SBRI Healthcare, an NHS England funded initiative to develop innovative products that address unmet health needs, today announced the 11 companies that have successfully reached the next phase (Phase 2) of the clinically-led competition. Each company will receive further funding of up to £1 million to develop products specifically focused on addressing challenges in five key areas of healthcare: Child & Maternal Health, Integrated Care, Medicines Adherence, Musculoskeletal and Telehealth/Telecare for people with Learning Disabilities.
From 26 companies awarded Phase 1 funding in December 2014, 11 have demonstrated best value and greatest technical feasibility to a panel of experts looking for game-changing technologies. The successful companies will now be supported and fully funded to continue with prototype development and product testing.
Companies receiving the latest SBRI Healthcare Phase 2 funding are:
Child & Maternal Health – BioSensors, Digital Creativity in Disability; Integrated Care – Bering, Docobo; Medicines Adherence – ADI, Folium Optics; Musculoskeletal – Armourgel, MIRA Rehab; Telehealth/Telecare for people with Learning Disabilities – RedEmbedded, Maldaba, Cupris Health.
SBRI Healthcare is run by England’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) -www.ahsnnetwork.com
Jon Siddall, Director of Investment Partnerships at South West AHSN commented, “SBRI Healthcare is about us finding innovations that solve problems that we face in the NHS. Congratulations to all the companies who have been successful in securing further funding to develop their products - it is good news for them, but it is also very good news for the NHS. The ideas they are working on will directly benefit patients and the NHS as a whole, typically improving health and saving money by finding solutions that work better than what we are doing at the moment.”
Mike Pallett, CEO of Cupris Health said, “SBRI Healthcare has been instrumental in the development of our smartphone otoscope and secure healthcare communication platform. Not only has the programme supplied the resources to develop and refine our product, it has provided essential validation from senior stakeholders within the NHS. It has helped to build our team, attract private investment, generate interest from customers and win prestigious awards such as the recent HSJ Value in Healthcare Awards. It is an absolute privilege to be awarded this Phase 2 project funding as it gives us the opportunity to demonstrate how our innovation can drastically improve healthcare delivery for people with learning disabilities and the NHS in general.”
In the last year, SBRI Healthcare has launched 10 new clinically-led competitions and awarded £22.4 million to 60 companies to develop products focused on specific NHS unmet need.