PHA UK joins Welsh health tech startup’s accelerator programme

PHA UK, a charity dedicated to supporting patients with pulmonary hypertension, has joined Aparito’s Patient Group Accelerator Programme, where they will help develop endpoints for patients with the condition.

The programme is designed to understand and fulfil patient needs by working closely with patient organisations and discovering new endpoints that are relevant to their specific condition.

These digital endpoints are discovered through sensor-generated data – most commonly collected outside of a clinical setting – and help to objectively measure how effective an intervention is.

They, along with technological solutions being developed and digital biomarkers, can help to show the feasibility of a potential new solution and act as a starting point for future validation and use in clinical trials.

Shaun Clayton, director of membership support at PHA UK, said: “We are excited to partner with Aparito to further assist the PH (pulmonary hypertension) community, by co-developing new digital endpoints for clinical trials that could be collected in a real-life environment.

“We hope this will help PH patients participating in clinical trials to improve their trial experience and measure outcomes that better reflect how PH affects their day-to-day life.”

The initial stage of the programme explored the unmet needs of patients with pulmonary hypertension, in regard to digital outcomes and was carried out through a co-creation approach in partnership with PHA UK.

Clinical specialists from the University of Cambridge are also involved in the project and the learnings will inform the design of future clinical research into pulmonary hypertension.

Elin Haf Davies, CEO at Aparito, said: “The Patient Group Accelerator is a critical part of Aparito’s DNA and vision for a patient-centric solution to conveying what’s important to them.

“As the accelerator goes from strength to strength, we are thrilled to partner with PHA UK and see this as an exciting addition to the partnerships that we have with ALS Belgium, Duchenne UK and PCD Support UK.”

In 2020, Aparito was awarded a share of £500,000 under the government’s TechForce19 challenge.