PreSize® Neurovascular
Oxford Heartbeat’s medical device software PreSize® Neurovascular helps clinicians make surgical decisions with greater accuracy and confidence. Use of PreSize® is aimed at significantly reducing risks associated with stenting procedures, as clinicians are able to virtually test and compare the behaviour of stents in a patient’s cerebral blood vessels before surgery, selecting the best one for each patient.
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Overview
PreSize® Neurovascular software was created to improve patient outcomes by diminishing the risk of device-related surgical complications, which can lead to adverse patient outcomes such as stroke. It is estimated that 20 per cent of stenting procedures require further surgical intervention due to complications. In addition, 10 per cent of stents (each costing around £10,000) are discarded or multiple ones used – which causes unnecessary wastage and places a financial burden on the NHS. Each year an estimated 1,500 surgeries for brain aneurysms are performed in the UK.
PreSize® was co-developed by Oxford Heartbeat’s team — comprised of biomedical engineers, software developers, AI research specialists and staff with expertise on non-technical aspects of medical technology — and interventional neuroradiologists with extensive brain-stenting experience and a patient advisory board.
In a retrospective study of PreSize® that was carried out on real 200+ stenting procedures performed at five different NHS hospitals, the software was found to predict the behaviour of a stent in an individual patient’s anatomy with an excellent accuracy rate of over 96 per cent . This places the technology precision above clinical expectations of 90% - the accuracy rate that clinicians have indicated would significantly improve their current practice.
The DigitalHealth.London Accelerator introduced us to an invaluable network of experts, who gave us guidance in understanding the NHS and how it works. The Accelerator also assisted us in setting up a clinical pilot to test our product, which is something we were grateful to get useful advice on.
The advice we received on protocol design and the mock interview were pivotal moments in our year on the Accelerator and key to our successful NHSX AI grant application. The efforts of the Accelerator have been immensely helpful in supporting our entry into the NHS, thus enabling us to gain greater visibility with the aim of securing further clinical traction.
Katerina Spranger, founder of Oxford Heartbeat, DigitalHealth.London Accelerator 2019-20
How did the Innovation Exchange help?
Oxford Heartbeat was selected as part of the DigitalHealth.London (DH.L) Accelerator programme’s fourth cohort in 2019/20. This gave them a dedicated NHS Navigator, opportunities to network with key decision-makers in health and care and access to developmental workshops and events. During this time, the Accelerator provided Oxford Heartbeat with in-depth support on and opportunities to aid their application for extremely competitive NIHR funding for a prospective clinical trial of their PreSize® Neurovascular software in a clinical setting. Prof Paul Wallace, Clinical Director for the DH.L Accelerator, and the DigitalHealth.London Generator provided guidance to Oxford Heartbeat to further develop their research protocols for large grants, which led to engaging with the NIHR Research Design Service (RDS) in south London for further guidance on designing this protocol and preparing an application for a grant.
Impact & Outcomes
The support Oxford Heartbeat received from DigitalHealth.London and the RDS, along with the setting up of an expert mock interview panel by their NHS Navigator, facilitated Oxford Heartbeat’s success in winning the NHSX AI in Health and Care Award grant, out of 530 applicants from other digital health companies. This award places them at the forefront of the UK Government’s push to bring digital transformation to the NHS and has led to the initiation of pilots in six NHS Trusts across the UK, including three in London.
Read DigitalHealth.London’s full Evidence Generation Case Study on Oxford Heartbeat here.