Driving the UK’s leadership in vaccine research & innovation

Reform | December 2020| Reformer Thoughts : Driving the UK’s leadership in vaccine research &innovation

This edition of Reformer Thoughts from think-tank Reform includes experts from government, the scientific research community, and life sciences sector, to discuss the future of vaccination and how the UK can retain its leading position in vaccine research.

Image is the front cover of the report Reformer Thoughts

This report posits that as the UK leads global efforts to develop a safe and effective vaccine for the virus, opportunities must be seized to boost the uptake of current vaccines, build a strong portfolio of new vaccines, and strengthen the UK’s leadership in research and innovation.

It also explores the following topics

• The value of vaccines: promoting access and uptake
• Recognising the broader value of vaccines: worth a shot?
• Vaccine innovation in the era of genomics
• Maintaining the UK’s global leadership position
• Driving the UK’s leadership in research and innovation: what does it mean for immunology and vaccine research?
• Leading the world beyond COVID-19

Report available in full from Reform

The Medical Futurist: Our Top 8 Digital Health Solutions to manage long Covid sequelae

The Medical Futurist | November 2020 | Our Top 8 Digital Health Solutions

The most common symptom of such patients is extreme fatigue; but there are a wide range of long COVID symptoms from persistent cough through mood changes to the onset of diabetes.

This article explores digital that could help manage some long COVID symptoms

1. Extreme fatigue: Getting that extra motivation 
2. Low grade fever: Keeping tabs on your body temperature
3.  Inability to concentrate: Try a game!
4.  Mental health complications: Apps and devices can help
5. Sleep difficulties: Track it to improve it
6. New onset of diabetes and hypertension
7. Skin rash: Let the A.I. take a look
8. Shortness of breath: Take deep breaths with wearables
   

The full article can be read from The Medical Futurist

The digital revolution: eight technologies that will change health and care

The King’s Fund | December 2020 | The digital revolution: eight technologies that will change health and care

The King’s Fund has updated its explainer on The digital revolution: eight technologies that will change health and care which was originally published in 2016, in light of the necessarily rapid adoption and innovative ways of working in response to the pandemic. Here Pritesh Mistry reviews the technologies most likely to change health and care over the next few years. Some of the technologies the think-tank discuss are on the horizon; others are already in people’s pockets, their local surgeries, hospitals, homes and communities. But few are systematically deployed in the health and care system and none have reached their full potential. Each could represent an opportunity to achieve better outcomes or more efficient care and improve patient experience.

King’s Fund The digital revolution: eight technologies that will change health and care

£16 million to introduce digital prescribing in hospitals

Department of Health and Social Care | November 2020 | £16 million to introduce digital prescribing in hospitals

More patients and healthcare staff will benefit from single electronic hospital patient records as 16 trusts across England receive a share of nearly £16 million to introduce e-prescribing. These electronic records offer potential improvements to patient safety and also save staff time by reducing unnecessary bureaucracy. Compared to paper systems they can also reduce medication errors by almost a third (30 per cent); investing in these systems will help to save money and increase productivity for the NHS overall.

The funding is part of a wider £78 million investment to achieve the NHS Long Term Plan commitment to eliminate paper prescribing in hospitals and introduce digital prescribing across the entire NHS by 2024.

Since 2018, 216 NHS trusts have received a share of this fund and the proportion of trusts with an electronic prescriptions and medicines administration (ePMA) system is expected to have risen from 19% in 2018 to more than 80% by March 2021.

Read the full news release from The Department of Health and Social Care

Big data and simple models used to track the spread of COVID-19 in cities

Chang,  S. et al. |(2020)| Mobility network models of COVID-19 explain inequities and inform reopening |Nature|

A new paper explores how big data can be utilised in the pandemic. This study from Chang et al, uses anonymised data collected from 98 million peoples’ mobile phone records, from this the researchers were able to map points of interest (POIs) such as restaurants, shops and places of worship this allowed them to provide data on the number of people who come into close contact in a particular location. This paper offers a metapopulation SEIR model susceptible (not previously infected), exposed, infected or removed (having either recovered or died to model infection risks and explain infection disparities (Source: Nature).

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed human mobility patterns, necessitating epidemiological models which capture the effects of changes in mobility on virus spread¹. We introduce a metapopulation SEIR model that integrates fine-grained, dynamic mobility networks to simulate the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in 10 of the largest US metropolitan statistical areas. Derived from cell phone data, our mobility networks map the hourly movements of 98 million people from neighborhoods (census block groups, or CBGs) to points of interest (POIs) such as restaurants and religious establishments, connecting 57k CBGs to 553k POIs with 5.4 billion hourly edges. We show that by integrating these networks, a relatively simple SEIR model can accurately fit the real case trajectory, despite substantial changes in population behavior over time. Our model predicts that a small minority of “superspreader” POIs account for a large majority of infections and that restricting maximum occupancy at each POI is more effective than uniformly reducing mobility. Our model also correctly predicts higher infection rates among disadvantaged racial and socioeconomic groups^2–8 solely from differences in mobility: we find that disadvantaged groups have not been able to reduce mobility as sharply, and that the POIs they visit are more crowded and therefore higher-risk. By capturing who is infected at which locations, our model supports detailed analyses that can inform more effective and equitable policy responses to COVID-19.

Big data and simple models used to track the spread of COVID-10 in cities

Primary paper is availlable from Nature Mobility network models of COVID-19 explain inequities and inform reopening

Cochrane: Virtual reality distraction for acute pain in children

Cochrane Library | November 2020 | Virtual reality distraction for acute pain in children

The impact of technology such as virtual reality as a means of distraction for acute pain in children is unknown. The researchers behind a new systematic review on this topic add to the evidence-base with their review: which aimed to to find out whether virtual reality can distract children from pain, and whether it is associated with any adverse (unwanted) effects, we reviewed the research evidence.

Image of a young child wearing a virtual reality headset they have their arms raised in the air

The authors of the review looked at 17 studies that involved a total of 1008 children aged from four to 18 years. Medical procedures included injections, taking blood, changing wound dressings, and physical exercise. Studies compared virtual reality against no distraction, or against non‐virtual distraction. No studies compared different types of virtual reality.

They report that they have very little confidence in the evidence we identified. It is unclear from our review whether virtual reality distraction makes a difference to pain in children. They suggest that more research is needed in this area, with large scale and well-designed studies being of great importantce.

Read the full review from Cochrane

COVID-19: Insights from the rapid transition to digital technology

The Royal Society of Medicine | November 2020 | COVID-19: Insights from the rapid transition to digital technology

The Royal Society of Medicines outlines isnights from the necessarily rapid transition to digital technology as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Society’s Digital Health Section, in collaboration with the Society for Innovation, Technology and Modernisation, and the British Computing Society and HETT (Healthcare Excellence Through Technology) conducted a survey to gain an understanding of users’ experience of the rapid transition to digital, challenges of remote working and the support received from employers.

Image source: rsm.ac.uk

Using data generated from a survey of almost 500 respondents, which included over 30 RSM members, the RSM now reports that:

1. Health and care services struggled with the transition. Employers did not provide the right training, equipment, oversight, or support for the transition. People adapted to the situation as best as they could.
2. The flight to digital might seem a welcome shove into the 21st century for the industry, but it could be a false dawn. To a large extent, the change has been limited to replacing face-to-face encounters with video-calls. There is little evidence of real transformation where technology has caused a ten-fold leap in productivity, increase in quality and a reduction in cost.
3. Without leadership commitment to seize this opportunity to lead a true transformation of services, it is very likely that most services will regress to a pre-pandemic modus operandi as soon as the pressure is off.

The findings are published in HETT Insights COVID-19: Insights from the rapid transition to digital technology

There is an infographic to accompany the findings (registration required), access it from HETT insights

MS Teams use in the NHS soars as pandemic continues 💻 💡

Wired Gov | October 2020 | MS Teams use in the NHS soars as pandemic continues

Nearly four million messages were sent between NHS colleagues in the week commencing 20 September and more than 850,000 meetings were held using the software, out of a total 13.2 million held since the rollout at the end of March.

Microsoft Teams has been used across many NHS organisations to collaborate, share information securely and support new ways of working during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

NHS Digital rolled this out to 1.3m users with NHSmail accounts between 16-20 March 2020.  

“The use of remote messaging and meeting technology like MS Teams has proven to be essential for NHS organisations during the pandemic.

“Many doctors and nurses have had to work remotely to provide effective care, especially to those patients who have been self-isolating, and technology like this can help make it possible.

“There has been a seismic shift in how organisations work over the last few months, and these figures show that the appetite for digital collaboration has increased exponentially over that time, becoming part of the fabric of working life on the front lines.”

Chris Parsons, who runs NHSmail at NHS Digital, yesterday said:

“Teams has brought our health professionals together, not only to help us abide by the current restrictions on meeting sizes, but as a practical tool to allow clinicians from many different specialities and departments as well as our multi-disciplinary teams to work together remotely. 

“This has allowed for fantastic teaching for junior doctors, has been ideal for allowing input from staff at multiple sites at once and, most importantly, helped us to provide a high level of care for our patients.”

Nikki Jeffery, Urology Fellow at UCLH

Full story from Wired

RAND: What influences improvement processes in healthcare?

RAND Corporation | September 2020 |What influences improvement processes in healthcare? A rapid evidence review

RAND have produced a rapid evidence review, which explores two research questions:

• What factors influence quality improvement processes in healthcare?
• What are some of the themes and issues to explore in future research into the factors influencing quality improvement processes in healthcare?

A review of the published literature, led to the identification of six key factors that influence the implementation of improvement efforts, they are listed in the image below:

Image source: rand.org

Key influences on improvement processes in healthcare

This review also explains what specific aspects of the influencing factors are important for quality improvement. The report provides a detailed analysis of influencing factors across the six categories outlined above, as well as summary tables for each.

Read online

ZOE Covid-19 Symptom Study app awarded £2m government grant

Digital Health | August 2020 | ZOE Covid-19 Symptom Study app awarded £2m government grant

Launched in March 2020, the ZOE app is used by participants who regularly report on their health and symptoms and whether they have tested positive for the virus or not.

Anonymised data from the app is analysed in collaboration with King’s College London researchers to help track infections across the UK, as well as identify who is most at risk and where high-risk areas are.

Granular information about symptoms across the country and identified local outbreaks will be provided regularly to government to support decision making.

The government will not have access to the base data gathered by the app, and it is separate to the NHS Test and Trace app which was launched last week for a new trial run.

Full details from Digital Health