Industry news in brief

The latest Digital Health News industry round-up covers the positive results from a robotic assisted surgery programme, Tallaght University Hospital’s roll out of workstations on wheels and funding news for two firms. 

Yorkshire & Humber AHSN host first international accelerator programme

The first international Propel@YH Boot Camp, from Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) has taken place, supporting US innovators to bring their products to the NHS.

The five day-long accelerator programme has enabled the Yorkshire & Humber region to become a ‘testbed’ for international health innovation. Over the course of the programme, participants were given intensive support and knowledge, as well as gaining engagement with NHS stakeholders.

Neville Young, director of enterprise and innovation at the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN said: “The aim of the programme is to secure investment and jobs by attracting great US HealthTech businesses with a high growth potential into our region as part of our mission to support economic growth and improve the health and wellbeing of our population.

“If we can successfully support these innovators to establish themselves in Yorkshire, we can use the great regional assets we have available to us (staff, real estate, finance), and the strength of the AHSN Network to spread their innovations across the country, securing investment, jobs and health and wellbeing benefits for the whole of the UK.”

The innovators took part in masterclasses, workshops and networking events that covered a wide range of topics including how the NHS works, governance, finance and procurement frameworks, clinical safety and developing evidence-based proposals.

The five SMEs which took part were:

• Televeda: An online hub for older adults to combat social isolation
• SingFit: A music app from Musical Health Technologies to improve wellbeing
• Behavidence: A app to help users achieve greater mental wellbeing through daily feedback
• Sagitta: A workflow management programme from Luminare to help hospitals spot sepsis quickly
• Lab Ready: The world’s first and only automated system that collects and stores bacterial samples

The international boot camp builds on the success of its existing Propel@YH programme, which is now in its third year.

Caterpillar app receives £450,000 funding boost

An app that rewards healthy living choices by offering users loyalty points with a range of high-street and online shops has received £450,000 from investors to help it expand.

Caterpillar will use the funds to add new features to the app, expand the range of loyalty schemes it offers and for other areas of business development.

The app, which was founded by ex-NHS digital director of strategic communications, Paul Baverstock, draws on behavioural science and is built on a software-as-a-service platform. It connects to third-part wearables and apps, such as Google Fit and Apple Health, which allows users to automatically accrue points without having to input data manually.

Baverstock said: “Our idea is simple. We use behavioural science and rewards-based nudges to help people make healthy life changes that stick and to help prevent the onset of expensive to treat avoidable ill health.”

He continued: “This funding enables us to enrich our app, add engaging new features and capabilities, and is a key step towards us achieving our goal of helping millions of people live healthier lives.”

Caterpillar is the first company from BUILD, a Leeds start-up incubator, to receive funding.

Qure.ai raises £30.4million ($40million)

Qure.ai has raised £30.4million ($40million) in a funding round led by Novo Holdings and HealthQuad. The company, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) for medical imaging diagnostics, will use the investment to extend and strengthen its global reach and intensify product development for critical care and community diagnosis.

Qure.ai’s automated medical imaging tools are capable of shortening the time to diagnosis and helping doctors to triage cases more effectively. Its advanced technology reads and interprets medical images in less than a minute, helping to improve patient care.

Prashant Warier, CEO and founder of Qure.ai, said: “Every year our technology helps more than four million people across 50 countries. Our goal is to continue being bullish in our market expansion, especially in the US and Europe. We are committed to aiding healthcare professionals in diagnosing illnesses faster and with more detail and accuracy while automating most of the routine work. This is a win for all involved in healthcare, especially for patients across the globe who will benefit from vastly improved health outcomes.”

Hyland launches Clinician Window

Hyland, a content services industry leader, has announced the launch of Clinician Window, which will help GPs unlock access to the more than 75% of patient information that sits outside of the electronic medical record (EMR). It will be accessible via a web browser and will address the challenge of information silos.

The solution will enhance decision making and efficiency by bringing patient documents, medical images, consult notes, multimedia files and other unstructured content into EMR workflows.

Alongside the new launch, Hyland has also announced new product functionality and enhancements to support organisations on their digital transformation journeys. This includes updates to content services Alfresco platform and Perceptive Content. The former will see simplified storage management and added support for lower-cost storage tiers on AWS and Azure.

Updates to the Perceptive Content platform will deliver improved performance, security and scalability, as well as productivity enhancements to the Perceptive Content Experience Apps.

In addition, Hyland RPA will now offer users more visibility over automated tasks, secure and convenient integrations and improved user experience. New functionality within Hyland’s cloud-native Hyland Experience Capture will eliminate the need for manual separation for document splitting of 1D and 2D barcodes, by automating the process.

John Phelan, executive vice president and chief product officer at Hyland, said: “Our regular product releases provide immense value to organisations, regardless of where they are in their digital transformation journeys.

“These latest releases support new business demands with simplified cloud administration and storage options, new automation capabilities, seamless and secure integrations with essential business applications, and greater scalability for installations of all sizes.”

Milton Keynes reports positive impact of robotic surgery programme

Two years into its Versius Robotic Assisted Surgery programme, Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has reported major positive impacts on recovery timelines, patient outcomes and surgical staff wellbeing.

The adoption of Versius has seen 450 bed-days saved annually – which far exceeds the anticipated saving of 175 bed-days per year. The use of minimal access surgery (MAS) brings many benefits to patients, including speeding up their recovery time and reducing the risk of any post-surgery complications.

The programme saw particular success in gynaecological outcomes, with reduced length of hospital stay and a quick recovery period.

Katy Philpott, associate director of operations for Women and Children’s Health Services at Milton Keynes University Hospital, said: “Access to Versius has been a complete game changer for the women we serve, and we are now delivering far more minimally invasive care as a result, which enables us to either reduce the cost burden of our interventions or offers further capacity to cope with demand.”

Tallaght University Hospital rolls out Project Synergy

Tallaght University Hospital has made a key step in its five-year strategic plan for improving access to services by rolling out a hospital-wide electronic patient record (EPR). In partnership with MDI Medical, the hospital is revolutionising how clinicians access patient data with Project Synergy, which has also seen the introduction of more than 100 workstations on wheels (WOWS) across the hospital’s sites.

The WOWs can be transported to patients’ bedsides for immediate access to information including patient history, lab results and care notes. They also offer localised entry points for data, such as ward round reporting and updating patient vitals.

A number of the WOWs are also fitted with the Vital Signs Automation Project/Early Warning Score (EWS), which are designed to facilitate the early detection of potential deterioration in patients. Tallaght now intends to explore opportunities that will integrate its EPR and EWS system, allowing them to talk together for a more streamlined experience.

Tallaght’s Synergy EPR combined with the facilitating of digital information sharing through mobile-enabled solutions, is giving clinicians access to centralised information enabling faster and more accurate treatment.

David Wall, chief information officer at Tallaght University Hospital said: “Our collaboration with MDI Medical to introduce over 100 WOWs across TUH has improved the patient and clinician experience by joining up multiple locations and departments within TUH, enhancing collaborative healthcare and providing staff with increased access to patient information to better inform treatment plans.

“By taking a strategic approach to rolling out the WOWs across our hospital and working closely with MDI Medical every step of the way, we have been able to introduce staff to the new technology in a way that enhances and improves their way of working rather than disrupting their workflow.”