly within the wider system of care.

We believe digital health tools workbest when there is a partnership between the patient, their GP and where necessary a team of specialist clinicians or coaches supervising results, coaching and encouraging. When this mix is in place the results can be powerful – weight loss, healthy blood glucose levels, increased physical activity, improved self-care because people feel more empowered and self-confident. These are just some of our biggest goals. And of course all of these bring savings in the longer term to the NHS thanks to fewer complications.

For that reason, the new south London Test Bed focuses just as much on training and care planning with primary care professionals as it does on new digital solutions. Our intervention starts by working with the wonderful Year of Care Partnerships to train GP practices to use a truly collaborative approach to care and support planning with their patients. New, co-designed care plans will be available to patients via an app and accessible to professionals across all care settings.

At this point, when the training and planning has taken place, digital can shine. Following their appointment patients receive an innovative video that presents their personal health data in an intriguing animation, explaining their individual results and what these mean for them as an individual. Using the app, patients will then access a wide range of support and resources to help them reach their goals, including with the helping hand of a dietitian coach from Oviva.

This fully integrated approach, that works with EMIS, considers the needs of primary care professionals as well as the needs of patients, right from the off. It’s not using digital as a simple substitute but placing digital as part of a wider mix in real world clinical settings.

We hope that by testing this model we’ll break down existing barriers to ‘self-management’ and show the power of brilliantly supported self-management. At its core, our aim is simple – real, lasting improvements to the lives of people living with Type 2 diabetes in South London, so that they can live the lives they want to lead without their condition getting too much in the way.

Read more about the Test Bed programme here

Meet the Innovator

Published on October 18, 2018 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

Meet the Innovator

Each issue we’ll get up close and personal with an innovator asking them to share their thoughts and experience from their journey into the world of health and care innovation. In our latest edition, we spoke to Dr Nicholas Andreou, Co-Founder of Locums Nest, a staff bank management app; connecting healthcare professionals to temporary work.

Pictured above r-l: Dr Nicholas Andreou with fellow Co-Founder of Locums Nest, Ahmed Shahrabanian.

Tell us about your innovation in a sentence

Locums Nest bridges the gap between hospitals and doctors. Making staff vacancies easier and simpler to fill, without the expensive agency middle man.

What was the ‘lightbulb’ moment?

Working as junior doctors in the NHS and experiencing first-hand the frustrations and inefficiencies of filling gaps in the rota.

What three bits of advice would you give budding innovators?

Be tenacious- don’t take no for an answer, have thick skin
Hire people with purpose who believe in your message
Be kind to everyone you meet.

What’s been your toughest obstacle?

Trying to positively change an established institution, with large long-standing incumbents. Challenging the status quo.

What’s been your innovator journey highlight?

With our help, a Trust managed to staff a winter pressures ward without going to an agency. This meant they saved £1.6m in the first 10 months.

Best part of your job now?

Meeting different people in different environments; realising the NHS is enriched with experience and expertise from a vast range of backgrounds.

If you were in charge of the NHS and care system, what’s the one thing you’d do to speed up health innovation?

Open up the barriers to meeting the right people in the system to support innovation.

A typical day for you would include..

There’s no such thing! One day I could be travelling across the country for meetings, in the office for a full day product meeting or spending the day supporting our NHS clients.

Contact us

W: locumsnest.co.uk

T: @locumsnest

From the “Mortality Aware” to the “Baby Boomer Boozers”, we all need help to cut through the app…

Published on September 19, 2018 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

From the “Mortality Aware” to the “Baby Boomer Boozers”, we all need help to cut through the app…

A new report out today from the International Longevity Centre – UK, “Cutting through the App: How can mobile health apps meet their true potential?” brings together a whole range of statistics and analysis on the current state of play with health apps. It’s a good read and identifies several health apps that have been proven to reduce unhealthy behaviours. It’s the latest report to emphasise the potential of digital health. From apps that help tackle the devastating impact of insomnia, to those that make it easier for anxious teenagers to discuss mental health as well as apps to tackle diabetes, the reality is that healthcare can be in your pocket.

The report identifies several population groups in the UK that could benefit the most from effective health behavioural change apps. These include:

Nearly 1 million ‘baby boomer boozers’ who are over 60, drink frequently and use a smartphone;
760,000 ‘living fast, dying young’ who are under 40 and smoke, drink frequently, have a smartphone and regularly use the internet;
5.7 million people who ‘just need a push’ and who eat healthy and don’t smoke, but drink moderately and rarely exercise;
2 million ‘connected, healthy and young’ who eat well, exercise frequently and regularly use the internet.

While these groups are found to have a huge opportunity to benefit from health apps, the biggest barrier is the sheer volume of apps out there and the difficulty this adds when it comes to sorting the best from the rest. The NHS apps library is applauded for its approach but complexity for consumers remains.

At AHSNs, we see the way that this complexity can be a barrier for busy clinicians too. With so many digital health innovations to choose from, finding the time to assess and assure them can be incredibly tough. That’s why a key part of the role of AHSNs is to work with the NHS up and down the country to cut through this noise, and find and spread the kind of proven digital innovation that makes a difference.

If you’re a clinician and need help “cutting through the app” you can browse examples of the innovations we support, including apps, here:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/innovation/nia/

https://digitalhealth.london/accelerator/companies/

If you need advice about an innovation, contact us at hin.southlondon@nhs.net

Meet the Innovator

Published on August 29, 2018 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

Meet the Innovator

In our latest edition, we spoke to Mike Hurley, creator of ESCAPE-pain – a rehabilitation programme for people with chronic joint pain. Mike is currently a Professor of Rehabilitation Sciences at St George’s University of London & Kingston University as well as Clinical Director for the Musculoskeletal theme at Health Innovation Network.

Tell us about your innovation in a sentence

ESCAPE-pain “does exactly what is says on the tin”, it’s a rehabilitation programme for older people with chronic knee or hip pain (often called osteoarthritis) that helps participants understand why they have pain, what they can do to help themselves cope with it, and guides them through an exercise programme that helps them realise the benefits that can be attained from being more physically active.

What was the ‘lightbulb’ moment?

Not sure it was a lightbulb moment, it was more like one of the low energy lights slowly coming on! But there were two turning points that have led to ESCAPE-pain.

The first was realising the impact of pain on people’s everyday physical and psychosocial function was as important to them as the sensation of pain itself, and that addressing these impacts is as important as minimising pain.

The second was realising the importance muscle plays in causing joint pain and joint damage. We used to think joint pain was caused by damage to joints that resulted in pain, this stopped people doing their regular activities, which caused muscle weakness and makes the joint susceptible to further damage. However, we highlighted muscles are very important for protecting our joints from abnormal movement and suggested impaired muscle function that occurs as we get older may initiate joint damage. Thus, muscle is a cause rather than simply a consequence of joint damage. If that’s true then maintaining well-conditioned muscles through exercise-based rehabilitation programmes, we might prevent or reduce joint pain and damage, and improve people’s quality of life.

Coupling the first light bulb moment – addressing the psychosocial impact of pain – with the second light bulb moment – experience and understanding of the value of exercise – gives us ESCAPE-pain.

What three bits of advice would you give budding innovators?

Prove your innovation works – if people aren’t convinced it is useful to them why would they use it?
Surround yourself with a team of clever, hardworking people who believe in you and the innovation.
Keep your eyes on the prize – wide implementation – and be prepared for lots of ups and downs and hard work convincing the multitude of non-believers that your innovation works.

What’s been your toughest obstacle?

Some of the conversations we had with commissioners would have been laughable if they weren’t so depressing. Financial pressures mean people delivering the programme continually want to reduce the number of sessions, but we know doing that reduces its effectiveness. And even though commissioners were often convinced about the need for the programme and wanted to do the right thing, the requirement to focus on short term benefits meant that anything taking more than a year to show benefits, whether health or cost, was of little interest. Many felt unable to invest in services where the benefits are felt by other parts of the health system, for example taking the pressure off primary care. Often commissioners could hear the madness of what they were saying even as they articulated it, but that didn’t change anything. It was tough and these issues really do slow the spread of innovation.

What’s been your innovator journey highlight?

Getting the unwavering backing of the HIN. In late 2012, I was about to give up on getting ESCAPE-pain adopted clinically, because there were no channels for innovative healthcare interventions to spread across the NHS and beyond. Then I answered an email enquiring about local MSK research in south London from its newly founded Academic Health Science Network, met with the Managing Director and frankly my professional life took a new, exciting and very fulfilling turn for the better.

Best part of your job now?

There are two:

Working with the MSK team is terrific and fun. They work so hard to make it everything work. It’s a privilege to work with such a lovely group of people.

The second great thing is the kick the whole team gets from the positive feedback we get from ESCAPE-pain participants. It never ceases to make me feel very humble and honoured to be able to help people.

If you were in charge of the NHS and care system, what’s the one thing you’d do to speed up health innovation?

I’d start “NICE Innovations”, a body that would screen potential (digital, models of care and service) innovations, pick the most promising, work with innovators and the health systems to find out what works (or not), why (not), and then actively promote and incentivise the health and social care systems to adopt or adapt effective innovations. Its kind of happening at the moment but feels fragmented, so it needs to be brought together to make it more effectual and “given teeth”.

A typical day for you would include..

The great thing about my work is that there is no typical day. I usually wake about six, make a cup of tea and listen to the news on the radio before heading into the new day. That could involve writing papers, grants, presenting at conferences, attending meetings at the HIN or St George’s, lecturing, mentoring students or clinicians, figuring out how to get our MSK work seen and adopted.

Find out more about ESCAPE-pain by visiting the website at www.escape-pain.org or following them on twitter @escape-pain

Contact us

W: chc2dst.com and ieg4.com (main company website).

T: @IEG4

People encouraged to ‘Go digital’ in new NHS short films

Published on July 23, 2018 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

People encouraged to ‘Go digital’ in new NHS short films

A series of nine new films about digital health innovations in the NHS have been launched today, as part of #NHS70DigitalWeek.

Produced by the AHSN Network and NHS England, the films show some of the latest ways the NHS is using digital technology to empower people to take control of their health and care. They feature a range of apps and technologies that are starting to be used in parts of the NHS to help people manage conditions in more flexible ways using digital tools and services.

The NHS is harnessing the power of information and technology to empower people to take control of their own health. Waitless is a app – which combines waiting times at urgent care centres with up-to-the-minute travel information – enables patients to decide where to go to access faster treatment for minor injuries:

MIRA is a digital application that turns practical physiotherapy exercises into videogames to introduce an element of fun into rehab and recovery. It proved to be very popular among the film’s elderly participants, bringing out some healthy competition. Watch this film to learn more:

An innovative way to help women manage hypertension during pregnancy, the HaMpton app enables women like Asha and Clare to monitor their health at home. Watch this film to find out more.

This video shows how the Sleepio app records and recommends ways to improve sleep. Now it’s less counting of sheep – and more good nights of sleep – for people like Audrey and Claire:

Changing Health – a self-management app for type 2 diabetes – is empowering people like Sheinaz to better manage their condition. Watch the video to find out more:

Watch the initial launch film here:

Part of the wider work to celebrate and recognise the NHS’s 70^thbirthday, the videos aim to prompt people to see the NHS as a digital, as well as face-to-face service. Both the videos and the broader #NHS70DigitalWeek campaign encourage people to visit www.nhs.uk to find out more about how they can engage digitally with their health.

Tara Donnelly, Chief Executive of the Health Innovation Network and AHSN Network lead for digital health said:

“Digital innovation has become an essential part of our everyday life.Whether it is accessing the world’s song catalogue, making immediate connections with friends and family or using maps on our phones to find locations, digital tools have becomepart of thefabric of our lives and society.

“These films show that at 70 years old, the NHS is using digital health more and more, and the benefits are huge. As the innovation arm of the NHS, Academic Health Science Networks are supporting the NHS up and down the country to spread the kind of proven digital innovation that empowers people and frees up clinical time. The reality is that healthcare can be in your pocket.”

The seven examples of digital health that are featured in the series via case studies of people who have used the technology are:

Changing Health: digital education and coaching platform for people with type 2 diabetes
Sleepio: sleep improvement programme using cognitive behavioural therapy
My House of Memories: assisting people living with dementia and memory loss
MIRA: turning physiotherapy into videogames to improve adherence and make rehab fun
EpsMon: improving epilepsy self-management
HaMpton: helping pregnant women to manage high blood pressure at home
Waitless: aimed at helping patients to find the shortestwaiting times for A&E and urgent care

The films will be launched over a series of weeks, between 24 July and early September and will be added to this page as they become available.

Sheinaz, who uses the ‘Changing Health’programme, talks in the film about the benefits of a digital approach:

“Going to a (support) group wasn’t going to be sustainable for me, the other option was the health app. Having the app helps me maintain consciousness of the condition I have and that I have responsibility for my own health.”

Another person who took part in the filming was Audrey, who used to suffer from sleep deprivation and used the Sleepio app. She said:

“It’s amazing, it’s the sort of thing you can do when you are commuting.” After having previously been without sleep for several weeks at a time, she reports she now hasn’t had a bad night’s sleep in over a year using this product that is strongly evidenced to combat sleep deprivation.

AHSNs have highlighted digital health innovation as a priority area for the NHS in coming years, particularly in the area of long-term condition management, where there are major opportunities for supporting people in self-management and NHS currently spends 70 per cent of its budget.

Digital therapeutics work best when there is a partnership between the patient, their GP and where necessary a team of specialist clinicians or coaches supervising results, coaching and encouraging. The results achieved by the best-evidenced products are powerful – weight loss, fewer crises, lower blood glucose, increased activity, better adherence to medicine, improved self-care, better sleep and mood, fewer admissions to hospital and savings in the longer term to the NHS thanks to fewer complications. The AHSNs work to identify and help spread these innovations, supporting innovators from both the NHS and industry, as well as staff within the NHS with uptake, to maximise the opportunities for the benefit of patients.

Meet the Innovator

Published on July 17, 2018 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

Meet the Innovator

In our latest edition of Meet the Innovator, we caught up with Simon Williams of CHC2DST, a cloud based digital solution for continuing healthcare assessments. Simon is currently the Healthcare Director at IEG4 Limited.

Tell us about your innovation in a sentence

CHC2DST supports the digital transformation of the Continuing Healthcare (CHC) Assessment process by digitising the forms used in the national framework and automating workflow processes to improve patient service, boost productivity and control CHC care package allocation.

What was the ‘lightbulb’ moment?

When we saw that a complex national process relied upon the copying and transmission of reams of paper across multiple stakeholders, it was clear that the process would be impossible to manage effectively and, that, through automation, efficiencies and service quality improvements could be realised.

What three bits of advice would you give budding innovators?

Be sure the challenges you are solving are recognised within the NHS and then be prepared for a long gestation period
Find some NHS body/bodies who become early adopters, with whom you can collaborate to prove the solution within the NHS
Promote your innovation at multiple levels within NHS to gain ‘share of mind’.

What’s been your toughest obstacle?

Despite a direct call to action from Matthew Swindells and Jane Cummings in Summer 2017 to drive up performance against the 28 Day National Standard for decision turnaround, the biggest challenge is engaging with the CCGs who are struggling to run the existing paper-based process. From NHS England Quarterly Situation Reports for CHC, we can see that many London CCGs would benefit from digital transformation of the assessment process. We are keen to talk to the CCGs in South London. An hour invested in watching a webinar would bring the digital transformation benefits to life.

What’s been your innovator journey highlight?

When the alignment of NHS bodies came together effectively under the auspices of the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN to create a focussed, specific event targeted at an audience of CHC practitioners. NHS Strategic Improvement for CHC explained the importance of improving the area to NHS England. Cheshire and Wirral CCGs discussed their CHC transformation journey supported by our technology and through collaborative working with us. The result was a further take up of the innovation and an increased awareness amongst the 20-odd Y&H AHSN CCGs in attendance that an alternative to the status quo was available and proven to work.

Best part of your job now?

When people who are working very hard to manage and execute the existing assessment process see how our solution puts them in control of their workload. The ‘lightbulbs’ go on during the demo and the feedback we receive is positive . It’s great to know that we are helping to making a contribution to improve ‘our NHS’ in this area.

If you were in charge of the NHS and care system, what’s the one thing you’d do to speed up health innovation?

For all service leads, make exploring and championing innovation part of the job description on which they are evaluated. Create a National Innovation Channel which holds approved content which can be accessed by NHS professionals to make it easier to find solutions in use in the NHS.

A typical day for you would include..

Reaching out to NHS stakeholders in AHSNs, CCGs, and NHS Executive Management to highlight CHC2DST’s capabilities to them and share results visible from NHS Quarterly Situation Reports for CHC. The data shows that CHC2DST helps to improve productivity by reducing unnecessary work activities, improves decision turnaround timeframes and improves CHC care package allocation.

IEG4 runs regular webinars to demonstrate CHC2DST to NHS Professionals working within the CHC area, without obligation. If it works for them, we help build stakeholder support and the case for change.

Contact us

W: chc2dst.com and ieg4.com (main company website).

T: @IEG4

Meet the Innovator

Published on May 21, 2018 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

Meet the Innovator

In the first of our ‘Meet the Innovator’ series, we spoke to Asma Khalil, creator of the innovation ‘HaMpton’ (Home monitoring of hypertension in pregnancy). Asma currently works as a Consultant Obstetrician at St George’s NHS Foundation Trust.

Asma Khalil, creator of the innovation 'HaMpton' (Home monitoring of hypertension in pregnancy).

Tell us about your innovation in a sentence

New care pathway involving the use of an app for monitoring high blood pressure at home, empowering expectant mothers to be involved in their own care.

What was the ‘lightbulb’ moment?

I was having a dinner with my friend who had a heart attack and he showed me at the restaurant that he can monitor his heart rate using an App.

What three bits of advice would you give budding innovators?

Do not give up
Believe in yourself and your innovation
Listen carefully for any feedback and think of it positively.

What’s been your toughest obstacle?

Finances. There are some small sources of funding that can make a big difference, like south London small grants, and I’d encourage people to take advantage of them. But finances are still the biggest challenge.

What’s been your innovator journey highlight?

2017 HSJ Innovation Award

NIA Fellowship

Finalist for the 2017 BMJ Innovation Award.

Best part of your job now?

The best part of any doctor’s job is when he/she helps someone who is suffering or could be going through a difficult/challenging time in their life.

When I come across a pregnant woman who used my innovation and hear her feedback (without knowing that it is me behind it). I realise that I made a difference to this women’s life and her family. It makes me realise that my efforts are worthwhile.

If you were in charge of the NHS and care system, what’s the one thing you’d do to speed up health innovation?

I would ensure that the NHS Hospitals have innovations at the Heart of their practice and potentially link innovation with financial incentives. I would also ensure that innovations are integral part of the hospital review/rating.

A typical day for you would include..

Looking after my patients and trying my best to provide the safest and the best possible care that they deserve. It is very rewarding to be proud of what you do.

Find out more about HaMpton here.

Adoption and spread of innovation in the NHS

Published on January 16, 2018 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

Adoption and spread of innovation in the NHS

Boots on the ground, local freedoms and supportive leaders: ingredients for successful spread of innovation detailed in new report.

A new report from The King’s Fund, published today and commissioned on behalf of the AHSN Network, charts the journeys of eight innovations from creation to widespread use.

From new communication technologies for patients with long-term conditions, to new care pathways in liver disease diagnosis, to new checklists for busy A&E departments, the report details the highs and lows of an innovator’s journey through the NHS.

While thousands of patients are now receiving new innovative treatments for arthritis, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic liver disease, thanks to successful innovations, the report outlines the significant barriers that stand in innovators’ paths.

The case studies reveal common themes:

New innovations may appear simple to introduce but can have a domino effect – triggering a series of changes to diagnosis and treatment, revealing new patient needs and resulting in big changes to staff and patient roles. That’s why staff need time and resources to implement them.
As long as the NHS sets aside less than 0.1% of available resources for the adoption and spread of innovation, a small fraction of the funds available for innovation itself, the NHS’s operating units will struggle to adopt large numbers of innovations and rapidly improve productivity.
Fragmentation of NHS services remains a barrier to adoption and spread of innovation, making it harder to develop shared approaches and transmit learning across sites.
Providers need to be able to select and tailor innovations that deliver the greatest value given local challenges and work in the local context.

Read the report in full here.

The findings of the report will be discussed in depth at a live online event hosted by The King’s Fund on 19 January at 10am. Register and more details here.

England’s 15 AHSNs were set up by the NHS in 2013. They bring together the NHS, social care, public health, academic, voluntary and industry organisations to support the spread of innovation throughout the NHS and care. During their first licence (since 2013) they have spread over 200 innovations through 11,000 locations, benefiting 6 million people, creating over 500 jobs and leveraging £330 million investment to improve health and support the NHS, social care and industry innovators.

Patient Care Packs save time and money

Published on September 28, 2017 and last updated on May 30, 2020 by Rahel Gerezgiher

Patient Care Packs save time and money

Written by Patient Care Packs

We’ve known that nurses and patients alike really value the small bag of toiletries that we supply, because the feedback is always wonderful. However the feedback, although really great to hear and read, is qualitative at best and doesn’t really enable nurses to release budget to procure the Patient Care Packs (PCP’s) for their patients and wards.

So, in collaboration with the HIN (Health Innovation Network) and the University of Leicester, a trial of PCP’s took place over winter 2016-17 to do some quantitative research to really pin down the numerical impacts that PCP’s provide for busy, under resourced, nursing staff.

The HIN’s South London members King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust and Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals and a mental health service for homeless people run by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, all took part in the trial.

Nursing staff gave the packs to patients. Each pack contained a feedback card and nursing staff also completed a short survey. 262 patients and 68 nursing staff completed surveys. Additionally, University of Leicester colleagues used observational techniques to understand the impact the packs had on patient and staff experience.

The evidence tells us that nurses spend more than 25 minutes per day obtaining essential items, or people survive without, having a negative impact on their well being, and impeding nursing ability.

The research really showed just how valuable the packs are, with 84% of nursing staff saying that it saved them more than 25 mins a day, which enabled more effective nursing and saved the cash strapped NHS £1066 for every band 4 nurse.

“It’s a brilliant idea that saves us time and allows us to provide care and support to patients…” Matron, Lewisham & Greenwich Trust.

98% of nursing staff reported that they would like to continue to provide the packs to their patients. This additionally impacted job satisfaction, with 9 out of 10 nurses reporting an increase, as it also promoted greater interaction with patients (93% of nurses reported this was the case).

“Patients Care Packs served as an ice breaker between myself and the patients to develop a good rapport,” Senior Nurse, Epsom and St. Helier.

Patients also welcomed the packs, with 94% reporting that Patient Care Packs made them feel more comfortable during their stay.

If you would like to read the full report, you can download it here

If you would to discuss your specific needs and start realising the benefits of PCP’s, contact us by phoning 0116 251 3941 or email us on info@personalcarepacks.com

Event: Empowering Patients to Self-Manage

Video Running Order

Event: Empowering Patients to Self-Manage

Event: Empowering Patients to Self-Manage

Blog

Post Title

We're here to help

Guidance for Care Homes: Suspected Coronavirus Care Pathway

Event: Empowering Patients to Self-Manage

Meet the Innovator

Meet the Innovator

London’s Health Care Industry Booms as Millions are saved for the NHS

Meet the Innovator

Meet the Innovator

Topol Review highlights potential of digital technologies to address the big healthcare challenges

Meet the Innovator

Meet the Innovator

Digital is helping us tackle healthcare inequalities, but the real issues are deeper and run system-wide

It’s time to put digital diabetes tools in the real world, with south London leading the way

Meet the Innovator

From the “Mortality Aware” to the “Baby Boomer Boozers”, we all need help to cut through the app…

Meet the Innovator

People encouraged to ‘Go digital’ in new NHS short films

Meet the Innovator

Meet the Innovator

Adoption and spread of innovation in the NHS

Patient Care Packs save time and money