SBRI Healthcare, an Accelerated Access Collaborative initiative in partnership with the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs), has awarded £3.3 million to eight late-stage innovations that help detect, prevent and manage Cardiovascular Disease (CVD).
CVD is the single biggest condition where lives can be saved by the NHS over the next decade. There are 7.6 million people living with CVD in the UK, and Cardiovascular Disease is a leading cause of premature disability, mortality, and health inequalities, and responsible for one in four deaths each year (British Heart Foundation UK Factsheet). The UK Health Security Agency estimates that the annual healthcare costs in England relating to CVD are around £7.4 billion, with an annual cost to the wider economy of £15.8 billion.
‘Competition 21, Phase 3 for Real-world Testing and Implementation’ was launched in June 2022 and sought innovations that focused on the early detection of high-risk individuals, improving prevention strategies, and patient empowerment and self-management of CVD.
All CVD, including, but not limited to, heart diseases, vascular dementia, stroke, and peripheral artery disease were considered.
The innovations include a digital platform that allows anyone with a smartphone or tablet to test themselves for a range of major diseases and conditions via fingerprick, an AI powered patient management system, and the world’s first and only non-invasive screening test for coronary and structural heart diseases.
Phase 3 competitions aim to accelerate the delivery of late-stage innovations into real-world healthcare settings by supporting innovations to gain the evidence needed for NHS commissioners and regulators to make purchasing recommendations, with the aim to benefit patients and the community.
SBRI Healthcare is an Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) initiative – a partnership between patient groups, government bodies, industry and the NHS hosted by NHS England – and is delivered in partnership with the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs).
Matt Whitty, CEO of the AAC, said “The SBRI Healthcare awards help the NHS to develop new technologies and solutions to address some of the biggest healthcare challenges facing society. We have selected these innovations because they have the potential to make a big difference to patients. By supporting the most promising innovations the NHS will continue to evolve, helping meet more patients’ needs and encouraging more innovators to come forward with ideas that make a difference.”
The awarded projects are:
Abtrace – awarded £488,640 – Clinical Process Automation of Identification, Prioritisation and Recall of Patients at risk of CVD
Clinical Intelligent Automation software providing end-to-end coverage across multiple pathways and rulesets including Cardiovascular Disease management and prevention. The UKCA marked platform eliminates unnecessary duplication of workload whilst facilitating prioritisation of vulnerable groups, enhancing efficiencies for population health management and proactively targeting health inequalities.
PocDoc – awarded £489,521 – Improving primary and secondary prevention of CVD and keeping people out of hospital through easier, more cost-effective access to lipid testing
PocDoc has developed a world-first smartphone-based lipid test which can deliver a 5 marker lipid panel, via the PocDoc app, within 6 minutes, with results shared immediately back with the healthcare system. This allows testing for lipids to move out of GP surgeries, dramatically increasing access to testing which will in turn prevent more people from developing Cardiovascular Disease.
Healum Ltd – awarded £390,795 – Scale and evaluate the ROI of using the Healum integrated care planning software, patient facing self-management app and live learning research network, in supporting ICS commissioners and multidisciplinary teams working in primary care, to implement intelligent personalised care and support strategies to patients at risk of Cardiovascular Disease
Healum provides healthcare professionals with a patient management system that connects to patient facing digital services, designed to improve health outcomes, access to care, and the efficiency of delivering care to patients with long term conditions, supporting them to make the best choices at the moments that matter.
Discover Momenta Ltd – awarded £491,213 – Scaling a promising Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Programme (CPP)
Momenta’s market-leading Cardiovascular Disease prevention programme (CPP) has been co-developed with the South Eastern Trust in Northern Ireland with input from the British Heart Foundation. The project is a multi-partner, cross-sector, multi-clinician collaboration and demonstration project to optimise scalability across three care pathways in Birmingham and Solihull, enabling rapid subsequent national dissemination.
Huma – awarded £493,877 – A digital first, population-level, early detection, engagement and self-management programme for people who are undiagnosed and/or high-risk of developing modifiable Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)
Huma’s remote patient monitoring (RPM) platform connects patients and clinical teams through smartphone-based technology. Huma’s primary care arm – iPlato – are experts in enhancing patient access and engagement through technology. For this project, Huma and iPlato’s technologies will proactively engage and support people who are identified by their GPs as being high-risk of undiagnosed CVD.
Cardisio GmbH – awarded £342,484 – Assessing the impact of using community-based heart testing to detect early signs of Cardiovascular Disease through a novel, quick, low-cost screener which uses sophisticated AI-based analysis
The Cardisio test is a quick 1st line triage test, measuring a patient’s electrical heart activity in 3-dimensions, and is taken at rest in a primary care setting. Test results in 3 disease areas (CAD, arrythmia, Structural heart disease) are made available to the physician in c.4 minutes.
Inavya Ventures Ltd – awarded £180,564 – PoP-60 – Post-Operative 60 Days
Avatr is an AI platform that lets doctors input care and medication plans and removes complexity making it easy for patients to follow. During the PoP-60 study, the clinical and economic benefits of Avatr will be evaluated for cardiac patients discharged from hospital.
Southwest London Integrated Care System – awarded £439,069 – The CVD Prevention Decathlon – a culturally tailored, highly personalised behaviour change programme that rewards people for becoming healthier and empowers people to improve their health
The CVD Prevention Decathlon will provide structured education for those at risk of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD). Fusing structured learning and physical activity delivered by Xyla, gamification via the bespoke Sweatcoin app and personalised behaviour change videos via Citizen communications, the aim is to prevent the onset of CVD for local populations.
SBRI (Small Business Research Initiative) Healthcare is an Accelerated Access Collaborative funded initiative that provides funding to innovators to develop solutions that tackle existing unmet needs faced by the NHS. The programme aims to improve patient care, increase efficiency in the NHS, and support the UK economy. The SBRI Healthcare team, through support from the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs), works closely with clinicians and frontline NHS staff.
About the Accelerated Access Collaborative
The Accelerated Access Collaborative is a unique partnership between patient groups, government bodies, industry and the NHS. It delivers ambitious programmes to ensure the NHS is in the best place to improve patient outcomes and reduce health inequalities through research and innovation. It does this by identifying the best new medicines, medical devices, diagnostics and digital products. It supports providers and integrated care systems to make them available to patients as quickly as possible. In addition, the AAC supports increasing participation in research and access to research trials. Over 1.6 million patients have benefited from its programmes to date, helping patients spend over 278,000 fewer days in hospital and saving the NHS over £185 million.
There are 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) across England, established by NHS England in 2013 to spread innovation at pace and scale – improving health and generating economic growth. Each AHSN works across a distinct geography serving a different population in each region. As the only bodies that connect NHS and academic organisations, local authorities, the third sector and industry, AHSNs are catalysts that create the right conditions to facilitate change across whole health and social care economies, with a clear focus on improving outcomes for patients.