“Health equity is the attainment of the highest level of health for ALL people. Achieving health equity requires valuing everyone equally with focused and ongoing societal efforts to address avoidable inequalities, historical and contemporary injustices, and social determinants of health — and to eliminate disparities in health and health care.” (health.gov) Within the NHS there [...]
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a serious and lifelong health condition. People with SCD produce unusually shaped red blood cells that can cause problems because they do not live as long as healthy blood cells and can block blood vessels. This can result in suffers experiencing painful episodes, called sickle cell crises, as well as anaemia, [...]
At the Royal Society of Medicine’s Tackling Inequalities conference it was clear from the passion in the room that great progress has been made across the system to better support some of our most under-served communities. To maintain this momentum, we must not just embed tackling health and healthcare inequalities in all that we do, [...]
Dr Phil Jennings, Vice Chair of the Health Innovation Network and Chief Executive of Health Innovation North West Coast, discusses why the Network’s collective relicensing gives innovation a better chance of success. In any one day in England, 1.2 million people attend a GP appointment, over a quarter of a million people have an outpatient [...]
Kidney care costs the NHS £1.5bn a year. Minuteful Kidney, from Healthy.io, is a home kidney albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR) test. It identifies more patients at-risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and associated cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is a leading cause of morbidity, disability and health inequalities. Damian O’Boyle, Director of Client Services at [...]
Guest blog by Martin Hindle. Martin has served as Chair of Health Innovation East Midlands (HIEM) since the organisation was set up in 2013. He will finish his fixed-term appointment at the end of March 2024, and in his guest blog below, he reflects on HIEM’s journey and the unique contribution all local health innovation networks [...]
Major conditions like chronic cardiovascular and lung disease account for a disproportionate share of healthcare resources and are tied to inequalities. Lenus Health provide AI and digital tools to existing care pathways to improve healthcare delivery, reduce admissions and improve outcomes. We spoke to Paul McGinness, CEO and co-founder of Lenus Health to find out more. [...]
Us2.ai is a fast-growing start-up, based in Singapore but now operating worldwide, which is dedicated to tackling CVD and heart disease through pioneering Artificial Intelligence (AI). Its mission is to improve patient outcomes and expand healthcare access by making echocardiograms, the most used tool for the detection of heart risk, available to all. We spoke [...]
Dr George Harston is Chief Medical and Innovation Officer at Brainomix. He is also a Consultant Physician in Stroke and General Medicine at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The company’s innovative AI-enabled decision support tools are helping clinicians to rapidly and accurately decide the type and severity of stroke, and the most appropriate treatment. It [...]
Pete Waddingham, Net Zero Lead at the Health Innovation Network In October 2020, the NHS published the ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service report, outlining its ambition and plans to reduce the environmental impact of the delivery of health and care services and reach net zero carbon emissions. The Health Innovation Network pivoted and responded to [...]
In this blog, Mary Aziz, Programme Development Lead at Health Innovation Manchester, explains how Spectra Optia, part of Accelerated Access Collaborative MedTech Funding Mandate policy, helps patients to have better care outcomes and quality of life. Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a genetic, life-long condition, detected during pregnancy or soon after birth through the national [...]
Earlier this month, NHS England launched its new workforce plan, which aims to build a sustainable and resilient healthcare workforce that meets the evolving needs of patients and delivers high-quality care. The plan recognises the importance of recruitment, retention, education, wellbeing, diversity, technology adoption, collaboration, and long-term planning in shaping a successful NHS workforce for [...]
This month’s Meet the Innovator interview is with Anna-Lisa Mills, Sustainability Manager at the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust which, in 2020, introduced a smart carbon platform and five-step process to reduce its carbon footprint and that of its suppliers. The innovation won the Net Zero Innovation of the Year category at last year’s [...]
In this month’s Meet the Innovator interview we speak with Román Rocha Lawrence, Director of Research and Development at ELAROS, and part-time Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, which collaboratively launched a digital platform to support specialist long COVID services through a patient-facing app and clinical web portal. The innovation won the Outstanding Collaboration [...]
As the NHS celebrates its 75th birthday this year, the 15 Academic Health Science Networks that form the AHSN Network have also reached an important milestone. April marks 10 years since AHSNs were first created by NHS England following publication of the Innovation Health and Wealth report to transform the way the NHS identifies, adopts [...]
Meet Dr Chen Mao Davies, Founder and CEO of Anya by LatchAid Ltd. – an award-winning pregnancy, parenting and breastfeeding support app that utilises cutting-edge 3D interactive technology and AI intelligence to provide new mothers with support. Last year, Chen was announced as one of the Fellows of the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) programme 2023, [...]
Clinical Lead of ChatHealth, Laura Burrowes, joined the Digital Health Transformation Service at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust’s (LPT) in April 2022, following a career as a school nurse, where she was the lead practitioner for the confidential text messaging service for the school nursing service in Manchester. Nationally, the award-winning text messaging service has [...]
Dr Cheryl Crocker, AHSN Network Patient Safety Director, discusses how Patient Safety Collaboratives (hosted by the AHSN Network) are supporting ICSs and ICBs in preparations to implement the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework. NHS England published the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) in August 2022 outlining how NHS organisations should respond to [...]
A blog from Dr Cheryl Crocker, AHSN Network Patient Safety Director, describing how Patient Safety Collaboratives (hosted by the AHSN Network) are supporting people to manage their long-term pain and reduce the harmful effects of opioid medication. Opioids are highly effective medications and, when used judiciously for a time-limited period, can greatly benefit many [...]
Dr Andy Whittamore, GP, Clinical Lead Asthma + Lung UK and British Lung Foundation and joint FeNO national clinical lead & Dr Hitasha Rupani, Consultant Respiratory Physician, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and Asthma Biologics Clinical Champion. Asthma is one of the most common long-term health conditions in the UK with 5.4million people living [...]
Charlotte Walton, AHSN Network Strategy Director The NHS is aiming for all Integrated Care Systems (ICS) and their constituent organisations to have all the attributes of digital maturity, including electronic records and other critical systems, by March 2025. The NHS plan for digital health and social care, published in June 2022, sets out a range [...]
Amelia James is the Environmental Sustainability Lead for Kent, Surrey and Sussex AHSN and Oxford AHSN. Hugely passionate about her role and about what we can all do to combat climate change, Amelia shares her thoughts on how sustainable innovation can contribute to the delivery of a Net Zero NHS. Let’s talk climate change The [...]
Meet Laura Earnshaw, founder of myHappymind, an award-winning, NHS-backed curriculum for primary schools and nurseries that teaches children lifelong habits to have good self-esteem, resilience and ultimately good mental health. Laura tells us about her first light bulb moment, which was when her child started school, her dreams of getting into every primary school across the [...]
Kay Khan, Head of Improvement Programme Delivery at East Midlands Academic Health Science Network, explores two new ‘React To’ resources they’ve developed to support care homes and their staff to improve the safety of residents. Care homes are rarely out of the headlines these days. They are under enormous pressure to deliver care to some [...]
Meet Judith Clarkson, Commercial Director of MyPathway (previously ADI Health), which is now part of VitalHub UK. MyPathway is a digital health platform that is used to improve patient interactions during treatment for long term conditions as well as those individuals visiting acute facilities for shorter term elective or outpatient services. Hear what Judith has [...]
Dr Yu (Maggie) Fu, formerly a joint Senior Research Fellow, working jointly between the Applied Research Collaboration and AHSN for the North East and North Cumbria, and now a Tenure Track Fellow based at the University of Liverpool. I studied medicine at university and became a junior doctor in 2010, but I was frequently struck by [...]
Meet Mark Ratnarajah and Steve Barnett of C2-Ai. The company helps hospitals to significantly improve patient safety, reduce mortality and complication risk and clinical outcomes variation by providing globally unique AI-backed insights. Read what they have to say on how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has shaped their work, their advice for budding innovators and how [...]
2022 has been a busy year for the AHSN Network as we continue to work to identify and spread health innovation at pace and scale across the NHS. The past 12 months have seen the health and care system continue to respond to the impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and across the network, we [...]
In 2021-22 the NHS managed 19.6 million hospital admissions, appointments, and attendances across England (NHS Digital 2022). During the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, reducing hospital admissions was a key focus area to increase hospital capacity and reduce the spread of the virus, with a target to free up 30,000 beds announced in March 2020 (NHS Trusts [...]
As leaders from across the globe come together for the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), I wanted to share the progress of the network in supporting this crucial agenda, and the help on offer. Our strategy At a national level, we’re currently refining our Net Zero Strategy which sets our key aims and [...]
It is an unacceptable fact that black and Asian women and people who give birth are more likely than those who are white to die during birth or the following year. More specifically, black women are four times more likely to die during pregnancy or postnatally than white women. In comparison, Asian women are twice [...]
Meet Andy Minnion, Founder and Director of RIX Research & Media. RIX Research & Media has created the RIX Wiki, a software that enables people with learning disabilities to share personal health and care information for effective person-centred support in their communities. Read what Andy has to say on working directly with people who benefit [...]
In this blog, East Midlands AHSN (EMAHSN) Managing Director Nicole McGlennon discusses the considerations of embedding change, how can healthcare systems create the conditions for healthcare innovation adoption and identifies five key areas NHS systems can consider. In recognition of October also being ADHD awareness month, Nicole refers to our Focus ADHD project and how [...]
Meet Kathy Abernethy, Director of Menopause Services at Peppy. Peppy is an app that gives people access to remote, specialist advice and support in areas such as mental wellbeing, menopause, parenthood and fertility. Read what Kathy has to say on measuring clinical outcomes, finding the right people to work with and the value of hearing [...]
What exactly is Real World Evaluation? What does it cover? How will it benefit my business? These are questions my colleagues and I across the AHSN network are asked regularly by health and care innovators looking to encourage the adoption and spread of their innovation. Generating evidence to support the clinical efficacy and cost effectiveness [...]
It was World Patient Safety Day on Saturday 17 September, and this year the World Health Organisation (WHO) is focusing on medication safety. This is a welcome theme for the AHSN Network and the Patient Safety Collaboratives (PSCs) we host as improving medication safety is a key objective in our Patient Safety Plan, which we [...]
Kathy Scott is the Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive at Yorkshire and Humber AHSN. She also acts as Chair for the AHSN Network Environmental Sustainability Community of Interest. Sarah Walpole is the 2021-2022 National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow at NICE. In this blog, Kathy and Sarah discuss how important it is to consider [...]
Meet Caroline Gadd, UK Managing Director for Holmusk and NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) fellow for MaST, a decision support tool which uses data from electronic health records to improve health and care decisions. Read what Caroline has to say about the support received from AHSNs, building an effective and efficient product delivery team and benefitting [...]
Meet Elliott Engers, CEO and Co-Founder of Infinity Health. Infinity Health is a digital platform on which health and care staff can log, share and coordinate their daily care tasks in real-time. Read what Elliott has to say about helping to reduce the NHS backlog, the joys of going live and how the AHSNs are [...]
The AHSN Network recently launched the new national polypharmacy programme: getting the balance right. Hear Programme Manager, Amy Semple and Clinical Lead, Clare Howard discuss why we need to take action to address problematic polypharmacy and how the AHSN Network is supporting this important area of work. Why is polypharmacy an important topic? Polypharmacy is [...]
Meet Dr Richard Hixson, Consultant in Anaesthesia and Critical Care Medicine at Country Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust and Designer of CPDmatch. CPDmatch proactively matches the professional development needs of all healthcare professionals with relevant, accessible and affordable educational opportunities. Read what Richard has to say about support from AHSNs, taking the first step [...]
Richard Phillips, Director of Strategy at the Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI) reflects on his experiences with the AHSN Network and how AHSNs support innovation in the life sciences sector. ABHI hosted a webinar for innovators with the AHSN Network on Thursday 30 June, 11-12am, click on the link below to watch the recording. [...]
In this blog, Laura Semple AHSN Network Director for National Programmes reflects on the challenges faced by the health and care system over the last year; the impacts and benefits of the innovation programmes delivered nationally by the AHSNs; and discusses why she is particularly excited about the year ahead. The mission of the AHSN [...]
2021-22 has been pivotal for the AHSNs and the AHSN Network. While we are still supporting our health and care systems with the recovery from the pandemic, we have undertaken work to set out our vision and strategy and refine our processes to ensure we can meet our collective ambition to transform as many lives [...]
We’ve recently released our AHSN Network impact report, reflecting on our national work from April 2021 to the end of March this year. This report covers the impacts of our core work programmes, including more than 480,000 patients benefiting from our national programmes and initiatives; and our support for innovators resulting in £455m of investment [...]
In this blog, Stuart Monk AHSN Network National Programme Director for Rapid Uptake Products and the MedTech Funding Mandate reflects on why achieving the greatest spread of health and care innovation is personally important to him and discusses some of the progress and impacts he’s seen over the last year. I’ve worked within the AHSN [...]
No one would deny that the last couple of years have been immeasurably difficult for those working in the health and care sector. Finding capacity to innovate has been an enormous ask of frontline colleagues tackling the fallout from the Coronavirus pandemic. That is why I am both astounded and delighted to see the results [...]
A spotlight on inequality In 2019 when launching our first report on the importance of ensuring greater diversity in health innovation design and implementation, I wrote that: “Our NHS should represent and reflect the communities we serve. This does not just apply to our front-line workforce. The way that we develop and adopt innovation and [...]
With more LGBT+ high-profile role models, diversity groups in the workplaces, and education in schools, you’d be forgiven for thinking that LGBT+ communities no longer face issues. This isn’t the case – they still face significant barriers with stigma, discrimination, harassment and bullying, and with their health. The LGBT+ community is disproportionately affected by ill [...]
Meet Keith Chessell, Chief Executive of Whzan Digital Health. Whzan Digital Health produce clinically lead healthcare monitoring systems which aim to enable greater levels of care and help keep people out of hospital. Read what Keith has to say about how AHSNs have provided support in finding the right people to talk to, helping people [...]
Meet Lee Omar, Founder of Safe Steps. Safe Steps is a user-friendly falls risk screening, review and care planning tool which supports health and social care organisations to become self-sufficient in falls prevention. Read what he has to say about the personal background to his innovation, understanding the NHS as an entrepreneur and how the [...]
People with learning disabilities face significant health inequalities. NHS Digital reported that those with learning disabilities would be between 3.9-4.2 times more likely to die than those with broadly the same characteristics in the general population, the NHS Long Term Plan also recognises this as a priority area. Changes implemented as part of the pandemic [...]
Meet Mo Al-Ubaydli, CEO of Patients Know Best (PKB). PKB is a social enterprise and technology platform, designed to bring together patient data from health and social care providers and the patient’s own data, into one secure personal health record. Read what Mo has to say about building clinician trust, the role that AHSNs have [...]
Over the past two years, wound care has had to take a back seat to Covid, like many other services. However, wound care forms the largest proportion of community nursing work and continues to grow due to unwarranted variation. Tackling wound care properly is relatively straightforward and quick, and most importantly will help solve the [...]
For Global Recycling Day on 18 March 2022, Peter Carpenter, Service Delivery Director at Kent Surrey Sussex AHSN talks about the role of the AHSNs in helping the NHS move towards its net zero ambitions. He also introduces the practical application of Hexitime, a time-banking solution which enables people to connect and exchange professional expertise [...]
Burn-out, stress, exhaustion. Headlines like these were all too familiar during the Covid-19 pandemic, and are still a major concern as we start to emerge from the effects of coronavirus. The pressures never seem to stop. This week is Patient Safety Awareness Week, led by the Institute of Healthcare Improvement, and is an opportunity to [...]
Seeing pupil power bring about changes in school dinner menus and playground design was my first taste of public participation in decision making. I was a secondary teacher in Wigan and took on the role of leading the School Council, which led to a wider role with Wigan Borough Council, bringing together representatives of all [...]
With the need to develop new and innovative techniques, treatments and collaborations, the pandemic highlighted how bringing the best and brightest to key roles is vital. And to celebrate International Women’s Day, we’re proud to be able to highlight cases where innovative female leaders are making their mark in the world of health and social [...]
In this blog to mark International Women’s Day (8 March 2022), Maria Kyriacou, NHS Innovation Accelerator Deputy Director, shares her learnings from working with female innovators and how the NHS Innovation Accelerator aims to provide a platform for these exceptional individuals. The NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) is a national programme commissioned by the Accelerated Access [...]
Meet Dr Diana Hodgins MBE, Founder and CEO of Dynamic Metrics Ltd, the owners of GaitSmart. GaitSmart is a portable gait analysis system, which enables data-driven rehabilitation by measuring how people walk. The data is used to provide a personalised exercise programme and engages people to take a more active approach in their rehabilitation and [...]
Eating disorders can affect anyone. It is thought that between 1.25 and 4 million people in the UK have an eating disorder, from every gender, ethnicity, and age with some patients as young as six years old. In this blog for Eating Disorder Awareness Week (28 February-6 March), Charlotte Douglas and Sarah Houston, Innovation Advisors [...]
Professor Bee Wee CBE is the National Clinical Director for End of Life Care at NHS England and NHS Improvement. She is Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Sobell House and Katharine House Hospice, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Associate Professor at University of Oxford, where she is also a Fellow of Harris Manchester [...]
The newly launched national Blood Pressure Optimisation Programme has a big ambition – to prevent heart attacks and strokes at scale by helping primary care to do things differently. As we emerge from the latest wave of the pandemic and focus our energies on recovery and transformation of healthcare, England’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks [...]
Meet Amy Manning, founder of S12 Solutions, an app and website, which together help mental health professionals efficiently complete Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA) processes. Developed to replace the outdated paper processes used to organise MHA assessment teams, the innovations aim to minimise delays to assessments, reduce distress and risk for the person waiting, and [...]
I would one day like to become a mum. Part of me is filled with excitement about bringing a child into this world, the pitter patter of tiny feet early in the mornings and waving them off on their first day at school. However, another part of me is somewhat anxious about this potential new [...]
I was thinking about how I would explain ‘remote health’ to my Mum, and it struck me that the concept of remoteness is another example of a health professional’s perspective on healthcare. Remote health refers to those ways of delivering healthcare where the patient is not in the same physical location as the clinician. But [...]
Meet Darren Crombie, CEO and Founder of Bridgit Care, who have developed remote devices to monitor the activities of vulnerable people in their home environment. The tech was originally designed with Darren’s grandfather in mind, to assist the family members caring for him. Bridgit Care also provide support to family carers through a specially designed [...]
Meet Felicia Vaz, UK Market Lead and Project Manager for FibriCheck, an app that tests your heart in 60 seconds to detect irregularities. Felicia describes how the pandemic shaped a new way for the innovation to be used and why integrated care is the future. Tell us about your innovation – what and why? It [...]
Since March 2020, Academic Health Science Networks have supported the rollout of an evidence-based Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) programme called Focus ADHD. Working closely with mental health trusts and community paediatric services, the programme seeks to improve the ADHD assessment offer for children and young people. In the first year of the national programme, [...]
Meet Tony Doyle, Managing Director of Qbtech, whose company’s mission it is to transform the lives of people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) through objective data to help streamline the diagnosis process and help support children and families. Tony tells us why it’s so important that people receive early diagnosis of the condition, and [...]
Meet Nick de Pennington, CEO and Founder of Ufonia, an autonomous telemedicine platform supported by Oxford AHSN and Yorkshire & Humber AHSN. Nick discusses how his innovation supports clinicians to avoid burnout and is assisting the NHS to manage the backlog built up by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, as well as his background as a [...]
Meet Stephen Towe, CEO of Leo Cancer Care – the more human way to treat cancer, built on research from across the globe showing the benefits of upright patient positioning. Stephen discusses the company’s goals, inspirations, hopes for the future and why you should never wear a tie in California. Tell us about your innovation [...]
Meet Jane Van Aken, Director of Product Development at Spirit Digital, a remote monitoring solution supported by the AHSN Network. Jane discusses her ‘light bulb’ moment, advice for budding innovators and how virtual monitoring has been a lifeline for many during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Tell us about your innovation – what and why? CliniTouch [...]
Our NHS should represent and reflect the communities we serve. This does not just apply to our front line workforce. The way that we develop and adopt innovation and technology must also be based around our core mission to serve all our population, and to ensure that the transformation of our health service reduces, and [...]
