• Prevention may be the cure, but innovation the best course of treatment

    Dr Cheryl Crocker, interim Chief Operating Officer at the Health Innovation Network, explains the vital role innovation plays to not only reduce waiting lists and improve access to care, but to decrease system pressure by improving people’s health and keeping them well for longer.  The new Government has rightly declared its focus on moving the [...]

  • Meet the innovator: Jez Ellerd-Styles, SiSU Health UK

    Launched in 2014, SiSU Health is scaling early warning, self-service health kiosks, digital platforms and pathways into pre-existing healthcare services. The British Heart Foundation estimates the annual cardiovascular disease (CVD) related costs to the UK healthcare system are around £10 billion, with annual costs to the UK economy of an estimated £25 billion. Making the [...]

  • Meet the innovator: Nick Hartshorne-Evans, The Pumping Marvellous Foundation

    BEAT HF is the first UK-wide disease awareness campaign for heart failure and is targeted at the public and primary care healthcare professionals. Professor Clare Taylor, Nick Hartshorne-Evans, and Dr Dargoi Satchi developed BEAT to improve awareness of heart failure through early recognition of common symptoms. The acronym BEAT leads to testing using a commonly [...]

  • Meet the innovator: Rebecca Howard, ShinyMind

    Rebecca Howard is a psychotherapist and Founder and CEO of ShinyMind, an award-winning digital wellbeing prescription and prescribing platform. ShinyMind offers large-scale mental health virtual group consultations, designed to reduce workload and widen access in primary care, helping over 100 patients simultaneously think better, feel better and live better. Tell us about the innovation. What [...]

  • The role innovation plays in reducing demand through delivering a Net Zero NHS

    Pete Waddingham, the Health Innovation Network's Net Zero Lead, discusses how we're supporting a Net Zero NHS through innovation, and its potential to reduce demand.  We all know climate change contributes to poor health, with air pollution linked to a number of health conditions including cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and cancer. We also know it’s [...]

  • Meet the innovator: Karina Malhotra, Acumentice

    Karina Malhotra (pictured on the right) is the Founder and Managing Director of Acumentice - a healthcare improvement consultancy. Karina’s background is in the NHS, with operational leadership roles in NHS Trusts across London. Her product, Evolve Learning, provides targeted learning and development for staff in the NHS. It’s delivered on an e-learning platform, in [...]

  • Improving health and wealth: how innovation contributes to economic growth

    At the Health Innovation Network we have always had a dual focus on improving both the health and wealth of the nation and have demonstrated the huge contribution that the health and life sciences industry can make to economic growth. Since 2018, our support to innovators has leveraged £2.6 billion for the UK economy.  We're [...]

  • Partnering for procurement success

    There is a wealth of HealthTech innovators poised to help solve some of the NHS’ greatest challenges, yet getting a product or new technology adopted at scale in the NHS is far from straightforward. In a recent ABHI member’s survey*, procurement was cited as one of the biggest barriers that innovators face, particularly those from [...]

  • Meet the innovator: Kerstyn Comley, Tellmi

    Tellmi is a social enterprise innovation which aims to address the growing demand for mental health services and tackle health inequalities for young people. It is a digital peer support app available launched in 2017 by psychologist Suzi Godson PhD and engineer Kerstyn Comley PhD. Kersytn explains how Tellmi works. Tell us about the innovation. [...]

  • How embracing Artificial Intelligence improves the human experience

    The NHS is facing record demand for services. According to The Health Foundation, the NHS waiting list for elective treatment in England has almost tripled in size over the last decade to 7.7 million. And latest figures show there were a record 2.35 million attendances at A&E across England in March this year. We know [...]

  • Ten principles of health equity for innovators

    “Health equity is the attainment of the highest level of health for ALL people. Achieving health equity requires valuing everyone equally with focused and ongoing societal efforts to address avoidable inequalities, historical and contemporary injustices, and social determinants of health — and to eliminate disparities in health and health care.” (health.gov) Within the NHS there [...]

  • Collaborating to improve access and equity of care for sickle cell sufferers

    Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a serious and lifelong health condition. People with SCD produce unusually shaped red blood cells that can cause problems because they do not live as long as healthy blood cells and can block blood vessels. This can result in suffers experiencing painful episodes, called sickle cell crises, as well as anaemia, [...]

  • Until tackling health inequalities becomes business as usual, innovation is our best chance of equity

    At the Royal Society of Medicine’s Tackling Inequalities conference it was clear from the passion in the room that great progress has been made across the system to better support some of our most under-served communities. To maintain this momentum, we must not just embed tackling health and healthcare inequalities in all that we do, [...]

  • Where health innovation is concerned, 15 approaches are better than one

    Dr Phil Jennings, Vice Chair of the Health Innovation Network and Chief Executive of Health Innovation North West Coast, discusses why the Network’s collective relicensing gives innovation a better chance of success. In any one day in England, 1.2 million people attend a GP appointment, over a quarter of a million people have an outpatient [...]

  • Meet the innovator: Damian O’Boyle, Healthy.io

    Kidney care costs the NHS £1.5bn a year. Minuteful Kidney, from Healthy.io, is a home kidney albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR) test. It identifies more patients at-risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and associated cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is a leading cause of morbidity, disability and health inequalities. Damian O’Boyle, Director of Client Services at [...]

  • A unique opportunity to drive health innovation and transformation

    Guest blog by Martin Hindle. Martin has served as Chair of Health Innovation East Midlands (HIEM) since the organisation was set up in 2013. He will finish his fixed-term appointment at the end of March 2024, and in his guest blog below, he reflects on HIEM’s journey and the unique contribution all local health innovation networks [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: Paul McGinness, Lenus Health

    Major conditions like chronic cardiovascular and lung disease account for a disproportionate share of healthcare resources and are tied to inequalities. Lenus Health provide AI and digital tools to existing care pathways to improve healthcare delivery, reduce admissions and improve outcomes. We spoke to Paul McGinness, CEO and co-founder of Lenus Health to find out more. [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: James Hare, CEO of US2.ai

    Us2.ai is a fast-growing start-up, based in Singapore but now operating worldwide, which is dedicated to tackling CVD and heart disease through pioneering Artificial Intelligence (AI). Its mission is to improve patient outcomes and expand healthcare access by making echocardiograms, the most used tool for the detection of heart risk, available to all. We spoke [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: Dr George Harston, Brainomix

    Dr George Harston is Chief Medical and Innovation Officer at Brainomix. He is also a Consultant Physician in Stroke and General Medicine at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The company’s innovative AI-enabled decision support tools are helping clinicians to rapidly and accurately decide the type and severity of stroke, and the most appropriate treatment. It [...]

  • Supporting sustainable innovation in healthcare

    Pete Waddingham, Net Zero Lead at the Health Innovation Network In October 2020, the NHS published the ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service report, outlining its ambition and plans to reduce the environmental impact of the delivery of health and care services and reach net zero carbon emissions. The Health Innovation Network pivoted and responded to [...]

  • Supporting Sickle Cell Disease patients

    In this blog, Mary Aziz, Programme Development Lead at Health Innovation Manchester, explains how Spectra Optia, part of Accelerated Access Collaborative MedTech Funding Mandate policy, helps patients to have better care outcomes and quality of life. Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a genetic, life-long condition, detected during pregnancy or soon after birth through the national [...]

  • Using innovation to help tackle the NHS workforce challenges

    Earlier this month, NHS England launched its new workforce plan, which aims to build a sustainable and resilient healthcare workforce that meets the evolving needs of patients and delivers high-quality care. The plan recognises the importance of recruitment, retention, education, wellbeing, diversity, technology adoption, collaboration, and long-term planning in shaping a successful NHS workforce for [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: Anna-Lisa Mills, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust

    This month’s Meet the Innovator interview is with Anna-Lisa Mills, Sustainability Manager at the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust which, in 2020, introduced a smart carbon platform and five-step process to reduce its carbon footprint and that of its suppliers. The innovation won the Net Zero Innovation of the Year category at last year’s [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: ELAROS

    In this month’s Meet the Innovator interview we speak with Román Rocha Lawrence, Director of Research and Development at ELAROS, and part-time Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, which collaboratively launched a digital platform to support specialist long COVID services through a patient-facing app and clinical web portal. The innovation won the Outstanding Collaboration [...]

  • 10-year anniversary of AHSNs

    As the NHS celebrates its 75th birthday this year, the 15 Academic Health Science Networks that form the AHSN Network have also reached an important milestone. April marks 10 years since AHSNs were first created by NHS England following publication of the Innovation Health and Wealth report to transform the way the NHS identifies, adopts [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: Dr Chen Mao Davies

    Meet Dr Chen Mao Davies, Founder and CEO of Anya by LatchAid Ltd. – an award-winning pregnancy, parenting and breastfeeding support app that utilises cutting-edge 3D interactive technology and AI intelligence to provide new mothers with support. Last year, Chen was announced as one of the Fellows of the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) programme 2023, [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: ChatHealth

    Clinical Lead of ChatHealth, Laura Burrowes, joined the Digital Health Transformation Service at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust’s (LPT)  in April 2022, following a career as a school nurse, where she was the lead practitioner for the confidential text messaging service for the school nursing service in Manchester. Nationally, the award-winning text messaging service has [...]

  • Preparing to implement the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework

    Dr Cheryl Crocker, AHSN Network Patient Safety Director, discusses how Patient Safety Collaboratives (hosted by the AHSN Network) are supporting ICSs and ICBs in preparations to implement the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework.   NHS England published the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) in August 2022 outlining how NHS organisations should respond to [...]

  • Supporting people to manage long-term pain without opioids

    A blog from Dr Cheryl Crocker, AHSN Network Patient Safety Director, describing how Patient Safety Collaboratives (hosted by the AHSN Network) are supporting people to manage their long-term pain and reduce the harmful effects of opioid medication.   Opioids are highly effective medications and, when used judiciously for a time-limited period, can greatly benefit many [...]

  • How increasing access to innovative diagnostics and treatments is transforming care for asthma patients

    Dr Andy Whittamore, GP, Clinical Lead Asthma + Lung UK and British Lung Foundation and joint FeNO national clinical lead & Dr Hitasha Rupani, Consultant Respiratory Physician, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and Asthma Biologics Clinical Champion. Asthma is one of the most common long-term health conditions in the UK with 5.4million people living [...]

  • Remote technology in health and care – what’s the way forward?

    Charlotte Walton, AHSN Network Strategy Director The NHS is aiming for all Integrated Care Systems (ICS) and their constituent organisations to have all the attributes of digital maturity, including electronic records and other critical systems, by March 2025. The NHS plan for digital health and social care, published in June 2022, sets out a range [...]

  • Why innovation is the bridge that connects traditional healthcare practices to transformative sustainable systems

    Amelia James is the Environmental Sustainability Lead for Kent, Surrey and Sussex AHSN and Oxford AHSN. Hugely passionate about her role and about what we can all do to combat climate change, Amelia shares her thoughts on how sustainable innovation can contribute to the delivery of a Net Zero NHS. Let’s talk climate change The [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: myHappymind

    Meet Laura Earnshaw, founder of myHappymind, an award-winning, NHS-backed curriculum for primary schools and nurseries that teaches children lifelong habits to have good self-esteem, resilience and ultimately good mental health. Laura tells us about her first light bulb moment, which was when her child started school, her dreams of getting into every primary school across the [...]

  • Supporting care homes to keep residents safe

    Kay Khan, Head of Improvement Programme Delivery at East Midlands Academic Health Science Network, explores two new ‘React To’ resources they’ve developed to support care homes and their staff to improve the safety of residents. Care homes are rarely out of the headlines these days. They are under enormous pressure to deliver care to some [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: MyPathway

    Meet Judith Clarkson, Commercial Director of MyPathway (previously ADI Health), which is now part of VitalHub UK. MyPathway is a digital health platform that is used to improve patient interactions during treatment for long term conditions as well as those individuals visiting acute facilities for shorter term elective or outpatient services. Hear what Judith has [...]

  • The perfect partnership: ARCs and AHSNs

    Dr Yu (Maggie) Fu, formerly a joint Senior Research Fellow, working jointly between the Applied Research Collaboration and AHSN for the North East and North Cumbria, and now a Tenure Track Fellow based at the University of Liverpool. I studied medicine at university and became a junior doctor in 2010, but I was frequently struck by [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: C2-Ai

    Meet Mark Ratnarajah and Steve Barnett of C2-Ai. The company helps hospitals to significantly improve patient safety, reduce mortality and complication risk and clinical outcomes variation by providing globally unique AI-backed insights. Read what they have to say on how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has shaped their work, their advice for budding innovators and how [...]

  • 2022: A year in review for the AHSN Network

    2022 has been a busy year for the AHSN Network as we continue to work to identify and spread health innovation at pace and scale across the NHS. The past 12 months have seen the health and care system continue to respond to the impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and across the network, we [...]

  • Post-pandemic priorities: reducing impact on hospitals

    In 2021-22 the NHS managed 19.6 million hospital admissions, appointments, and attendances across England (NHS Digital 2022). During the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, reducing hospital admissions was a key focus area to increase hospital capacity and reduce the spread of the virus, with a target to free up 30,000 beds announced in March 2020 (NHS Trusts [...]

  • Delivering a Net Zero NHS

    As leaders from across the globe come together for the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), I wanted to share the progress of the network in supporting this crucial agenda, and the help on offer. Our strategy At a national level, we’re currently refining our Net Zero Strategy which sets our key aims and [...]

  • 6 ways AHSNs are supporting safer maternity care for black and Asian families

    It is an unacceptable fact that black and Asian women and people who give birth are more likely than those who are white to die during birth or the following year. More specifically, black women are four times more likely to die during pregnancy or postnatally than white women. In comparison, Asian women are twice [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: RIX Research & Media

    Meet Andy Minnion, Founder and Director of RIX Research & Media. RIX Research & Media has created the RIX Wiki, a software that enables people with learning disabilities to share personal health and care information for effective person-centred support in their communities. Read what Andy has to say on working directly with people who benefit [...]

  • Supporting change, innovation, and technology: Transforming ADHD diagnosis

    In this blog, East Midlands AHSN (EMAHSN) Managing Director Nicole McGlennon discusses the considerations of embedding change, how can healthcare systems create the conditions for healthcare innovation adoption and identifies five key areas NHS systems can consider. In recognition of October also being ADHD awareness month, Nicole refers to our Focus ADHD project and how [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: Peppy

    Meet Kathy Abernethy, Director of Menopause Services at Peppy. Peppy is an app that gives people access to remote, specialist advice and support in areas such as mental wellbeing, menopause, parenthood and fertility. Read what Kathy has to say on measuring clinical outcomes, finding the right people to work with and the value of hearing [...]

  • What is the value of Real-World Evaluation?

    What exactly is Real World Evaluation? What does it cover? How will it benefit my business? These are questions my colleagues and I across the AHSN network are asked regularly by health and care innovators looking to encourage the adoption and spread of their innovation. Generating evidence to support the clinical efficacy and cost effectiveness [...]

  • World Patient Safety Day 2022

    It was World Patient Safety Day on Saturday 17 September, and this year the World Health Organisation (WHO) is focusing on medication safety. This is a welcome theme for the AHSN Network and the Patient Safety Collaboratives (PSCs) we host as improving medication safety is a key objective in our Patient Safety Plan, which we [...]

  • Putting sustainability at the heart of NHS innovation

    Kathy Scott is the Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive at Yorkshire and Humber AHSN. She also acts as Chair for the AHSN Network Environmental Sustainability Community of Interest. Sarah Walpole is the 2021-2022 National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow at NICE. In this blog, Kathy and Sarah discuss how important it is to consider [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: Holmusk

    Meet Caroline Gadd, UK Managing Director for Holmusk and NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) fellow for MaST, a decision support tool which uses data from electronic health records to improve health and care decisions. Read what Caroline has to say about the support received from AHSNs, building an effective and efficient product delivery team and benefitting [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: Infinity Health

    Meet Elliott Engers, CEO and Co-Founder of Infinity Health. Infinity Health is a digital platform on which health and care staff can log, share and coordinate their daily care tasks in real-time. Read what Elliott has to say about helping to reduce the NHS backlog, the joys of going live and how the AHSNs are [...]

  • Getting the balance right on polypharmacy

    The AHSN Network recently launched the new national polypharmacy programme: getting the balance right. Hear Programme Manager, Amy Semple and Clinical Lead, Clare Howard discuss why we need to take action to address problematic polypharmacy and how the AHSN Network is supporting this important area of work. Why is polypharmacy an important topic? Polypharmacy is [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: CPDmatch

    Meet Dr Richard Hixson, Consultant in Anaesthesia and Critical Care Medicine at Country Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust and Designer of CPDmatch. CPDmatch proactively matches the professional development needs of all healthcare professionals with relevant, accessible and affordable educational opportunities. Read what Richard has to say about support from AHSNs, taking the first step [...]

  • How AHSNs support the Government’s life sciences vision

    Richard Phillips, Director of Strategy at the Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI) reflects on his experiences with the AHSN Network and how AHSNs support innovation in the life sciences sector. ABHI hosted a webinar for innovators with the AHSN Network on Thursday 30 June, 11-12am, click on the link below to watch the recording. [...]

  • Celebrating wider access to health and care innovation

    In this blog, Laura Semple AHSN Network Director for National Programmes reflects on the challenges faced by the health and care system over the last year; the impacts and benefits of the innovation programmes delivered nationally by the AHSNs; and discusses why she is particularly excited about the year ahead. The mission of the AHSN [...]

  • Looking back on 2021-22

    2021-22 has been pivotal for the AHSNs and the AHSN Network. While we are still supporting our health and care systems with the recovery from the pandemic, we have undertaken work to set out our vision and strategy and refine our processes to ensure we can meet our collective ambition to transform as many lives [...]

  • The critical components of health and care innovation

    We’ve recently released our AHSN Network impact report, reflecting on our national work from April 2021 to the end of March this year. This report covers the impacts of our core work programmes, including more than 480,000 patients benefiting from our national programmes and initiatives; and our support for innovators resulting in £455m of investment [...]

  • Personal satisfaction from national impacts

    In this blog, Stuart Monk AHSN Network National Programme Director for Rapid Uptake Products and the MedTech Funding Mandate reflects on why achieving the greatest spread of health and care innovation is personally important to him and discusses some of the progress and impacts he’s seen over the last year. I’ve worked within the AHSN [...]

  • How do AHSNs help companies sustain economic growth?

    No one would deny that the last couple of years have been immeasurably difficult for those working in the health and care sector. Finding capacity to innovate has been an enormous ask of frontline colleagues tackling the fallout from the Coronavirus pandemic. That is why I am both astounded and delighted to see the results [...]

  • Greater diversity in innovation is more important than ever – and we need your help

    A spotlight on inequality In 2019 when launching our first report on the importance of ensuring greater diversity in health innovation design and implementation, I wrote that: “Our NHS should represent and reflect the communities we serve. This does not just apply to our front-line workforce. The way that we develop and adopt innovation and [...]

  • Addressing LGBT+ health inequalities: supporting the innovators

    With more LGBT+ high-profile role models, diversity groups in the workplaces, and education in schools, you’d be forgiven for thinking that LGBT+ communities no longer face issues. This isn’t the case – they still face significant barriers with stigma, discrimination, harassment and bullying, and with their health. The LGBT+ community is disproportionately affected by ill [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: Whzan Digital Health

    Meet Keith Chessell, Chief Executive of Whzan Digital Health. Whzan Digital Health produce clinically lead healthcare monitoring systems which aim to enable greater levels of care and help keep people out of hospital. Read what Keith has to say about how AHSNs have provided support in finding the right people to talk to, helping people [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: Safe Steps

    Meet Lee Omar, Founder of Safe Steps. Safe Steps is a user-friendly falls risk screening, review and care planning tool which supports health and social care organisations to become self-sufficient in falls prevention. Read what he has to say about the personal background to his innovation, understanding the NHS as an entrepreneur and how the [...]

  • Can digital health services support people with learning disabilities and autism?

    People with learning disabilities face significant health inequalities. NHS Digital reported that those with learning disabilities would be between 3.9-4.2 times more likely to die than those with broadly the same characteristics in the general population, the NHS Long Term Plan also recognises this as a priority area. Changes implemented as part of the pandemic [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: Patients Know Best

    Meet Mo Al-Ubaydli, CEO of Patients Know Best (PKB). PKB is a social enterprise and technology platform, designed to bring together patient data from health and social care providers and the patient’s own data, into one secure personal health record. Read what Mo has to say about building clinician trust, the role that AHSNs have [...]

  • Improving lower limb care is one of the solutions to operational pressures in the NHS. But who is listening?

    Over the past two years, wound care has had to take a back seat to Covid, like many other services. However, wound care forms the largest proportion of community nursing work and continues to grow due to unwarranted variation. Tackling wound care properly is relatively straightforward and quick, and most importantly will help solve the [...]

  • Practical tools to support the green agenda in the NHS

    For Global Recycling Day on 18 March 2022, Peter Carpenter, Service Delivery Director at Kent Surrey Sussex AHSN talks about the role of the AHSNs in helping the NHS move towards its net zero ambitions. He also introduces the practical application of Hexitime, a time-banking solution which enables people to connect and exchange professional expertise [...]

  • Safer care starts with supporting our workforce

    Burn-out, stress, exhaustion. Headlines like these were all too familiar during the Covid-19 pandemic, and are still a major concern as we start to emerge from the effects of coronavirus. The pressures never seem to stop. This week is Patient Safety Awareness Week, led by the Institute of Healthcare Improvement, and is an opportunity to [...]

  • The power of the patient’s voice

    Seeing pupil power bring about changes in school dinner menus and playground design was my first taste of public participation in decision making. I was a secondary teacher in Wigan and took on the role of leading the School Council, which led to a wider role with Wigan Borough Council, bringing together representatives of all [...]

  • International Women’s Day – breaking the bias

    With the need to develop new and innovative techniques, treatments and collaborations, the pandemic highlighted how bringing the best and brightest to key roles is vital. And to celebrate International Women’s Day, we’re proud to be able to highlight cases where innovative female leaders are making their mark in the world of health and social [...]

  • Providing a platform for female innovators

    In this blog to mark International Women’s Day (8 March 2022), Maria Kyriacou, NHS Innovation Accelerator Deputy Director, shares her learnings from working with female innovators and how the NHS Innovation Accelerator aims to provide a platform for these exceptional individuals. The NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) is a national programme commissioned by the Accelerated Access [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: Dynamic Metrics Ltd

    Meet Dr Diana Hodgins MBE, Founder and CEO of Dynamic Metrics Ltd, the owners of GaitSmart. GaitSmart is a portable gait analysis system, which enables data-driven rehabilitation by measuring how people walk. The data is used to provide a personalised exercise programme and engages people to take a more active approach in their rehabilitation and [...]

  • Supporting young people with eating disorders

    Eating disorders can affect anyone. It is thought that between 1.25 and 4 million people in the UK have an eating disorder, from every gender, ethnicity, and age with some patients as young as six years old. In this blog for Eating Disorder Awareness Week (28 February-6 March), Charlotte Douglas and Sarah Houston, Innovation Advisors [...]

  • Open and honest communication is essential for patient safety

    Professor Bee Wee CBE is the National Clinical Director for End of Life Care at NHS England and NHS Improvement. She is Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Sobell House and Katharine House Hospice, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Associate Professor at University of Oxford, where she is also a Fellow of Harris Manchester [...]

  • The Blood Pressure Optimisation Programme: Doing things differently to prevent heart attacks and strokes at scale

    The newly launched national Blood Pressure Optimisation Programme has a big ambition – to prevent heart attacks and strokes at scale by helping primary care to do things differently. As we emerge from the latest wave of the pandemic and focus our energies on recovery and transformation of healthcare, England’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: S12 Solutions

    Meet Amy Manning, founder of S12 Solutions, an app and website, which together help mental health professionals efficiently complete Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA) processes. Developed to replace the outdated paper processes used to organise MHA assessment teams, the innovations aim to minimise delays to assessments, reduce distress and risk for the person waiting, and [...]

  • Shining a spotlight on perinatal mental health

    I would one day like to become a mum. Part of me is filled with excitement about bringing a child into this world, the pitter patter of tiny feet early in the mornings and waving them off on their first day at school. However, another part of me is somewhat anxious about this potential new [...]

  • Bringing people together with remote health technology

    I was thinking about how I would explain ‘remote health’ to my Mum, and it struck me that the concept of remoteness is another example of a health professional’s perspective on healthcare. Remote health refers to those ways of delivering healthcare where the patient is not in the same physical location as the clinician. But [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: Bridgit Care

    Meet Darren Crombie, CEO and Founder of Bridgit Care, who have developed remote devices to monitor the activities of vulnerable people in their home environment. The tech was originally designed with Darren’s grandfather in mind, to assist the family members caring for him. Bridgit Care also provide support to family carers through a specially designed [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: FibriCheck

    Meet Felicia Vaz, UK Market Lead and Project Manager for FibriCheck, an app that tests your heart in 60 seconds to detect irregularities. Felicia describes how the pandemic shaped a new way for the innovation to be used and why integrated care is the future. Tell us about your innovation – what and why? It [...]

  • Focus ADHD – Discovering new perspectives, reframing ADHD and embracing innovation

    Since March 2020, Academic Health Science Networks have supported the rollout of an evidence-based Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) programme called Focus ADHD. Working closely with mental health trusts and community paediatric services, the programme seeks to improve the ADHD assessment offer for children and young people. In the first year of the national programme, [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: Qbtech

    Meet Tony Doyle, Managing Director of Qbtech, whose company’s mission it is to transform the lives of people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) through objective data to help streamline the diagnosis process and help support children and families. Tony tells us why it’s so important that people receive early diagnosis of the condition, and [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: Nick de Pennington, Ufonia

    Meet Nick de Pennington, CEO and Founder of Ufonia, an autonomous telemedicine platform supported by Oxford AHSN and Yorkshire & Humber AHSN. Nick discusses how his innovation supports clinicians to avoid burnout and is assisting the NHS to manage the backlog built up by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, as well as his background as a [...]

  • Meet the innovator: Leo Cancer Care

    Meet Stephen Towe, CEO of Leo Cancer Care – the more human way to treat cancer, built on research from across the globe showing the benefits of upright patient positioning. Stephen discusses the company’s goals, inspirations, hopes for the future and why you should never wear a tie in California. Tell us about your innovation [...]

  • Meet the innovator: Spirit Digital

    Meet Jane Van Aken, Director of Product Development at Spirit Digital, a remote monitoring solution supported by the AHSN Network. Jane discusses her ‘light bulb’ moment, advice for budding innovators and how virtual monitoring has been a lifeline for many during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Tell us about your innovation – what and why? CliniTouch [...]

  • Meet the Innovator: Innovation² – the multiplier effect of diversity: the business case

    Our NHS should represent and reflect the communities we serve. This does not just apply to our front line workforce. The way that we develop and adopt innovation and technology must also be based around our core mission to serve all our population, and to ensure that the transformation of our health service reduces, and [...]