DigitalHealth.London Insider

Exactly how does an innovator get through the Procurement Mindfield? This was the very question being posed at the centre of the Monday agenda at the Digital Health Festival hosted by Digital Catapult on Monday 6^th June.  Which I had the pleasure of speaking at, together with Neelam Patel from Medcity. Some valuable advice and viewpoints were put forward by the panel. Of particular note, Andrew Gardner, CEO at Medvivo reinforced “problem first” [rather than solution first], look out for tenders, and consider the direct to consumer route. The million dollar question about ‘Evidence’ was raised, in particular, how valid is evidence generated outside of the UK? Business cases for Innovations based on cost savings seem to work better in other markets, like the US, compared to in the UK, largely because CCG’s find it difficult to  access the data needed to baseline.

An interesting company that I met last week was NDL Software Limited, who provide a ‘toolkit’ for developers to develop apps. The platform enables the mobile app provider to provide a more efficient way for the app end user to view information pulled from disparate, disconnected systems and push back information into the right destination system. Avoiding rekeying by entering data once with proprietary back end ‘robots’ then carrying out the multi- application common data entry. NDL is currently installed across 100 local authorities and 60-70 NHS Trusts.

Imperial College Health Partners AHSN kicked off their trio of innovation ‘pop-up’ events bringing NHS commissioners, providers, and patients together with suitable innovators, in one room, to solve key challenges affecting the end to end Atrial Fibrillation clinical pathway. Stakeholders have been supported by ICHP through a guided process over a number of months to first understand and define the problem(s), scout for the right solutions, and now focus is on working through the practicalities of implementation ahead of successful formal commissioning that we hope will take place for some of the organisations. Participants included Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, NHS Brent CCG, NHS Ealing CCG and NHS Hammersmith & Fulham CCG. As well as Helicon Health, Docobo, AliveCor. A number of examples of the emerging ECG monitor innovations now available in the market place, were provided, including Zio patches, SensiumVitals, and Scanadu Scout.

All in all, another insightful week at DigitalHealth.London. A question to leave you with is, what distinguishes apps that demonstrate sustained effectiveness in improving medication adherence amongst patients, compared with those that only sustain the engagement of the user for a few days or weeks? #patientactivation #medicationadherence

Yinka Makinde, Programme Manager, DigitalHealth.London

@YMakinde1