Ampersand Health

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Ampersand Health

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NHS problem

3.5 million people in England suffer from a long-term inflammatory condition. These types of conditions – such as Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis and Rheumatoid Arthritis – are characterised by periods of relapse and remission.

During remission, anxiety, depression and other factors can severely impact the quality of life of a patient. During times of relapse, when flare-management can lead to better outcomes (and reduce hospital admission costs), a patient may need immediate access to advice from their clinical team.

The solution

Ampersand Health is pioneering the development of behavioural and data-science based digital therapies for people with immune-mediated diseases like Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Inflammatory Arthritis and Psoriasis. Patients are able to track their symptoms and their feelings, while learning more about how to self-manage their condition through expert-led courses. Clinical teams are able to monitor their patients remotely and intervene when required, safely reducing the number of unnecessary appointments and ensuring patients are seen when they need it the most.

The intervention improves outcomes and the quality of life for people living with conditions such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Rheumatoid Arthritis and is shown to reduce the utilisation of health resources as well as the overall cost of care.

Impact

A surveillance study at King’s College Hospital found:

  • A 47% reduction overall in routine outpatient appointments
  • A 50% reduction in out-of-hours A&E visits by patients using the app
  • 85% of patients of patients prefer to use the app as their primary method of routine clinical contact, as opposed to face-to-face

The intervention was co-developed with clinicians and patients from King’s College Hospital and Barts Health NHS Trust. Ampersand Health’s platforms are CE marked as a Class 1 Medical Device, regulated by the MHRA, and have been assessed by NICE and are fully compliant with Information Governance requirements.