The AHSN Network has supported many innovators to help advance our health and care system. Find out more about successful innovations supported by the NHS.
The O2COMFORT flowmeter offers an innovative answer to oxygen therapy. This device can deliver oxygen in a traditional, continuous manner, but it also contains a comfort mode in which a dose of oxygen is only administered upon inhalation. The comfort settings 1 to 5 give an equivalent therapy of 1 to 5 litres per minute of continuous flow. The flowmeter offers additional advantages over the traditional flowmeter. When in comfort mode, the oxygen delivery follows the natural breath rate of the patient. In this way the O2COMFORT flowmeter increases the wellbeing of the patient while reducing the waste of medical oxygen.
Ill-served by inefficient, outdated communication, over 600,000 NHS professionals are currently using consumer messaging services like WhatsApp to supplement communication. But the arrival of GDPR regulations in May 2018 rendered healthcare institutions whose employees use these consumer tools to handle patient identifiable data liable for fines of up to 4 per cent of their annual turnover. Hospify is a GDPR and NHS IG-compliant messaging service designed to remove this liability in the UK and in Europe. Available for free in the Apple and Android app stores, Hospify puts a simple, affordable solution directly into the hands of healthcare professionals and patients.
An innovative cancer diagnostic device developed by Manchester-based Zilico helps to improve accuracy in detecting cervical disease.
UK ambulance services have been identified as potential beneficiaries of point of care testing (POCT) to guide patient management and care pathways, but there is little published evidence on the uses, benefits and health economics of POCT in pre-hospital settings. The Oxford AHSN, along with eight specialist paramedics based at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, conducted a quality improvement study to look at utilising POCT to aid decision-making in patients aged over 65 presenting to South Central Ambulance Service with acute frailty syndrome.
A new point of care blood testing device is being introduced into frontline NHS services after an evaluation at three hospitals showed that it reduced A&E waiting times and helped clinicians make quicker decisions and get it right first time.
A new point of care test for the detection of flu is in the process of being commissioned by Buckinghamshire Healthcare after a winter evaluation in the Acute Medical Unit (AMU) at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. The test was developed by Fujifilm Medical Systems and is based on silver-amplified lateral flow technology in a simple cartridge with an automated reader.
Quick, accurate blood tests which can help rule out pre-eclampsia are improving care for pregnant women and their unborn babies, reducing anxiety and saving the NHS money. AHSNs are leading a rapid adoption project for these tests into maternity units across the country. Rapid uptake means these tests are becoming available to thousands more pregnant women – up from 29,000 in March 2019 to a predicted 200,000+ by the end of December 2019. The award-winning NHS/research/industry partnership has been selected for the NHS England Accelerated Access Collaborative, Innovation Technology Payment and Rapid Uptake programmes in 2019/20 which introduce an accelerated pathway to market for highly transformative innovations.
BESTIE is an interactive online platform built by Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust. It was designed to revolutionise the way children, young people and parents get access to online support for emotional wellbeing and mental health.
DrDoctor is a smartphone-based appointment management system, designed to help hospitals transform the way they communicate with patients and reduce DNA rates. Within nine weeks, the overall DNA rate at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital was reduced by 35%.
The Birmingham Symptom-specific Obstetric Triage System (BSOTS) was developed to better assess and treat pregnant women who attend hospital with pregnancy related complications or concerns.
Hospify is the first clinical messaging app to be made available on the NHS Apps Library. The app provides an NHS-compliant platform for sending and receiving messages. It can be used by clinicians to share patient information.
The Oxford AHSN Accelerator programme, in collaboration with BioCity and regional partners from the NHS, industry and research within the Thames Valley, offers a launchpad for entrepreneurs and their ventures to move from idea to market. CanSense and Dravya Discovery won a place on the intensive eight-week programme and pitched to investors on the final day of the Accelerator programme in November 2019.
