Learnings from the Covid-19 pandemic to accelerate medical innovation

Ignite Summit | 2021| Learnings from the Covid-19 pandemic to accelerate medical innovation

The Covid-19 crisis has had a seismic impact on the medical innovation ecosystem. A vaccine developed in
nine months, transformation in the delivery of medical appointments and mass testing have demonstrated the
power of the UK’s health science system in tackling the worst global pandemic in a century.
Looking ahead the following areas were identified at the IGNITE summit as key game changers to help UK medical innovation to flourish:

1. Urgent breaking down of barriers in collaborative science, from devolved leadership to interdisciplinary
   awareness.
2. Intervention across the innovation pathway to cultivate an entrepreneurial culture, from responding
   positively to failure, to innovation governance and alignment of incentives.
3. A precise focus on needs awareness: accurate identification and articulation of unmet need in health
   and social care and optimising industry input.
4. State-supported life sciences cluster development to attract industry and external investment in medical
   innovation.
5. A focus on the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in a post-Brexit era as a
   force to drive innovation.

The full report shares the learning from four days of intensive discussion with the aim to help the UK
develop and pursue transformative actions the pandemic has highlighted so that, where appropriate,
they can be applied to other fields

Learnings from the Covid-19 pandemic to accelerate medical innovation

UK Space Agency & NHS England call for innovators to develop space tech to address major health and care challenges

NHS England | 2018| NHS England and UK Space Agency launch multi-million pound drive to improve patient care

As part of a joint initiative with NHS England, The UK Space Agency has announced a £4 million of funding that it is allocating to the NHS.  The funding is available to help address four  specific health and care challenges in the NHS.

These include:

• Managing long term conditions including joining up health and care services
• Earlier diagnosis of cancer
• Transforming GP services and other primary care
• Meeting mental health needs

The initiative exists to design for use in space will be adapted into medical applications to improve NHS treatment and care. The four successful innovators will be supported by the UK Space Agency, NHS England and the European Space Agency

Space technology has a history of being utilised in the NHS, notable examples include a pill camera that patients swallow, wearables to prevent falls among the elderly, apps that help to prevent skin cancer, breast screening vans that send images to assessment centres

Professor Tony Young, NHS England’s national clinical director for innovation, said: “Throughout its 70 year history the NHS has been at the forefront of healthcare innovation.

“Through this competition we are seeking the latest greatest, ideas and technical solutions to help address the modern challenges facing our health and care services.”

The UK’s space industry builds 40 per cent of the world’s small satellites and 25 per cent of the world’s telecommunications satellites. It supports 40,000 jobs and generates £14 billion in revenue across the country.

Full details on how to become involved are available  from NHS England here

Divided by choice? Private providers, patient choice and hospital sorting in the English National Health service

Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)

This study examines the impact of the NHS reforms of the 2000s which enabled privately-owned hospitals to enter the NHS market. It finds that post-reform, poor and ethnic minority patients were much less likely to choose private hospitals; and that the key factors in choice related to the geographic distribution of hospitals and health-based criteria for treatment from private providers.

Entrepreneur scheme for innovative doctors extended to healthcare scientists and dentists

A unique training scheme for clinicians whose innovative ideas could lead to big patient benefits has been opened up to healthcare scientists and dentists | NHS England

Over the last year 103 junior doctors have developed their ideas and their business skills through the Clinical Entrepreneur programme. Now applications are opening up to healthcare scientists and dentists.

The programme offers a range of support and education, including mentoring by leading medical technology innovators, to give the budding entrepreneurs the business skills and industry knowhow they need to make their ideas a reality.

• Overview
• Programme webpage

Cybersecurity and healthcare: how safe are we?

BMJ 2017;358:j3179

BMJ analysis notes threat of cyberattacks on healthcare is real and growing. It calls for urgent development of practical standards/solutions that are specific to healthcare sector, agreement of clear lines of responsibility and governance, and commitment of appropriate resources

(OpenAthens Login required to access full text)

Learning from Scotland’s NHS

The Nuffield Trust has published Learning from Scotland’s NHS.

This report aims to identify how health care in Scotland is different, where its approach seems to solve problems being faced elsewhere in the UK, and whether that approach could be transplanted to England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  It also assesses whether there are areas where Scotland could learn from its peers.

The full report can be downloaded here

Sustainability and Transformation Plans: What, why and where next?

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has published Sustainability and transformation plans (STPs): what, why and where next? 

The NHS is facing one of the most challenging periods in its history, with a funding gap of more than £22 billion over the coming years. And the pressure on the social care system is more acute than ever, with many councils raising eligibility thresholds and making cuts to social care budgets.

Image source: http://www.ippr.org

Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) – which are local health and care reform plans, authored jointly by NHS and local government leaders to improve outcomes and drive greater efficiency in their local area – are one of the government’s main responses to this problem. These plans rightly focus on decentralising power within the NHS, investing in leadership and relationships to drive improvements, and on local health and care organisations coming together to overcome the silos created by the 2012 Health and Care Act.

This report looks at the most promising reform solutions that have been identified by STPs, and also sets out the range of challenges that stand in the way of them realising their vision for improved health and efficiency.

Download summary here or full report here

 

Getting research into policy in health – The GRIP-Health project

For many, the idea that health policy should be informed by evidence is an obvious goal. And indeed, the global health community has widely called for increased use or uptake of research and evidence, in health policymaking | LSE Health and Social Care Blog

However, a vast majority of these calls have been made without explicit recognition of the decidedly political nature of policymaking, and without consideration of how this may affect the use of evidence to inform decisions.

Indeed, calls for ‘evidence-based’ policymaking have become ubiquitous in recent years, applied in social sectors such as health, education, crime prevention and many others. Many have seen these calls deriving from the successes of the ‘evidence based medicine’ movement – a movement that has helped to ensure that clinical practice is informed by rigorous assessments of evidence of effects of different treatment options.

The GRIP-Health research programme was funded by the European Research Council to bring an explicitly political lens to the study of evidence use for health policymaking in low, middle and high income countries. It draws particularly on policy studies theories to consider how the nature of the policy process, the politicised features of health decisions, and the existing institutional arrangements for policymaking in different countries all can work to shape which evidence is utilised, and how it is utilised to inform or shape health policy decisions.

• Blog post
• Related systematic review
• GRIP website

Acting without delay – How the independent sector is working with the NHS to reduce delayed discharge

NHS Confederation, June 2017

This report from the NHS Partners Network highlights examples where the independent sector is working with the NHS to avoid delayed discharges of care.  Reducing delayed discharge – where often frail and elderly patients are unable to leave hospital due to necessary care, support or accommodation in the community being unavailable – is arguably one of the biggest priorities for the NHS.

Delayed discharges and transfers of care (DTOCs) have a significant impact on the ability of NHS acute trusts to provide routine treatment such as elective surgery. It is vital, both for the patient and the trust, to be able to discharge patients speedily to avoid adverse effects to patient flow.

NEXT STEPS ON THE NHS FIVE YEAR FORWARD VIEW

NHS England, March 2017

As the NHS approaches its 70th anniversary the health service has today published the plan setting out how it will deliver practical improvements in areas prized by patients and the public – cancer, mental health and GP access – while transforming the way that care is delivered to ease pressure on hospitals by helping frail and older people live healthier, more independent lives.

These measures, probably the biggest national move towards integrated care currently underway in any Western country, will also help to put the service on a more sustainable footing for the future.

With the NHS under pressure this plan, Next steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View, also details an accelerated drive to improve efficiency and use of technology in order to deliver better care and meet rising demand within the constraints of available resources.

Two-and-a-half years on from the publication of the widely-welcomed NHS Five Year Forward View, the plan spells out what has been achieved and the changes which will take place across the health service in key areas:

• Improved cancer care aimed at saving an extra 5,000 lives a year through new one-stop testing centres, screening programmes and state of the art radiotherapy machines.
• Boosting mental health services by increasing beds for children and young people to cut out of area care, more beds for new mothers and more mental health professionals in the community and hospitals to prevent crisis admissions.
• Better access to GP services with everyone benefiting from extended opening in the evenings and weekends, newly designated ‘Urgent Treatment Centres’ and an enhanced 111 service to ease pressure on A&Es.
• Better care for older people by bringing together services provided by GPs, hospitals, therapists, nurses and care staff, cutting emergency admissions and time spent in hospitals.
• Driving efficiency and tackling waste to make money invested in the NHS go further in delivering the services and staff that patients want, including the latest treatments and technology.