This episode explores how gathering real-world evidence and evaluation is an important part of encouraging adoption and spread of innovation in the health and care sector. Dr Nev Young talks about the publication of a new real-world evaluation guide for innovators released by the AHSN Network, we hear from Lee Omar, Founder and CEO of Safe Steps about how it has helped their business thrive, and Vandana Ayyar Gupta, Scientific Adviser at NICE on their perspective.

Across the AHSN Network, work is underway to foster better relations with healthtech companies with the aim of enabling patients to benefit from innovations.

We’ve helped introduce ground-breaking products and services which are already adding value across healthcare.

At ConfedExpo in June 2022, our reporter Nigel Thompson caught up with Neil Barnfather from Goodmaps. The company have been assisted by Wessex AHSN to share technology which enables independence and aids navigation for anyone whether blind, deaf, mobility impaired or those wanting to find an easier way to get from A to B.

How do you help people from all walks of life gain equal access to medical help and advice?

That’s an issue that was discussed at ConfedExpo by two people who have collaborated in one part of England to make a difference. Yorkshire is home to a diverse population and in one area of health – asthma – one consultant has taken a stand when it comes to ensuring all have access to easy to understand advice.

Dr Llinos Jones, a respiratory consultant with Mid-Yorkshire NHS Trust, is opting not to prescribe medicines which are not available with multi-lingual guidance notes. Now, thanks to a collaboration with Yorkshire & Humber AHSN, she says she’s no longer ‘a lone voice’ as Nigel Thompson reports.

Environmental sustainability: a phrase used widely in industry and now gaining traction within the NHS.

But how can the health and care sector be truly environmentally sustainable?

That’s the challenge facing Kathy Scott, who as well as serving as Deputy Chief Executive of the Yorkshire and Humber AHSN is also the Network’s lead on environmental sustainability, and Dr Nick Watts, the Chief Sustainability Officer for the NHS.

Our reporter Nigel Thompson met up with both at ConfedExpo in Liverpool to ask them more about the challenges faced and the early signs of sustainability success.

A treatment for patients at high risk of having a heart attack or stroke is now available for prescribing in primary care, yet uptake among GPs has been slow. 

Inclisiran was approved for use by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in late 2021 and AHSNs are helping local teams to develop different models of Inclisiran delivery.

Inclisiran bridges a gap in the lipid management pathway, offering an additional medication to use alongside statins and other lipid-lowering products used in primary care. Trials show that when a patient is receiving statins as part of their treatment and is prescribed Inclisiran, their low-density lipoprotein level (ldl) reduces by around 50 per cent.

In this episode, Dr Phil Jennings explores the science behind Inclisiran and the evidence of its effectiveness. His guests are Professor Kausik Ray, Professor of Public Health, Honorary Consultant Cardiologist and Director of Imperial Centre for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Imperial College London; and to Dr Carl Deaney, a GP in Lincolnshire. 

This podcast has been created to inform healthcare professionals only, to support them to roll-out the treatment.

For entrepreneurs looking to spread the word about their innovation, the NHS Innovation Accelerator are now looking for new businesses to work with.

From 1 September 2022 the organisation, commissioned by the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) at NHS England and NHS Improvement, are welcoming applications from people keen to spread their good ideas further.

The criteria is straightforward and the benefits are significant.

Our reporter Nigel Thompson met up with Suzanne Ali-Hassan deputy director of the NHS Innovation Accelerator at ConfedExpo in Liverpool, and also heard the experiences of an innovator who has already become part of the programme.

A system which can analyse a CT scan of a heart within four hours is helping patients to avoid unnecessary procedures and clinicians to quickly identify the right treatment.

The HeartFlow FFRCT Analysis helps clinicians to determine, vessel by vessel, both the extent of an artery’s narrowing and the impact that the narrowing has on blood flow to the heart.

HeartFlow is supported by the NHS Accelerated Access Collaborative’s MedTech Funding Mandate and AHSNs are helping to increase its use across the country.

In this episode, Dr Phil Jennings visits the first centre to use HeartFlow, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, to meet Consultant Cardiologist Dr Tim Fairbairn.

About the MedTech Funding Mandate: https://www.england.nhs.uk/aac/what-we-do/how-can-the-aac-help-me/the-medtech-funding-mandate/

About HeartFlow: https://www.heartflow.com/uk/

How the AHSN Network supports the MedTech Funding Mandate: https://www.ahsnnetwork.com/accelerated-access-collaborative/medtech-funding-mandate

To contact our podcast guest Consultant Cardiologist Dr Tim Fairbairn, email [email protected].

In this episode, our host Dr Hasan Chowhan talks to Dr Sushma Sundaresh, a Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist in Bromley to investigate how mental health issues can affect new parents, with a particular focus on the importance of addressing health inequalities. Wendy Powell from MUTU System also joins to tell us about their pre and post-natal fitness programme, and Alison Baum tells us about Baby Buddy, an app to support parents provided by Best Beginnings. 

A small, portable device that can zap away excruciating headaches is proving to be a life-saver for thousands of sufferers.

GammaCore is supported through the NHS MedTech Funding Mandate, increasing availability for those diagnosed with cluster headaches.

In this podcast we hear from sufferer Andreea Duca who says her life was saved by GammaCore – and from a neurologist who is the UK’s biggest prescriber of the device, Dr Nick Silver of The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust. 

They are talking to podcast host Dr Phil Jennings, chief executive of the Innovation Agency and the lead for the AHSN Network on the Accelerated Access Collaborative Rapid Uptake Products programme and MedTech Funding Mandate.

Useful links: 

The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust comprehensive guide to migraine: www.bit.ly/migrainebooklet 

The Migraine Trust www.migrainetrust.org 

Migraine Action http://www.migraine.org.uk 

The Brain Charity www.thebraincharity.org.uk

Organisation for the Understanding of Cluster Headache (OUCH UK) www.ouchuk.org 

The British Association for the Study of Headache www.bash.org.uk 

In this episode, our host Dr Hasan Chowhan meets with fellow GP Dr Simon Dunn to discuss the increased use of remote health technology, in particular the successful implementation of Covid Oximetry@home in his Clinical Commissioning Group (Kent & Medway).

Hasan also investigates other remote health technology from Whzan, Tytocare and HCI Digital, looking at how we can offer solutions that work for everyone.