The AHSN Network has supported many innovators to help advance our health and care system. Find out more about successful innovations supported by the NHS.
Wokingham Community Hospital purchased two different Point of Care (POC) diagnostic test devices for their elderly in-patient unit and wanted to evaluate the impact of attaining results more quickly and understand how it could help the nurses make effective decisions regarding treatment. The Oxford AHSN assisted by reporting the economic cost-consequence analysis of the two tests, determining what the cost benefit would be to the hospital by using Point of Care testing and extrapolate the benefits to the other community hospitals. QuickRead Go CRP is a rapid blood test for the quantitative determination of C-reactive protein that shows if there is inflammation or infection in the body. Alinity i-STAT is a portable blood testing machine with a cartridge for urea and electrolytes (U&E) that the nurses used to assess the kidney function of the patient. The tests enabled healthcare professionals to rapidly diagnose patients, and the greatest benefit came in knowing which patients did not need to be sent to the local Emergency Department (ED).
An aid to help medical staff to be able to read small print whilst wearing PPE, without the need for their usual reading glasses.
Developed by Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust and launched in 2013, ChatHealth is a safe, secure and confidential messaging service that puts service users directly in touch with healthcare professionals. ChatHealth is now being used by over 70 healthcare teams in NHS organisations nationwide.
The SNAPe-i is easily fitted onto all conventional surgical masks, the patient then wears the mask and aligns the SNAPe-i with their nostril. This enables the surgeon to perform a nasendoscopy while minimising their risk of infections should the patient cough or splutter.
NeedleSmart is market leading, patented needle destruction technology engineered in the UK. NeedleSmart devices heat hypodermic needles to over 1,300°C before compressing them into a ball. It takes just a fraction of a second to convert a sharp needle into a sterile sphere of metal. Heating the needle to an excess of 1,300°C means all potential harmful pathogens, viruses and bacteria adhering to the needle will be killed. Compressing the needle also significantly reduces the needle footprint leading to a minimum of 50% increase in needle count per sharps bin.
MDTMs are a central part of the cancer pathway but are becoming increasingly resource-intensive and face many challenges.In your trust these meetings might currently be face to face, held weekly in meeting rooms. Chairing, attending and managing MDTMs may become increasingly challenging: the pressure of excessive case-loads, lack of time to discuss patients and an increase in costs, may result in insufficient attendance at your MDTM and an inability to securely access appropriate data. Patient information is not always available to the MDTM, resulting in a delay in or poor decision-making.
Owen Mumford is a global leader in medical device design and manufacturing who worked with the Oxford AHSN to explore the advantages of introducing a new rapid point of care HIV test, which has a simple sample collection system and provides a prompt result to help support the early diagnosis of HIV.
The Maternity Movement Bracelet has been designed to help women monitor patterns in their baby’s movements during their pregnancy and to notice when those patterns change. This was important as changes in a baby’s movement patterns can highlight problems with a baby that may require medical intervention.
The antenatal administration of magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) to mothers during preterm labour has been demonstrated to reduce the incidence of cerebral palsy. Initially developed by the West of England Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) in collaboration with University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust the national PReCePT project sought to increase uptake to 85%.
WMAHSN are supporting GPs and pharmacists within the Midlands region to move patients to Electronic Repeat Dispensing (eRD). eRD offers a range of benefits such as reduced footfall to the GP practice and to the community pharmacy, supporting social distancing during COVID-19.
PINCER is a proven pharmacist-led IT-based intervention to reduce clinically important medication errors in primary care. PINCER has been rolled out across the West Midlands region in 252 practices across the region. The was largest and quickest uptake of PINCER across the country and the project overachieved its 2 year target in 1 year.
ESCAPE-pain is a rehabilitation programme for people with chronic joint pain that integrates educational self-management and coping strategies with an exercise regimen individualised for each participant. It helps people understand their condition, teaches them simple things they can help themselves with, and takes them through a progressive exercise programme so they learn how to cope with pain better.
