Improving Diagnosis for Patient Safety through Digital Innovation

In celebration of World Patient Safety Day 2024, we speak with several DigitalHealth.London alumni and current cohort members to explore how their innovations are transforming diagnostic pathways in healthcare to improve overall patient outcomes.

World Patient Safety Day, observed annually on 17 September, brings patients, families, healthcare professionals, leaders, and policymakers together to improve patient safety. This year, the focus is on ensuring accurate, timely, and safe diagnoses with the theme “Improving Diagnosis for Patient Safety” and the slogan “Get it right, make it safe!”.

In the UK, diagnostic issues—including errors—are the leading cause of healthcare complaints, accounting for about 35 per cent of all grievances (Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, 2014). Diagnostic error is often referred to as the next frontier in patient safety, as it poses a significant challenge to the quality of care beyond safety alone (Newman-Toker and Pronovost, 2009). Delays or inaccuracies in diagnosis can lead to severe consequences for patients, impacting their physical and mental well-being, while incurring financial burdens for both patients and healthcare systems.

DigitalHealth.London is delivered by the Health Innovation Network (HIN) South London, a part of the national Health Innovation Network. Commissioned by NHS England, the national Network also hosts the Patient Safety Collaboratives, which play a crucial role in helping NHS organisations adopt safety interventions, learn from best practices, and support continuous improvement in healthcare systems. The programme’s goal is to consistently reduce errors, harm, and mortality, aiming to make the NHS one of the safest healthcare systems globally by 2025. While the national strategy doesn’t set specific targets, it estimates the potential to save at least 928 additional lives and £98.5 million in treatment costs.

To mark the occasion, we reached out to some of our DigitalHealth.London Accelerator alumni and current companies who are working on making diagnosis across various healthcare pathways more efficient, improving overall patient and healthcare outcomes.

Mendelian
(Accelerator Cohort Five)

Mendelian’s software solution (MendelScan) supports earlier diagnosis of rare diseases – the first tool that addresses rare diseases and integrates diagnosis into a healthcare system. Using MendelScan, plus a team of international rare disease experts, they support doctors to refer patients to the right specialist, enabling faster diagnosis and treatment.

In one case, by using MendelScan to diagnose a patient with Behcet’s disease, their diagnostic journey was significantly reduced by three and a half years. This spared the patient £876 in healthcare costs and eliminated the need for 41 lab tests, seven clinical visits and four specialist referrals typically required during the diagnostic process.

Our technology connects the dots of patient health records, uncovering hidden patterns that may indicate undiagnosed rare diseases. This empowers clinicians to make informed clinical decisions at a scale previously unimaginable, leading to earlier, more accurate care. Ultimately, we aim to improve patient outcomes and optimise NHS resource utilisation through timely intervention.

Peter Fish
CEO of Mendelian

Odin Vision
(Accelerator Cohort Five)

Odin Vision is using cloud and AI medical devices to create a new era of healthcare by supporting doctors to deliver higher-quality care leading to improved patient outcomes, better patient experiences and increased value for healthcare providers. Odin Vision aims to provide state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) enabled software applications for endoscopic procedures to aid clinicians in the detection and diagnosis of disease.

CADDIE is Odin’s solution for supporting clinicians to detect and characterise colorectal polyps in real-time during colonoscopy procedures. Additionally, it supports AI caecum confirmation and AI bowel preparation scoring better early detection leads to reduced cancer incidence (a one per cent increase in polyp detection leads to a three per cent decrease in cancer risk). Optical diagnosis supported by AI polyp characterisation means patients receive results immediately and histopathology may be replaced, improving patient care and giving peace of mind. 

At Odin Vision, our commitment to enhancing patient outcomes is driven by leveraging cutting-edge AI technology to act as a second pair of eyes to support clinicians in the early detection of disease. We are advancing the field of medtech but also creating impactful solutions that empower doctors to deliver the best patient care and improved outcomes.

Luke Sampson
Chief Operations Officer at Odin Vision

Panakeia
(Accelerator Cohort Six)

Panakeia’s UKCA-certified and CE-marked AI software instantly provides pathologists with the same information as lab-based tests by analysing H&E biopsy images during the initial examination. By significantly reducing the need for additional lab tests, this solution can lower costs and reduce turnaround times to one day by streamlining workflows.

Panakeia provides rapid molecular (biomarker) predictions, enabling diagnoses within a day. This swift turnaround accelerates access to treatment and helps reduce socioeconomic disparities in cancer outcomes by improving access to ER/PR/HER2 testing. Additionally, pathologists can make case decisions in a single step by analyzing H&E images, reducing the time spent per case from 11-20 minutes to just five minutes. This efficiency saves approximately 9,000 hours of pathologist time annually, based on over 55,000 new breast cancer diagnoses each year.

Panakeia was founded with the vision of improving patients’ lives at its core. My personal experience of having to wait a month for lab test results in relation to a cancer scare led me to start a company translating my research on the biology of cancer and combining it with powerful AI, to make molecular testing faster, cost effective and more accessible for patients. Our PANProfiler platform delivers actionable insights in minutes, instead of days or weeks, entirely digitally with the ultimate goal of making personalised medicine a reality.

Pahini Pandya
CEO of Panakeia

NuvoAir
(Accelerator Cohort Eight)

NuvoAir Home is a technology-enabled service which boosts access to quality spirometry testing using a convenient assessment of lung health performed digitally and remotely from the individual’s home. Using hand-held spirometry and symptom scoring, individuals are coached to produce multiple tests which are summarised by experts in a clear report. No reliance on NHS equipment, busy clinicians or data from only one test – just high-quality insights for fast diagnosis.

NuvoAir Home delivers clinic-quality spirometry directly from home for over 80 per cent of patients, significantly reducing wait times for spirometry and accelerating treatment optimisation and referrals. It also enhances access to spirometry for hard-to-reach or patients who miss appointments (DNA group) and increases users’ awareness of how triggers, medications, and exacerbations affect their lung health.

Undiagnosed respiratory disease is a longstanding and significant concern for the NHS. NuvoAir provides a home spirometry assessment of lung health, addressing the nationwide lack of access to spirometry data for diagnosis. It is the accuracy, speed and convenience of our service that combine to make an impact on such a long standing issue, and will move the needle in terms of health outcomes by getting people with respiratory conditions a fast and accurate diagnosis and on to treatment which may alter the course of their disease.

Helen Parrott
UK Market Lead at NuvoAir

The DigitalHealth.London Accelerator programme is funded by the UK Government via the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). It is delivered by the Health Innovation Network (HIN) South London in partnership with the Office of Life Sciences, CW+, Medicity, NHS England and the Mayor of London.

For more information, please visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-
shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus.