The number of attendances at A&E has risen significantly in the last decade, putting pressure on urgent and emergency care services and increasing waiting times. According to the Kings Fund, 21.7 million visited A&E in 2013/14, a greater than 30% rise in the last decade. More than 70% of hospital bed days are occupied by A&E admissions and 80% of A&E admissions who stay for more than two weeks are patients aged over 65.
With an average award of £98,000 each, the successful companies (and supporting Academic Health Science Network) are:
- Preventing Admissions: Serket Technology (Eastern AHSN), Mologic (East Midlands AHSN), Microbiosensor (Greater Manchester AHSN), Renephra (Greater Manchester AHSN), Careflow Connect (West of England AHSN) and Farewill (Imperial College AHSN)
- Coordinating Admissions: Ubisense Ltd (Eastern AHSN), Biovici (Wales), IXICO (UCLPartners) and Kernow Health Solutions (South West AHSN)
- Resource Planning: 365Response (Yorkshire & Humber AHSN), Snap40 (Scotland), SA IP (West of England AHSN), Cambridge Clinical Management Analytics (Eastern AHSN) and Ubisense Ltd (Eastern AHSN)
SBRI Healthcare works with leading healthcare organisations to identify areas where technology can be applied to address major healthcare challenges. The successful projects have been selected on their potential value to the health service and on the improved outcomes delivered to patients. The companies will be supported and fully funded to demonstrate the technical feasibility of their proposed concept and those businesses demonstrating best value and greatest technical feasibility in phase 1 will progress through to phase 2 to be further supported and funded to take their technologies through to commercialisation.
Jon Siddall, Director of Investment Partnerships at South West AHSN, said, "Emergency and urgent care is a very challenging area of work for the NHS. The innovative ideas that we are announcing funding for today will hopefully bring new and creative solutions into this space that will improve care for patients and efficiency for the NHS."
Quintus Liu, CEO Serket Technology, commented on their award: “We are building a revolutionary software platform that streamlines medicine information for patients and empowers pharmacists. With SBRI Healthcare funding we are now able to scale our team and build GP functionality into our ecosystem, completing our vision for universal continuous care. But the help from SBRI Healthcare extends much further - to us it is NHS validation, a gateway to introducing Serket as a standard NHS service, and provides powerful leverage for building strategic partnerships."
SBRI Healthcare competition theme areas are chosen in partnership with the AHSNs across England and this programme is jointly led by South West and Greater Manchester AHSNs.
To find out more visit www.sbrihealthcare.co.uk
About SBRI Healthcare
The Small Business Research Initiative for Healthcare (SBRI Healthcare) is an NHS England initiative, championed by the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs), whose role is to promote UK economic growth by spreading innovation and best practice across the NHS. The SBRI Healthcare competitions are launched on a biannual basis and result in fully funded development contracts between the awarded company and NHS England to meet known healthcare need.
Generally taking a three-phased development approach, projects start with a 6 month feasibility phase and can then move on to more detailed product development. Phase 1 contracts for feasibility testing are valued at up to £100,000 and last for six months. Phase 2 contracts for prototype development are worth up to £1 million over one year. Phase 3 contracts are intended to accelerate product adoption, with up to a further £1 million over 12 months, providing the opportunity for validation in NHS settings. While the public sector has the right to license the resultant technology, its intellectual property (IP) remains with the company, thereby enabling successful businesses to grow.
Funding for SBRI Healthcare has been secured from NHS England. The programme is directed by the Eastern Academic Health Science Network (EAHSN) on behalf of NHS England and the other regional AHSNs. Health Enterprise East is the management partner and supports the EAHSN to handle the applications, assessments and delivery against contracts.
Previous SBRI Healthcare competitions have called for technological and innovative solutions to, for example, change people’s behaviour in order to reduce the impact of obesity and alcohol related diseases, how to live well with dementia and improved medicine management.
About Academic Health Science Networks
There are 15 AHSNs across England. They are catalysts for the spread of innovation at pace and scale - improving health, generating economic growth and helping facilitate change across whole health and social care economies. They create the right environment for relevant industries to work with the health and social care system. They do this by connecting regional networks of NHS and academic organisations, local authorities, the third sector and industry - responding to the diverse needs of their patients and populations through partnership and collaboration.
About Health Enterprise East and Competition details
Health Enterprise East (HEE) is committed to improving healthcare through the provision of professional business and innovation management services. The HEE team works with NHS organisations nationally and Med Tech companies globally to support the development of innovative products and services which meet currently unmet healthcare needs.
Having pioneered and successfully run the initiative for the East of England since its launch in 2009, HEE now oversees the national SBRI Healthcare programme bringing together businesses, the healthcare industry and the NHS. Information on future competitions can be found on the SBRI Healthcare and the Health Enterprise East websites.
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Contacts:
SBRI Healthcare
Chris Armstrong
Health Enterprise East
Email: chris.armstrong@hee.co.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1223 928040
Media contact
Sarah Jeffery
Zyme Communications
E-mail: sarah.jeffery@zymecommunications.com
Phone: +44 (0) 7771 730919
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