Make a Difference: Accelerating Innovations in the NHS

There are many inspiring people doing exciting things with technologies that have the power to transform our lives as patients. I had the absolute pleasure of hearing from some of those who are fellows of the NHS Innovations Accelerator programme run by @NHSEngland

Each person had 5 minutes to explain their work at the Clinical Innovation & Partnering World congress, mainly sponsored by Raja Banerji, Tata Consulting Services and hosted by Terrapin

Owise - This is a free app enabling breast cancer patients to record experiences of their care & offers tailored health information as to treatment & care. OWise-breast cancer was presented by Anne Bruinvels. It is available in the UK @OWise.UK

Patients Know Best - This is a single, patient controlled record developed by Lloyd Humphreys. This means that patients hold all their medical information which they can share across different health care providers in a single record owned by them.

Matt Jameson spoke about Health Unlocked - This is described as the world’s largest peer to peer health networking site enabling patients, caregivers and health advocates to connect safely online with guidance from credible experts (eg: charities) and signposts people - using AI technology - to relevant content based on their profile. It has 4m visitors and provides digital care plans for all people diagnosed with cancer in the UK

Coordinate My Care - Coordinate My Care (CMC) is a web-based IT platform enabling digital, multidisciplinary urgent care planning for end of life care.This was presented by Julia Riley. CMC empowers patients to make decisions with their GP about the interventions they receive, and allows caregivers to better understand patient preferences and clinical needs.

@CoordMyCare

Tom Whicher outlined DrDoctor - an online & text based service allowing patients to confirm, cancel, and change appointments digitally. Hospitals can maximise and manage patient volume to best fit their capacity as the technology can target long waiting lists and automatically book patients into empty slots in clinics. In addition, it provides digital assessments before & after appointments, saving time for both patients & caregivers

Tony Bowden from Helicon Health spoke about their digital healthcare activation platform for identification, screening, prevention, communication and management of chronic diseases aimed at improving health outcomes and reducing costs

11Health - This sensor device was described by Robert Fearn to track ostomy bag fluid volumes and alert patients when nearly full to improve control and quality of life.

I was struck by the enthusiasm shown by these individuals, their products but especially by their interest in using technologies to help patients get through the system

You can find out more about the people who are NHS Innovations Accelerators* here

* The aim of this programme is to 'create the conditions and cultural change necessary for proven innovations to be adopted faster through the NHS for demonstrable patient and population benefit.

The NHS Innovations Accelerator is delivered in partnership with all 15 Academic Health Science Networks across England.

You can follow them

@OWise.UK

@heliconhealth
@Ostom_i