Accelerator companies win NHSX phase two Digital Health Partnership Award

The NHSX Digital Health Partnership Award helps NHS organisations in England to accelerate the adoption of digital health technologies to support patients with long term conditions. A number of current and alumni Accelerator companies were winners of phase two of the award.

Digital exercise and Self Care for Obesity – EXi

Barts Health NHS Trust is embedding the EXi app as a core part of the physical-activity care pathway to benefit patients with their short, medium and long term health, as well as allowing clinicians access to a range of data, helping them to transform their service and clinical outcomes.

Remote monitoring through a shared visual record – Islacare

Alder Hey Children’s Hospital Foundation Trust is leading this project to deliver the next generation of remote monitoring technology. Islacare will be used to observe patients at a caseload level and proactively prioritise those that need to be seen, reducing the potential for patients to deteriorate quickly whilst waiting. Clinicians are alerted when a patient’s health data suggests their condition has moved out of normal tolerances and patients can be monitored from the comfort of their home, allowing high priority patients to be seen more quickly.

Peter Hansell, Co-founder, Islacare said: “We are so proud of the work we are doing with Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and are thrilled that the project has been highlighted by the NHSX Digital Partnership Award. Alder Hey is dedicated to providing the best possible care for young patients and their families assisted by technological innovation and pioneering pathways. We look forward to employing learnings and experience gained through our place on the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator, and continuing to work with Alder Hey’s incredible people to develop exciting and effective technological solutions.”

Asthma Self-Management for Children and Young People – Tiny Medical Apps

North East London CCG Digital First Team will provide a free digital asthma self-management tool. The platform developed by Tiny Medical Apps will be available to more than one million young people and parents of children with asthma, across the 42 integrated care system (ICS) regions of England. An evaluation led by UCL Partners will provide evidence of value, alignment to national policy objectives and the impact this technology is having on access to care amongst underserved populations, enabling each ICS to develop their own business case for future investment.

Dr Greg Burch, Clinical Director and Co-founder, Tiny Medical Apps said: “We will be helping ICSs across England to deliver a number of the requirements of the national asthma programme (National bundle of care for children and young people with asthma). The Digital Health Passport platform will be made available to all 42 ICSs and will provide a digital tool to patients to help improve self-confidence and skills to self-manage their asthma. We welcome this opportunity and are excited to be working with so many great NHS organisations in the first wave.”

Improving Obesity Care – DDM Health Ltd

The Obesity multidisciplinary team at Barts Health aims to improve patient care, reduce waiting list times, efficiently provide care, and provide patients with self-management support between appointments through two phases. Phase one is a remotely monitored 12-week exercise plan prescribed by a health professional and Phase two provides both the patient and healthcare professional with full access to the programme for a further two months. DDM’s Gro Health digital therapeutic will be used to improve a range of obesity associated comorbidities, including diabetes mellitus, hypertension, liver disease, and depression.

Digital Diabetes Structured Education – Oviva UK Limited

Humber, Coast and Vale Health and Care Partnership are delivering a service for Digital Diabetes Structured Education using the Oviva app. This project will provide an effective, accessible and convenient alternative to face-to-face education, which increases the confidence of patients to self-manage their condition and make appropriate lifestyle changes. The result is a reduction in diabetes and use of blood pressure medication and a reduction in the risk of Type 2 Diabetes related complications, reducing a patient’s need for primary and secondary care services.

Mark Jenkins, Oviva UK Managing and Medical Director said: “The DigitalHealth.London Accelerator seeks to promote the power of digital and was helpful at connecting Oviva to key NHS stakeholders early in our journey. We’re proud to be recognised for the effectiveness of our digital diabetes structured education programme, offering an alternative to face-to-face delivery for highly accessible and personalised care. This awarded funding will help people live healthier, happier lives.”

Using Artificial Intelligence to diagnose skin cancer – SkinVision

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used to remotely support patients from home who have an initial and/or skin cancer diagnosis. The AI technology in the SkinVision app will be used in two week wait triaging, surgery wait lists and follow-up care to identify high risk skin cancer patients. The project builds upon work that Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has already undertaken with the Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network and the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw ICS to identify improvements that can be made to patient flow and referral processes in outpatient dermatology services and improvement in care quality throughout the dermatology care pathway.

Digital Solutions for Falls Prevention – Physitrack

Leicestershire Partnership Trust will be using Physitrack to develop a new digital care pathway for Falls Prevention patients within Leicestershire. By providing a virtual Falls Prevention offer, patients can benefit from evidence-based education and exercise, and a means of communication with other patients via a patient portal to improve mental health and support. Additionally, the introduction of a virtual service delivery gives patients greater choice in how they can access services and flexibility for the clinicians on how they support patients.

Henrik Molin, CEO & Co-founder of Physitrack Plc said: “We are delighted to have been recognised by NHSX for this award. We are grateful to be able to help where we can in this very important area of falls prevention and are proud of all of the hard work of Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust has put in to make this happen for us. We also owe DigitalHealth.London a debt of gratitude for setting the scene for us when we were part of the first cohort of its Accelerator Programme – it took us very far down on the path where we are now as a publicly listed company.”

Digital wound care management system for lower limb wounds – Healthy.io

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust and North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust are implementing a digital wound care management system for lower limb wounds. The Minuteful for Wound software developed by Healthy.io will provide more consistent wound assessment, more accurate capture of essential wound characteristics and improved visual tracking of wounds through standardised and enhanced wound imagery. It will also enable real-time views of wound caseloads at clinic, ward, team or service level, whilst having the ability to identify deteriorating or static wounds.

Digitised Home Based Care for Parkinson’s Disease – Patients Know Best

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust is delivering self-management support and clinical expertise to patients in the comfort of their home using the Patients Know Best platform. This is being delivered through a wrist-worn sensor that the patient wears, and clinicians will monitor the patient and intervene as needed. Accessible, personalised information will also be provided to support patients with Parkinson’s at home.

Supported self-management and integrated home testing and remote monitoring for patients with inflammatory bowel long-term conditions – Ampersand Health

St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are aiming to implement new patient pathways, underpinned by integrated digital technologies, within the IBD service at the Trust, by deploying a condition specific mobile app – My IBD Care, developed by Ampersand Health, to support Inflammatory Bowel Disease. The IBD team will be able to address the elective recovery challenges, and home testing will also enhance the care provided to patients; reduce the need for: follow up appointments, time to first appointment, unplanned emergency admissions and also improve drug monitoring adherence.

Jeremy Andrews, Commercial Director, Ampersand Health said: “We are delighted that the team at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have been successful with their application for funding through the second phase of the Digital Health Partnership Award. Alongside our partners, Firefly Scientific and Thriva, we’re very much looking forward to rolling-out our platform, underpinning an innovative new model of care for Inflammatory Bowel Disease patients at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.”

EXi, Tiny Medical Apps, DDM Health, Oviva UK, SkinVision, Physitrack, Healthy.io, Patients Know Best and Ampersand Health are alumni of the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator programme. Islacare is currently on the Accelerator programme.

The DigitalHealth.London Accelerator is a collaborative programme funded by London’s three Academic Health Science Networks – UCL Partners, Imperial College Health Partners, and the Health Innovation Network, MedCity, CW+ and receives match funding from the European Regional Development Fund.